Francis Cockburn

Who was Francis Cockburn?

Sir Francis Cockburn served in the British Army, played an important role in the early settlement of eastern Canada and was a colonial administrator.

Cockburn was born in England in 1780. He was the fifth and last son of Sir James Cockburn, 8th Baronet and his second wife Augusta Anne Ayscough. His maternal grandfather was Francis Ayscough, Dean of Bristol and royal tutor.

He joined the 7th Dragoon Guards at the age of 19 and served in South America and the Iberian Peninsula. He arrived in Canada in 1811 as a captain in the Canadian Fencibles and fought in the War of 1812. He served with the Quartermaster-General for Upper Canada at York and Kingston. In 1815, he became assistant quartermaster-general for Upper Canada and assisted in settling immigrants near Perth in the Bathurst District.

In 1818, he became deputy quartermaster-general for Upper and Lower Canada. He helped establish military settlements at Perth, Richmond, Lanark, the Bay of Quinte, Glengarry County and on the Saint-François River in Lower Canada. He also founded a village at Franktown, Ontario. In 1819, he accompanied the Duke of Richmond on the tour of Perth and Richmond which led to the Duke's death.