77 
not baptized at Church, their parents having availed themselves of 
the liberty given by the Toleration Act of 1689, to have their 
children baptized by their own minister ; and hence the dead-lock 
experienced in trying to trace the parentage of the poet’s grand- 
father in the parish registers; it also probably accounts for the 
error of Burke’s Landed Gentry, in making William, the mercer, 
brother of Isaac Cookson of Newcastle, zzstead of his nephew. 
Having enquired in the WVewcastle Weekly Chronicle for any 
information about Isaac Cookson of Newcastle, goldsmith, I was 
favoured by a reply in the literary supplement of that journal, from 
Mr, Richard Welford, author of the admirable series of “ Men of 
Mark ’twixt Tyne and Tweed,” now appearing in that paper. Mr. 
Welford adduces some legal documents showing that Isaac Cook- 
son of Newcastle, goldsmith, William Cookson of Penrith, and 
others, had been associated in carrying on iron works in the 
neighbourhood of Newcastle; also that William Cookson had a 
close called Highfield, at Little Clifton (near Workington), in 
Cumberland, and ‘had built thereon a furnace, etc., for an iron 
foundry, and that this private adventure of his had been merged 
in a company concern in which the Cooksons and certain partners 
carried on ironworks at Clifton, Gateshead, and Newcastle, from 
September, 1729. Thus it appears that William, the eldest son 
of William and Alice Cookson, was a pioneer in the iron trade of 
Cumberland and Newcastle. 
Mr. Welford says, “Isaac Cookson of Newcastle, merchant 
adventurer, purchased considerable property and erected a spacious 
mansion. He was interred in St. Nicholas’ church in that town, 
where also lie the remains of Hannah his vife, and was succeeded 
by his only son John, who purchased in 1745 the estate of White- 
hill, near Chester-le-Street. He married Elizabeth, eldest daughter 
and co-heir of Thomas Ludwige, Esq., of Whitehaven, and had 
issue (among others), Isaac Cookson of Whitehill, who had seven 
sons and three daughters: rst, John, of Whitehill; 2nd, James, 
colonel in the army ; 3rd, Isaac, of Meldon Park, &c. . 
