William Cockayne


Sir William Cockayne was a seventeenth-century merchant, alderman, and Lord Mayor of the City of London.

Life

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 on 28 March 1590. On his father's death on 28 November 1599 he took over the running of his company.
He was sheriff of London in 1609, and alderman of Farringdon Without from 1609–13, of Castle Baynard from 1613–18, of Lime Street from 1618–25, and of Broad Street from 1625 till his death.

Governor of Londonderry

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, he was dubbed a knight by King James I.

Lord Mayor of London

During Cockayne's mayoralty King James visited St Paul's Cathedral with a view to raising money to complete the spire, and was received by Cockayne in great state. A pageant entitled "The Triumphs of Love and Antiquity" was performed. After the pageant, the marriage between Charles Howard and Cockayne's daughter Mary was celebrated. During this time, King James I frequently consulted him, both in the privy council and privately.

The Cockayne project

In 1614, while serving as governor of the Eastland Company of English merchants, Cockayne devised a plan to dye and dress English cloth, England's main export at the time, before shipping it abroad. Cockayne convinced James I to grant him a monopoly on cloth exports as a part of this plan, intended to increase the profits of English merchants, while boosting royal customs duties through bypassing Dutch merchants. The scheme failed as the Dutch refused to purchase finished cloth and instead engaged in a trade war with England. As a result, the English cloth trade was depressed for decades.

Later life

was equipped for one of his northern voyages by Cockayne and others of the Merchant Adventurers' Company and a harbour in Greenland was named in his honour, called 'Cockin's Sound' on the Admiralty chart.
He bought estates at Denchworth, Berkshire ; Elmesthorpe, Leicestershire and Rushton Hall in Rushton, Northamptonshire which were later the homes of his descendants. He gave each of his six daughters £10,000 on marriage, leaving his son an annual rent roll of above £12,000.
He died on 20 October 1626, in his sixty-sixth year, at his manor house at Comb Nevill in Kingston, Surrey, and was buried in Old St Paul's Cathedral, where his funeral sermon was preached by John Donne and a monument was raised to him. The grave and monument were destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. His name appears on a modern monument in the crypt, listing important graves lost in the fire.

Family

He married Mary Morris on 22 June 1596 in London, and they had seven children together:
His widow remarried, 6 July 1630, Henry Carey, 4th Baron Hunsdon, 1st Earl of Dover, and, dying 24 December 1648, was buried with her first husband at St. Paul's.