1. Accendit Cantu1 Cockburn Family History

2. Accendit Cantu2 Robert Alexander Cockburn My grandfather Bert’s Birth Certificate registers his birthday as 16 th July 1876, at Gympie in the Colony of Queensland. It shows his parents as : Father:Alexander CockburnMother: Emma (nee Hewlett) Occupation:Miner Age:39 yearsAge:24 years Birthplace:Coldinghame,Birthplace: Poole, Berwickshire, Scotland.Dorsetshire, England.

3. Accendit Cantu3 Alexander Cockburn Immigration records in Melbourne have Alexander Cockburn, aged 19 years, arriving from Liverpool aboard the “Royal Charter” in 1856. On the 25th October 1859 the ship Royal Charter, a 2,700 ton steam and sailing ship bound for Liverpool, was lost off Moelfre on the island of Anglesey. Almost at the end of its long voyage from Melbourne, Australia, the Royal Charter was carrying 452 passengers and crew and gold from the Australian goldfield valued at £320,000 and it sailed into the worst storm that had occurred in the Irish Sea during the century.

4. Accendit Cantu4 Alexander Cockburn Melbourne immigration records show Alexander as one of three passengers with the surname Cockburn aboard the “Royal Charter” on this voyage. Oral family history has Alexander migrating to Australia with a brother. The identity of the third Cockburn is unknown.

5. Accendit Cantu5 Alexander Cockburn Oral family history has the two Cockburn brothers going to the Victorian goldfields after arriving in Melbourne in 1856. At some later stage, Alexander travelled north to the Gympie Goldfields where his first-born son, Robert Alexander Cockburn was born in 1876.

6. Accendit Cantu6 Alexander Cockburn Alexander and Emma had two sons: Robert Alexander and John Hardy. John Hardy (called Hardy Cockburn) was a Post Master, with Bowen being one of his postings. His daughter Valmai married Herbert Hall-Scott of Bowen and they had two daughters.

7. Accendit Cantu7 Hardy as a family name Hardy is considered a Cockburn family name: John Hardy CockburnAlexander’s second son Colin Hardie CockburnRobert’s second son Robert Alexander Hardy CockburnNoel’s only son Scott Alexander Hardy CockburnRobert’s first son (Noel’s grandson) Marcia Hardy Land ( nee Hall-Scott)Valmai’s daughter “Hardy” refers to Thomas Masterman Hardy, Admiral Horatio Nelson’s Flag Captain of the Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. This seems reasonable considering George Cockburn and Thomas Hardy both served with Nelson. However, family oral history has “Hardy” as coming originally from Emma’s family. The connection between the Hewlett family and Thomas Masterman Hardy is unclear.

8. Accendit Cantu8 My Grandparents Robert Alexander Cockburn married Danish immigrant Annie Margaret List on 5 September 1907 at Mount Perry in the Burnett Region of Queensland. Bert’s occupation was listed as “Clerk” on his son Colin’s Birth Certificate, but he was originally a School Teacher (this was too low paid an occupation to support a family at the time).

9. Accendit Cantu9 Annie Margaret Cockburn ( nee List) Born in 1883 in Varda, Denmark, Annie migrated to Australia (Childers, Qld) with her family in c. 1886/1887. Oral family history has their part of Denmark annexed by Germany and the List family coming to Australia to avoid conscription into the German army.

10. Accendit Cantu10 Bert & Annie had 7 children Queenie Doris1907 - 1959 Esme Mavis1910 - 2005 Noel Victor1912 - 1974 Joyce Myra1915 - 1918 Colin Hardie1917 – 1994 Roy Allen1919 - 1989 Maxwell (my father) 1923 - 1993

11. Accendit Cantu11 Maxwell Cockburn My father Max (born 10 December 1923) married Glenice Hancock (born 13 July 1926) in September 1947 at Killarney, Q. They had three children: –Charmain Gay, born 4 August 1948 –Malcolm Andrew (me), born 10 October 1950 –Pamela Wendy, born 24 August 1958

12. Accendit Cantu12 Malcolm Andrew Cockburn (me) I married Beverley Meryl Irwin (born 2 December 1951) at Mirani, Q. on 21 December 1974, and we have two children –Melanie Gaye, born 5 August 1976 –Mark Lachlan, born 22 March 1980 and one grandson –Dylan James Wallace Eastoe (son of Melanie and Ben Eastoe, married 15 September 2001), born 27 May 2003.

13. Accendit Cantu13 Braveheart or Brigand? Despite Mel Gibson’s heroic portrayal of William Wallace in the movie “Braveheart”, my father insisted that he was brought up to believe Wallace was a brigand. It is not surprising therefore to find on the internet that “the Ragmans Roll, in which Scottish gentry swore fealty to King Edward I of England at Berwick in 1296, contained the names of both Piers & Thomas Cockburn.”

14. Accendit Cantu14 Robert the Bruce Although swearing fealty to Edward I, the Cockburns saw no reason to extend this loyalty to his son Edward II, and fought alongside Robert the Bruce to defeat the English at Bannockburn in 1314. Wha, for Scotland's King and Law, Freedom's sword will strongly draw, Free-man stand, or Free-man fa', Let him on wi' me!

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16. Accendit Cantu16 to be continued

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21. Accendit Cantu21 References http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/northwest/sites/history/pages/royalcharter.shtml http://www.electricscotland.com/familytree/magazine/febmar2003/cockburn.htm http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/burns02.html