A Naval Biographical Dictionary/Cochrane, Thomas John

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COCHRANE, Kt C.B. (Rear-Admiral, of the White, 1841. f-p., 23; h-p., 28.)

Sir Thomas John Cochrane, born in 1789, is eldest son of Admiral of the White Hon. Sir Alex. Forester Inglis Cochrane, G.C.B.,^[1] by Maria, daughter of David Shaw, Esq., and widow of Capt. Sir Jacob Wheate, R.N.; nephew of Major Hon. Chas. Cochrane, Aide-de-Camp to Lord Cornwallis, who was slain in the first American war, 18 Oct. 1781; first-cousin of Vice-Admiral the present Earl of Dundonald; and brother-in-law of Rear-Admiral Sir Edw. Thos. Troubridge, R.N., and of Capt. Henry Wm. Bruce, R.N.

This officer entered the Navy, 15 June, 1796, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Thetis 42, commanded by his father, with whom he served on the North American station until 1798. In 1800 he re-joined Capt. Cochrane in the Ajax 80; and during that and the following year he attended, as Midshipman, the expeditions against Quiberon, Belleisle, Ferrol, and Egypt. From April, 1803, until 14 June, 1805, we next find him serving under his father’s flag in the Northumberland 74, on the Irish station and off the north coast of Spain, and then appointed to a Lieutenancy in the Jason 32, Capt. Wm. Champain, stationed in the West Indies. On 24 Sept. following he was promoted to the command of the Nimrod sloop-of-war, and, on 23 Jan. 1806, he was removed from the Melville to the Acting-Captaincy of the Jason 32, his commission for which bears date 23 April, 1806. Being off the coast of Surinam, he took, 27 Jan. 1807, La Favorite French national ship, mounting 16 long 6’s and 13 12-pounder carronades, with a complement of 150 men;^[2] and, in Dec. following, he assisted in reducing the Danish West India islands. His next appointment was, 25 Oct. 1808, to the Ethalion 38, in which ship he shortly afterwards had a slight encounter with the French 40-gun frigate Amphitrite, and creditably served at the capture of Martinique and the Saintes in 1809.^[3] Having been on half-pay for two years, Capt. Cochrane, on 31 Aug. 1812, obtained command of the Surprise 38, and, continuing in that frigate until Aug. 1815, captured, 16 Jan. 1813, the Decatur American privateer, of 12 guns and 82 men, and was in the Chesapeake during the attacks on Washington and Baltimore, and in the operations on the coast of Georgia. While subsequently commanding the Forte 44, from 28 June, 1820, until the close of 1824, he served on the Halifax and West India stations, accompanied George IV. to Scotland, and brought home a large amount of specie from Vera Cruz and the Havana. He attained the rank of Rear-Admiral 23 Nov. 1841, and, on 21 July, 1842, hoisted his flag in the Agincourt 72, as second in command on the East India station, where, from the return home of Sir Wm. Parker in 1845 until 1847, he held the chief direction of naval affairs. The Rear-Admiral appears during that period to have avenged in a very condign manner a breach of faith made in regard to the slave-trade by some of the Borneo chiefs.^[4]

Sir Thos. Cochrane was knighted, 29 May, 1812, as proxy for his father at his installation as a K.B.; and was nominated a C.B. 18 April, 1839. He received, 16 April, 1825, the appointment of Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the island of Newfoundland and its dependencies, which he continued to hold for several years; and in 1839 he was returned to Parliament for the borough of Ipswich. The Rear-Admiral married, 6 Jan. 1812, Matilda Ross Wishart, eldest daughter of the late Lieut.General Sir Chas. Ross, Bart., by whom (who died in 1839) he had issue two sons and two daughters. Of the former, the second, Charles Stuart, is an officer in the Army. Agents – Hallett and Robinson.

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1. Sir Alexander Cochrane died 29 June, 1832, in his 75th year. Sir Alexander, who commanded in chief on the Leeward Islands station from 1805 to 1810, was the associate of Sir John Duckworth in the victory gained over the French squadron off St. Domingo 6 Feb. 1806. He co-operated with General Bowyer in the reduction, during Dec. 1807, of the Danish islands of St. Thomas, St. John, and Sta. Croix; took, in 1809 and 1810, jointly with Lieut.-Gen. Beckwith, the French islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe; and, while commanding the North American fleet in 1814, kept the whole of the sea-coast in a continual state of alarm. From 1821 to 1824 he was Port-Admiral at Plymouth.
2. Vide Gaz. 1807, p. 479.
3. Vide Gaz. 1809, p. 403.
4. Vide Gaz. 1845, p. 6533, and Gaz. 1846, p. 2347.