William Cockayne

Sir William Cockayne (Cokayne) (1561 – 20 October 1626), London, England, was a seventeenth-century London merchant, alderman, and, in 1619, Lord Mayor.

He was the second son of William Cokayne of Baddesley Ensor, Warwickshire, merchant of London, sometime governor of the Eastland Company, by Elizabeth, daughter of Roger Medcalfe of Meriden, Warwickshire; and was descended from William Cokayne of Sturston, Derbyshire, a younger son of Sir John Cokayne of Ashbourne in that county. Apprenticed at Christmas 1582 to his father, he was made free of the Skinners' Company by patrimony 28 March 1590. On his father's death, 28 November 1599, he succeeded to his business.

He was sheriff of London in 1609, and alderman of Farringdon Without in 1609–13, of Castle Baynard; in 1613–18, of Lime Street 1618–25, and of Broad Street from 1625 till his death.

On 8 January 1613, Cockayne, who was already the first Governor of The Irish Society, was appointed the first Governor of Londonderry. It was due to the development directed by The Irish Society towards rebuilding and expanding the city, that it was renamed Londonderry in honour of the capital and colonisation from London.

On 8 June 1616 Ireland's King James I of Ireland honoured him with his presence at dinner at his house in Broad Street in London, England, (Cokayne House, exactly opposite St. Peter's Church), where he dubbed him a knight.

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