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William Cochran
 William
Cochran 1821
William Cochrane [Cochran] was admitted sizar* of trinity College
Dublin, 5 June 1776, aged 18 … He was made a scholar in 1779 and was graduated
B.A. at the spring commencement , 1780. "Alumni Dublineses (1924)",
160.
[* Sizar – A student at Cambridge or Trinity College, Dublin, paying
reduced fees & formerly charged with certain menial offices, ef. SERVITOR]
(Pg
60 – Footnote 4)
" … A Letter from Miss Mary Cochrane to Nicholas Murray
Butler (London), 15 Sept. 1916, explains the change of the spelling of his surname:
"… My greatgrandfather [sic] a fiery graduate of T.C. Dublin with his head
full of Greek and Latin – he frequently took his students through the works of
some of the poets and essayists of Rome and Greece with his book closed, but unerringly
detecting the omission of a word or the substitution of another – Full of Irish
Nationalism. His Political opinions and cantankerous temper took him to New York
and as a mark of his displeasure with the Government and his family he shed the
last letter of his name on the voyage, so you will find William Cochran. …"
"
… (1782) … The British Colonies in America had been sustaining for seven years
past a severe war from Mother Country at first to resist taxationby the British
Parliament, but latterly [sic] for independence … in Ireland 9/10 of the population
entertined these sentiments [in support of the colonies]: The Irish had similar
grievances to complain of – and their parliament supported by 80,000 volunteers
took this opportunity to declare their independence from the British Legislature:
amidst this triumph, as we may say, of liberty … The constitution of the new
American Republics had been published in Dublin … William Cochran … conceived
these states would be the abode of the greatest virtues and happiness that would
be found on earth; and that he might have his share of these resolved to cross
the Atlantic and become an American citizen … landed at New Castle in Delaware
in November 1783.
Thus he found himself upon an immense continent, in all
which he had not friend to help him nor one introduction … he thought … it
must be strange if a person of good education could not somehow make himself worth
the bread he should eat … as soon as he came to Philadelphia and learned that
the place of chief assistant in the Grammar School connected with the University
he applied for it to Dr. Ewing the Provost … immediately appointed to the situation
… But Wiliam Cochran thinking himself better and more to his taste than whipping
refractory boys into obedience, began to turn his attention to New York … arriving
the first week of January 1784 …
His first step was to open a grammar
School on his own account for a limited number of pupils which was speedily filled
up by the children of the first people of the place; and so many were still pressing
to be received that he was induced to employ assistants in order that they might
be admitted …
Meanwhile the legislature passed an act for altering the
name of King’s College to Columbia raising it to be a university … [and] applied
to Mr. Cochran to know whether ha would undertake the care of [the students] "ad
interim" until the Seminary could be put into operation …
(1784
– Cochran teaches future Governor DeWitt Clinton)
… Thus settled
[1784 as Professor of Greek and Latin at Columbia College] … he applied himself
with diligence to the duties of his office; and there are many yet alive [early
1820s] who remember with pleasure the exquisite feeling with which he was wont
to enlarge on the beauties of the Greek and Roman classics and the gentlemanly
urbanity with which he treated the young persons committed to his care …
…
[William Cochran was] united in Matrimony, at Phildelphia on 30th September 1785
to Miss Rebecca Cuppaidge a lady to whom he had been attached in Ireland. By her
he had two children while in this country (New York) William and Rebecca who both
died young …
(1789 Halifax Grammar
School)
(1814 William Cochran – Teaches
Robert Fitzgerald Uniake)
(1820 the Cattle
Show at Windsor)
…inscription on his gravestone in the cemetary at
Windsor: "In memory of the Rev. Wm. COCHRAN, D.D. a native of Omagh, in Ireland,
and educated at Trinity College Dublin, He was for more than 40 years, a Missionary
of the Church of England in this County and for the same period, a Professor in
King’s College, Windsor, Beloved by his pupils, and highly useful in his generation,
his walk was finished on the 4th of Aug. 1833, AEt.77."
(Footnote
Page 82)
"…Andrew William Cochran was born at Windsor in 1792, and
died at Quebec, 11 july 1849. He was graduated B.A. from King’s College in 1811
(Hon, D.C.L. 1840), and studied law. In 1812 he became assistant civil secretary
to the governor-in-cheif of Canada, Sir George provost, and was civil secretary
during the succeeding administrations of Sir John Coape Sherbrooke and Lord Dalhousie;
from 1827 to 1841 he was a member of the Executive Council of Lower Canada.
Nowhere
in the manuscript does William Cochran mention his other son, Reverand James Cuppiadge
Cochran, B.A. King’s 1825, M.A. 1835, D.D. 1872, born in the college building
17 September 1798. He was S.P.G. missionary at lunenburg, editor of the "Colonial
Churchman" and "Church Times", rector of Trinity Church, Halifax,
and chaplian of the House of Assembly for nineteen years; he died at Halifax 20
june 1880."
Excerpts From:
The Memoirs of William
Cochran – Sometime Professor in Columbia College, New York and in King’s College,
Windsor, Nova Scotia (Originally written early 1820s)
Edited by Milton Halsey
Thomas
The New York Historical Quarterly Vol 83
Pub. January 1954 #1
NSARM
F 37.85 N42b
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