James Cockie (died 1573) was a goldsmith in Edinburgh. He helped mint coins in Edinburgh Castle during the Marian Civil War and was hanged as a counterfeiter on 3 August 1573.[1]

The surname was also spelled "Cokie" and "Cokkie", "Cokke", or "Cok". The family were prominent in Edinburgh as goldsmiths. He was born around 1535, and his father was also called James Cockie.

Arms of James Cockie's in-laws James Mossman and Marion Arres on the "John Knox House" Edinburgh

Career

James Cockie and James Mosman were made free men of the Edinburgh incorporation of goldsmiths on 1 May 1557.[2] In 1558, he made and engraved a clock case for Mary of Guise and also worked in Edinburgh castle casting a cannon called a "double falcon" with the Queen's arms and motto.[3]

Cockie married John Arres′ daughter. She was a sister of James Mosman′ wife – Marion Arres. Through his marriage, Mosman obtained the house on Edinburgh's High Street which is now known as the John Knox House.[4]

At the Scottish Reformation, in 1560 he gave evidence to Henri Cleutin and Jacques de la Brosse against the Protestant Lords of the Congregation. They described him as a maker and engraver of coins. According to his sworn statement, the Earl of Arran had ordered him to come to his lodging and requested that he engrave a signet or seal matrix with the arms of Mary, Queen of Scots and Francis II of France and irons for making coins.[5] Cockie refused at first, alleging that he was not used to this kind of work, and also would need an order from the Queen Regent, Mary of Guise. He subsequently worked on a die for a coins with a crown and the motto "Verbum Dei." When the Congregation left Edinburgh, he gave the dies to John Acheson – a worker in the mint.[6]

A Scottish silver half merk minted in 1572

Cockie and Mossman joined William Kirkcaldy of Grange in Edinburgh Castle on 11 May 1571. They had chosen to support Kirkcaldy who held the castle for Mary, Queen of Scots during the Marian Civil War.[7]

Mossman and Cockie helped Kirkcaldy pledge the queen's jewels, which had been stored in the castle, for loans.[8] Cockie, as archival evidence shows, was particularly involved in receiving silver and minting coins in the castle. The coins minted in the castle were finer than those minted at Dalkeith by the opposition.[9] The types included the eighty pence piece or half merk, known as a "six and eight." In June 1572, the English soldier and Marshall of Berwick William Drury sent one of Cockie's half merks to William Cecil as a novelty.[10]

After the castle fell, Cockie, James Mossman, William Kirkcaldy of Grange, and his brother James Kirkcaldy were hanged on 3 August 1573.[11] Their heads were displayed on the castle walls.[12]

James Cockie and James Kirkcaldy were tried together at Holyrood House before the executions.[13]

Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie, the author of a chronicle, mentioned that he minted coins in Edinburgh castle, "ane that struik the cunzie callit Cok".[14]

A family of goldsmiths

In 1581 his son, also a goldsmith, also named James Cockie was restored to his inheritance by the Parliament of Scotland.[15]

William Cockie or Cokky, goldsmith, had a house in the Canongate at the "lapley stone". The house burnt down in 1608 when his son, Archibald Cockie was living there.[16]

The Earl of Mar's ewer

The National Museums of Scotland has a jug or ewer made of rock crystal with silver-gilt mounts which are thought to be the work of James Cockie and his workshop.[17] The ewer mounts were made in Edinburgh in the reign of Mary, Queen of Scots and the lid was engraved with the heraldry of John Erskine and Annabell Murray, Countess of Mar. Erskine became Earl of Mar in 1565. The Deacon of the Goldsmiths who assayed the silver work was George Heriot.[18]

Another ewer of silver or tortoise-shell with silver mounts, said to have been a gift to the Earl of Mar from Queen Elizabeth at the time of the baptism of James VI, was destroyed in the fire at Alloa in August 1801.[19] Elizabeth also gave him a silver and mother of pearl basin and laver during his embassy to London in 1601 when the secret correspondence was arranged.[20] These objects are sometimes confused with the crystal ewer.[21]

