COCKBURN, HENRY THOMAS, Lord (1779 1854). A Scottish advocate and judge. He was born in Edinburgh in 1779, and was educated at the high school of Edinburgh and afterwards at Edinburgh University. He was called to the Scottish bar in 1800, and seven years later was appointed one of the advocates whose duty it is to assist the Lord Advocate in the prosecution of criminal offenders, but was dismissed after holding office four years. Not till the introduc tion of jury trial in civil causes into Scotland, in 1816, did Cockburn find opportunity for re munerative professional employment. His powers were better adapted for success with a popular than with a professional tribunal. Under the Grey _Ministry of 1830 he was appointed Solici tor-General for Scotland; and four years later he was made one of the judges of the Scottish supreme civil and criminal courts, and took the title of Lord Cockburn. He died April 26, 1854, at his residence of llonaly, in the neighborhood of Edinburgh.
Lord Cockburn contributed to the Edinburgh Review a series of articles on the reform of the Scotch legal procedure. which had considerable iothuence. Late in life he undertook the task of writing the biography of his friend Francis Jeffrey, the celebrated Scotch essayist and judge. This was published in 1852. Cockburn will be best remembered by the llemorials of H is Ti appeared posthumously in 1S56. It is a kind of autobiography, into which have been inter woven numerous anecdotes illustrating old Scot tish life. and numerous sketches of the men who composed the brilliant eir•le of Edinburgh so ciety at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
For details of his life, consult his Memorials of His Own Time, and Chambers's Biographical Dic tionary of Eminent Scotsmen.