Henry Cockton

Who was Henry Cockton?

Henry Cockton was an English novelist. Born in London, he is remembered as the author of The Life and Adventures of Valentine Vox, the Ventriloquist which was parodied by Timothy Portwine as The Adventures of Valentine Vaux; or, the tricks of a Ventriloquist.

Other Cockton novels include Sylvester Sound, the Somnambulist, The Love Match, George St George Julian, The Prince, Lady Felicia: A Novel, Percy Effingham: Or, The Germ of the World's Esteem, The Sisters; or, England and France, Stanley Thorn, and The Steward: A Romance of Real Life.

Cockton's death in Bury St Edmunds on 26 June 1853 was noted in The Times newspaper on Sat 2 July 1853.

His remains were interred in the churchyard of the ruined abbey at Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. No stone marks his grave, but in 1884 a few admirers raised a tablet which is still seen today on the wall of the abbey's charnel house.