On the 12th Sept. 1821, Admiral Murray presided at a meeting held in the Town-Hall, Liverpool, for the purpose of forming an Institution for the promotion of the religious and moral improvement of Seamen, and other persons connected with shipping; and the establishment of a floating chapel.
Residence.– Liverpool .
HONOURABLE
SIR ALEXANDER INGLIS COCHRANE,
Admiral of the Blue; Knight Grand Cross of the most Honourable Military Order of the Bath; Commander-in-Chief at Plymouth; and a Vice-President of the Naval Charitable Society.
The sirname of Cochrane is local, and was assumed by the proprietors of the lands and barony of Cochran, in Renfrewshire, soon after sirnames began to be used in Scotland. The first known ancestor of this family was Waldevus de Cochrane, who flourished in the reign of King Alexander III., and is witness to the charter which Dungallus, filius Swain, gave to Walter Stewart, Earl of Menteith, of the lands of Skipnish, in Argyleshire, in 1262.
William Cochrane, a chieftain who possessed some power and renown in his time, left but one child, Elizabeth, in whose favour, and the heirs male of her body, he made a resignation and entail of his whole estate, the person so succeeding to use the name and arms of Cochrane. This daughter married her cousin Alexander Blair, of Blair, Esq., and by him had seven sons. William, the second of these, was created Baron Cochrane, Dec. 27, 1647, and Earl of Dundonald in 1669. From his eldest son descended seven Earls of Dundonald; but that branch became extinct in 1758, by the demise of William, a bachelor, who was killed at the siege of Louisbourg, and the title fell to Thomas, a descendant of John, the younger son of the first Earl, who by his second wife, Jane, daughter of Archibald Stewart, of Tovience, co. Lanark, Esq. had a numerous issue, amongst whom were Archibald, the present Earl, and Alexander, the subject of this memoir, who was born April 23, 1758.