A silver cup made by Henry Thomson used at Forgue has Cockie's assay mark as Deacon in 1563. The cup was presented to the church in 1633 by James Crichton of Frendraught.[22]

References

  1. ↑ Bruce Lenman, 'Jacobean Goldsmith-Jewellers as Credit-Creators: The Cases of James Mossman, James Cockie and George Heriot', Scottish Historical Review, 74:198 part (October 1995), p. 160.
  2. ↑ Jean Munro & Henry Steuart Fotheringham, Edinburgh Goldsmiths' Minutes (SRS: Edinburgh, 2006), p. 23.
  3. ↑ James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1913), pp. 368, 438.
  4. ↑ Harry Potter, Edinburgh Under Siege: 1571-1573 (Stroud, 2003), p. 62.
  5. ↑ Gladys Dickinson, 'Report by De La Brosse and D'Oysel on Conditions in Scotland: 1559-1560', Miscellany of the Scottish History Society IX (Edinburgh, 1958), pp. 93-4.
  6. ↑ Gladys Dickinson, 'Report by De La Brosse and D'Oysel on Conditions in Scotland: 1559-1560', Miscellany of the Scottish History Society IX (Edinburgh, 1958), p. 123-5: Joan Murray & J. Murray, 'Notes on the Vicit Leo Testoons of Mary Queen of Scots', British Numismatic Journal, 50 (1980), p. 82.
  7. ↑ Harry Potter, Edinburgh Under Siege: 1571-1573 (Stroud, 2003), p. 62.
  8. ↑ Bruce Lenman, 'Jacobean Goldsmith-Jewellers as Credit-Creators: The Cases of James Mossman, James Cockie and George Heriot', Scottish Historical Review, 74:198 (1995), pp. 159-177.
  9. ↑ Michael Lynch, Edinburgh and the Reformation (Edinburgh, 1981), p. 145.
  10. ↑ Harry Potter, Edinburgh Under Siege: 1571-1573 (Stroud, 2003), p. 97: Calendar State Papers Scotland, vol. 4 (Edinburgh, 1905), p. 339.
  11. ↑ Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1571-1574, vol. 4 (Edinburgh, 1905), p. 602.
  12. ↑ Thomas Thomson, Historie and Life of King James the Sext (Edinburgh, 1825), p. 145.
  13. ↑ Robert Pitcairn, Ancient Criminal Trials (Edinburgh, 1833), pp. 45-6.
  14. ↑ Aeneas James George Mackay, Chroniclis of Scotland, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1899), p. 308
  15. ↑ The Records of the Parliaments of Scotland to 1707, K.M. Brown et al eds (St Andrews, 2007-2020), 1581/10/124
  16. ↑ Marguerite Wood, Extracts from the Burgh Records of Edinburgh, 1604-1626 (Edinburgh, 1931), p. 47.
  17. ↑ Bruce Lenman, 'Jacobean Goldsmith-Jewellers as Credit-Creators: The Cases of James Mossman, James Cockie and George Heriot', Scottish Historical Review, 74:198 part (October 1995), pp. 160-1.
  18. ↑ George Dalgleish & Stuart Maxwell, The Lovable Craft 1687-1987: An Exhibition to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the Royal Charter of the Incorporation of Goldsmiths of the City of Edinburgh (NMS: Edinburgh, 1987), p. 17: Rosalind K. Marshall, Mary, Queen of Scots (NMS: Edinburgh, 2013), p. 104 no. 180.
  19. ↑ David Erskine, Annals and Antiquities of Dryburgh, and other places on the Tweed (Kelso, 1836), p. 130.
  20. ↑ James Maidment, Letters and State Papers during the Reign of James the Sixth (Edinburgh, 1838), p. 38.
  21. ↑ The Bishop's Castle and Handbook of the Archaeological Collection (Glasgow, 1888), p. 77 no. 301.
  22. ↑ Thomas Burns, James Macgregor, Alexander J. S. Brook, Old Scottish Communion Plate (Edinburgh, 1892), p. 549.
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