A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Cochrane, Grizel
COCHRANE, GRIZEL,
Was the daughter of Sir John Cochrane, of Ochiltree, Scotland, second son of the first Earl of Dundonald. Her father being taken prisoner in July, 1685, and confined in the Tolbooth, at Edinburgh, was, in consequence of participating in the rebellion against James the Second, condemned to death for high treason, and his execution was only delayed till the death-warrant should arrive from London. In the mean time the Earl of Dundonald was making every exertion to obtain his pardon by interesting the king's confessor in his son's favour. But this required some time, and the death-warrant was daily expected. Grizel Cochrane, though only eighteen at the time, determined to prevent its arrival. Disguising herself as a servant-girl, and mounting her own horse, on whose speed she could rely, she, by riding two days, reached the abode of her nurse, who lived on the English side of the Tweed. Here attiring herself in her foster-brother's clothes, and arming herself with pistols, she proceeded to a small public-house near Belford, where the postman was accustomed to stop for a few hours to rest. Sending the landlady out on some errand, Grizel stepped to the room where the postman was sleeping, but his mail bags were under his head, and could not be touched without awaking him. However, she succeeded in drawing the load out of the pistols, which lay near him, before the woman returned, and then overtaking him about half-way between Belford and Berwick, she succeeded in obtaining the mail-bags, in which she discovered her father's death-warrant. Destroying this, and several other obnoxious papers, she re assumed her female dress, and returned to Edinburgh. As it then took eight days for communications to pass from London to Edinburgh, the sixteen days Grizel thus gained for her father were sufficient to allow the Earl of Dundonald to obtain his son's pardon. Miss Cochrane afterwards married Mr. Ker, of Morriston, in the county of Berwick.