DUNDONALD. 



451 



DUNDONALD, EARL OF. The right hon. Archi- 

 bald Cochrane, ninth Earl of Dundonald, lord 

 Cochrane of Paisley and Ochiltree, lord Cochrane 

 of Dundonald, and a baronet of Nova Scotia, was 

 born on the 1st Jan. 1748-9. The noble family of 

 which he was the representative took its surname 

 from the barony of Cochrane, in Renfrewshire, 

 where it appears to have been of great antiquity. 

 Although his ancestors did riot attain the dignity of 

 the peerage until the reign of Charles I. yet they 

 had been barons of some distinction for many cen- 

 turies before. William Cochrane, a chieftain who 

 in his time possessed considerable power and re- 

 nown, left but one child, Elizabeth, who married 

 Alexander Blair (the proper family name at this 

 day) ; and by him had seven sons. William, the 

 secondof these, was created baron Cochrane of Dun- 

 donald, in 1647, by Charles I. ; and was advanced 

 to the dignity of Earl of Dundonald, in 1669, by 

 Charles II. From his eldest son descended seven 

 Earls of Dundonald ; but that branch became ex- 

 tinct in 1758, by the demise of William, a bachelor, 

 who was killed at the capture of cape Breton. 

 The honours and estates then devolved on Thomas, 

 the father of the late peer; he being descended 

 from John the younger son of the first earl. The 

 late earl was the second but eldest surviving son 

 of Thomas, by his second wife Jean, eldest daugh- 

 ter of Archibald Stewart, of Torrence, in the 

 county of Lanark, Esq.; which lady lived to the 

 age of eighty-six, and died in 1808. In 1764, his 

 lordship obtained a coronet's commission in the 3d 

 regiment of dragoons. He soon, however, quitted 

 the army for the navy, and served as a midshipman 

 under one of his countrymen, the late captain Stair 

 Douglas, a gallant officer of the old school. He 

 was afterwards stationed on board a vessel on the 

 coast of Guinea as an acting lieutenant. On the de- 

 mise of his father, which took place on the 27th of 

 June, 1778, lord Cochrane succeeded to the family 

 titles. He then determined to devote himself en- 

 tirely to scientific pursuits, with the laudable view 

 of improving the manufactures and commerce of 

 his country. One of the first inventions published 

 by this nobleman was intimately connected with 

 the safety of the British navy, the extension of 

 our mercantile speculations, and the advantage of 

 the great proprietors of estates in the northern por- 

 tion of the kingdom. While on the coast of 

 Africa, he had perceived that both king's ships and 

 merchant vessels were subject to be worm-eaten in 

 a very short space of time ; instances, indeed, hav- 

 ing occurred in some of the great rivers, in which, 

 in the course of a few months, they were declared 

 not to be " sea-worthy." To remedy such an evil 

 became a particular object of lord Dundonald's 

 study ; and he at last hit upon an expedient which 

 promised to be attended with the most brilliant 

 success, both in a national and in a profitable point 

 of view. It was his lordship's opinion that an ex- 

 tract from coal, in the shape of tar, would prove 

 effectual to the end proposed; and, after a variety 

 of trials, it was at length found to answer. By 

 way of a final experiment, an application was made 

 to the states-general, and a guard-ship stationed at 

 the mouth of the Texel had her bottom "payed " 

 with this material. On her return into port, the 

 keel, and all the streaks below watermark, were 

 found to be sound and substantial. A certificate 

 of the fact was granted ; and a similar trial was 

 made on a decked boat stationed at the Nore, the 

 result of which was equally satisfactory. As the 



small or refuse coals were as good as the best for 

 the purpose, warehouses and proper buildings for 

 carrying on the process were erected at Newcastle ; 

 and in 1785, his lordship obtained an act of parlia- 

 ment for vesting in him and his assigns, for twenty 

 years, the sole use and property of a method of 

 extracting tar, pitch, essential oils, volatile alkali, 

 mineral acids, salts, and cinders, from pit-coal, 

 throughout his majesty's dominions; for which he 

 had previously procured a patent for the usual short 

 term. The general adoption of copper sheathing, 

 however, rendered the speculation abortive ; the 

 use of coal tar was confined to the covering of out- 

 houses, sheds, and fences; and lord Dundonald not 

 only reaped no profit whatever from his invention, 

 but sustained an extensive loss by it. In 1785, 

 his lordship circulated " An Account of the Quali- 

 ties and Uses of Coal-tar and Coal- varnish ;" and 

 in the same year he also published a quarto pamph- 

 let, entitled " The present State of the Manufac- 

 ture of Salt explained ;" in which he recommended 

 the refuse as a manure. In 1795, he published 

 "A Treatise, showing the intimate connection that 

 subsists between Agriculture and Chemistry ; ad- 

 dressed to the Cultivators of the Soil, to the Pro- 

 prietors of the Fens and Mosses in Great Britain 

 and Ireland, and to the Proprietors of West India 

 Estates ;" and in 1799, " The Principles of Chemis- 

 try applied to the Improvement of the Practice of 

 Agriculture." In 1801, his lordship obtained a 

 patent " for a method of preparing a substitute for 

 gum Senegal and other gums extensively employed in 

 certain branches of manufacture." His preparation 

 was to be formed from lichens, from hemp or flax, 

 and the bark of the willow and lime. In 1803, he 

 received another patent "for methods of preparing 

 hemp and flax, so as materially to aid the operation 

 of the tools called hackles, in the division of the 

 fibre." This plan consisted in steeping or boiling 

 the stalks, in order more effectually to remove the 

 bark before dressing ; and, as it was found to les- 

 sen the danger of mildew in sail-cloth, it was more 

 generally adopted, although it did not prove more 

 profitable than lord Dundonald's other inventions. 

 His latter years were spent under great pecuniary 

 embarrassments. He was at length relieved from 

 them by death. His decease took place at Paris, 

 on the 1st of July, 1831. 



The earl of Dundonald was thrice married: first 

 at Annsfield, October 17, 1774, to Anne, second 

 daughter of captain James Gilchrist, R.N., of that 

 place ; and by that lady Bad one daughter and six 

 sons: 1. The right hon. Thomas, now earl of Dun. 

 donald, born in 1775, who from his adventurous 

 spirit has made the name of lord Cochrane familiar- 

 in almost every quarter of the world ; he married, 

 1813, Catherine Frances Corbet, daughter of Mr 

 Thomas Barnes, and has several children ; 2. Lady 

 Anne, and 3. The hon. James, who both died young; 

 4. The hon. Basil Cochrane, lieutenant-colonel of 

 the 36th foot, who died May 14, 1816; 5. The 

 hon. William Erskine Cochrane, a major in the 

 army, and late of the 15th regiment of dragoons ; 

 6. The hon. Archibald Cochrane, captain R. N.; 7. 

 The hon. Charles, who died young. The first 

 countess having died at Brompton, November 13, 

 1784, the earl married, secondly, at London, April 

 12, 1788, Isabella, widow of John Mayne, of Tef- 

 font-Ewias in Wiltshire, Esq., and daughter of 

 Samuel Raymond, of Belchamp hall in Essex ; and 

 by her, who died in December, 1808, at the house 

 of her brother, Samuel Raymond, Esq., had no 

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