John Cockburn of Ormiston

John Cockburn, (d. 1583) laird of Ormiston, East Lothian, Scotland, was an early supporter of the Scottish Reformation. He was the eldest son of William Cockburn of Ormiston and Janet Somerville. John was usually called "Ormiston." During his lifetime there was also a laird of Ormiston in Teviotdale near Eckford, a member of the rival Hepburn family.

John Cockburn was a prominent Protestant and also on good terms with England, having a licence to trade there during the war of the Rough Wooing. He was pardoned for communing with the English during Lord Hertford's expedition in 1544. John Knox was tutor to one of his sons, and the Protestant preacher and martyr George Wishart was arrested by James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, the Sherriff of Haddingtonshire, at his House of Ormiston on 16 January 1546. After negotiation Bothwell took Wishart away to nearby Elphinstone Castle. Soon after on the same night, soldiers of the Governor of Scotland, Regent Arran, arrived to arrest John, his nephew Sandilands of Calder, and Alexander Crichton of Brunstane. Brunstane escaped but his two companions were imprisoned at Edinburgh Castle. John escaped from the castle one morning by going over the wall.

John, and his younger brother Ninian Cockburn were amongst those accused of the murder of Cardinal David Beaton in 1546. In September 1547 he is said to have guided the English army through the Lammermuirs to the battle of Pinkie. In January 1548, William Patten published the names of John Cockburn and 36 other Scottish lairds and gentleman who had sworn an oath on 23 September 1547 to be loyal to Edward VI of England.

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