THE WS SOCIETY ONLINE EXHIBITION 2024
For much of the seventeenth century, the posts of both Keeper of the Signet and Deputy Keeper of the Signet changed hands frequently and were to a large extent at the mercy of the constant shifts in the Scottish political wind. During this period the Deputy Keepership was rarely in the hands of an actual Writer to the Signet and the standards and reputation of the Society suffered accordingly, with Baron Scrope writing dismissively of it in a private memorandum to London in 1710. This would end with the appointment of Thomas Pringle WS in 1716, whose reforms would place the Society on a century-long upward path to a place at the centre of Scottish public and cultural life.
The last of the “old” Deputy Keepers was the Advocate Charles Cockburn, whose appointment in 1714 coincided with the political rumblings that would lead in due course to the 1715 Jacobite Rebellion. The Signet Library holds an archive of letters from Cockburn to Cornelius Kennedy, the London-based secretary of James Graham, the Duke of Montrose. Montrose was the Keeper of the Signet and Secretary of State, with responsibilities to the civil administration of Scotland.
The letters were presented by John D. B Campbell WS in 1937 and comprise Signet Library MS 106: they provide an interesting insight into the politics and gossip in Edinburgh at a crucial time. Further letters from Cockburn to Kennedy reside at the National Records of Scotland under GD27/3 and GD220/5.
The transcription of the Letters was undertaken by Dr. Kit Baston of the University of Glasgow, along with the biographical notes covering more than two hundred individuals mentioned in the text.
The Letters of Charles Cockburn DKS 1714-1715: Transcription by Dr. Kit Baston
Biographical Notes to the Letters
- Setting The Scene : Lawyers and Intellectuals Before 1722