l804» Memoirs of John Cockhurti Efq, I3I 



This being acconiplill-ied, feudaLige mull ncccfrarily be over* 

 turned in every nation ;• and proprietors, like other men, efti- 

 mated according to their refpecftive merits, without receiving 

 fupport from the adventitious circumflances under which they 

 are placed. Without iiifilting farther upon thefe general topics, 

 we proceed to detail fonie particulars of Mr Cockburn's life, and 

 the means emplowd by him to refcue the country from its then 

 abje£l and miferable ftate. 



John Cockburn Efq. was born about the year 1685, ^<^'in^ ^oi^ 

 of Adam Cockburn of Ormilton, Lord Juftice-Clerk of Scotland 

 after tlic Revolution. Defcended from a family who, during the 

 v.a-ious llruggies which Scotland made to fliakc.off the fetters of 

 tyranny, took a decided part in favour of public liberty, INIr 

 Cockburn inherited, with the eilate of Ormifton, a large portion 

 of genuine patriotifm, and warmly fupported tlie Hanoverian fuc- 

 ceHion as belt calcuhited to promote conlticutional freedom. Dur- 

 iiig his father's hfetime, he fat as a member of the lait Scotifh 

 P.irliament, and took an aclive part in the proceedings which hap- 

 pily terminated in conneciing North and South Britain in the 

 llricl:cll bonds of union, without which the Britidi nation could 

 not poiTibly have arrived at its prefent pitch of profperity. After- 

 wards, he was fucceffively elected to reprefent the county of 

 Haddington from 1707 to 1741, in the Parliament of Great Bri- 

 tain, and for many years occupied the office of a Lord of the Ail- 

 miraity, which of courfe occafioned him to refide much in Eng- 

 land, and to become intim itely acquainted with the rural prac-" 

 tices of that kingdom. Though the low country diilricSts of Scot- 

 land are, at this day, equally Vv^ell cultivated with the generality o^ 

 South Britain, yet very ditlerent was their condition at the period 

 we are now dekrribing. Lord Kaimes, that excellent judge ot 

 mankind, declares, in his ilrong way, that the tenantry were then, 

 ib benumbed wirh opprelllOn, that the moft able inib-U(!:lor iii 

 hufbandry would have made nothing of them. Fletcher of Sal- 

 ton, a contemporary of Mr Cockburn's, Hates their iituation as 

 truly deplorable. In fact, many farms remained unoccupied ; 

 even tenants rarely accepted of leafes, at lealt they were fhy of 

 entering into them for any confiderable number of years. Pro- 

 prietors then fought after tenants with thd fame aillduity as is 

 now difplayed by the tenantry when a farm is in the market. 



Before we enter upon the means ufed by Mr Cockburn to im- 

 prove his eftate, • it is proi!>er to defcyib'e the nature of the foil 

 viiereof, and the circuniibmces" under wIiicH it was then placed. 



The lands of Ormilton were voriginally about two thirds of moor- 

 iili foil, a conild^rabie'partofAvliicli was covered with a dwarf 

 kind of he-^di ; thci r «i it ' of t^ris clhfs confrfling of a thin glayi abun- 



I 2 dantlv 



