COCKBURN, William of Skirling

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  Research Notes:

SKIRLING

Skirling, not to be confused with Stirling, is a parish in the western side Peeblesshire, situated to the north-east of Biggar, Lanarkshire. This Cockburn line originated with the Cockburns of Langton and lasted for around three hundred years. ¹

William married Helen CARMICHAEL, daughter of Sir John CARMICHAEL of that Ilk and Margaret DOUGLAS, About July 1586 (grant). (Helen CARMICHAEL was born about 1568.)

  Marriage Notes:

"William Cockburn, the next laird, is first heard of in July 1586, when the King granted to him and to Helen Carmichael, his future wife, certain lands in Haddington, besides the lands of Skirling, which were resigned in his favour by his father, Sir James, to whom, however, the liferent of t he barony was reserved.

In 1592 King James VI. granted that, 'in consideration of the good and thankful service done to His Majesty and umquhile our dearest mother, by umquhile Sir James Cockburn father to William Cockburn now of Skirling,' the town of Skirling should be erected into a burgh of barony. This brought various privileges with it, such as the holding of markets and fairs.

Helen Carmichael, his wife, was daughter of Sir John Carmichael and Lady Margaret Douglas,daughter of Sir George Douglas of Pittendreich and sister of James Douglas, Earl of Morton, Regent of Scotland in 1572. They had two sons, William and James, and a daughter Margaret. James only appears as witness to the marriage contract of his sister Margaret in 1614, when she became the wife of Thomas Bannatyne, minister of North Berwick."

from The Records of the Cockburn Family