Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-08-29
THE RAMBLER WRITES OF SPRINGFIELD,
HISTORIC OLD FARM ON GUNSTON NECK
Once the Home of Martin
Cockburn, Whose Name
Is Found In Records of Po-
hick Gunston Region
Other Prominent Families
of Another Day.

CPRINGFIELD is farm on Gum
ston Neck, where colonial
|, ghosts walk in the moonlight
and in the shadows of hoary
locust trees and a very old green
| box hedge. That is, ghosts must
| walk there if specters really are
doomed for a certain time to walk
the night and really do burst their
cerements to revisit the glimpses of
the MOON
Springfield was the home of Mar
| tin Cockburn, whose name is found
in many of the ancient records of
the Gunston-Pohick region. Not many
facts have come down to US about
this man, and meager is the informa-
ton to be had of him from those
persons who live in the neighborhood
he loved. who travel the roads he
helped to wear across the landscape
and whose eyes rest on the scenes
that were familiar to him. He was
friend of George Washington and
George Mason and of the other nota-
BILE Americans who lived on the Vir-
ginia side of the Potomac between
the site of Washington city and Oc-
coquan creek. OF course, his ac-
that. 1t extended south of Occoquan
creek and it crossed the Potomac
to the Pamunkey, Glymont and Mat
tawoman neighborhoods, for there
was much visiting and marrying be-
tween the people whose homes were
acquaintance was not limited to the
notable Americans" in that region.
He knew all those men who were not
notable" but who merely owned
enough land and a good enough house
to be classed as rich or well-to do.
He also knew hundreds of the whites
who were poor and whose descend
ants are now pointing back to them
as rich and aristocratic ancestors.
A man must not believe that all the
people in Virginia and Maryland
century or two centuries ago were
of prosperous men is very likely
certainly-higher now than it was
then. The vast estates held by few
men have been divided and today
there are hundreds of landholders
with good homes and fields where
there was then one landlord and
hundred humble tenants.
Perhaps the thing about Martin
Cockburn which will most interest
the Washingtonian of today is that
George Cockburn. who was born in
1872 and died in 1853. who in the war
of 1912 commanded the British squad
ron which harried the towns and
plantations of the Chesapeake coun-
try. who conceived the plan for at
gust, 1914, commanded the naval
forces taking part in the landing
at Benedict, the march past Not
tingham, Marlboro. Meadows and
Long Old Fields. the battle of Bia-
densburg and the sack of Washing
reached high distinction in the Brit
ish service before being given his
American assignment and he con-
Quoted himself here to the satisfac-
ton of the English king and gov
eminent. He commanded the mighty
wooden ship Northumberland. which
carried Napoleon Bonaparte from Ply
mouth to st. Helena, and he remained
as governor of that lonely island and
warder of the great prisoner until re-
lieved of those offices by Sir Hudson
Lowe and Sir Pulteney Malcomb. He
sat for many years as a member OF
the British parliament and England
granted him high naval Offices ano
honors.
But Martin Cockburn Of Gunston
Neck was not like his famous nephew.
He was born in Jamaica, came to Vir-
ginia, married beautlful daughter OF
the Old Dominion and lived country
between Lewis Chapel and
Gunston Hall. What part he played,
if any, in the American revolution.
the Rambler does not now know.
Such records and relations" as he
has seen are blank on that subject.
In a story which the Rambler wrote
in June, 1905. on "Guston Hall of No.
BILE Memory" he finds this:
while Mason dwelt at Gunston
Hall he had among his neighbors the
following persons of prominence In
the old chronicles: Raleigh Travers
of the great Raleigh family, who mar
ried a half sister Of Mary Ball; Col.
Peter Daniel of Crows Nest, John
Mercer of Marlboro, Va; the Hedge
mans and Mountjoys, Col. Thomas
Lee of Berry Hill and Belle
vue, Daniel Carroll Brent of Richland,
the Fitzhughs of Boscobel and Belle
Air, the Seldens of Salvington, the