Aston Cockayne

{{Short description|English cavalier and writer (1608–1684)}} {{Use British English|date=August 2011}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}} {{Infobox noble|type | name = Sir Aston Cockayne | title = 1st Baronet Cockayne of Ashbourne | image = Sir Aston Cockayne.jpg | caption = Engraving | alt = | CoA = | more = no | reign = | reign-type = | predecessor = | successor = | suc-type = | succession = | spouse = Mary Kniveton (daughter of Sir William Kniveton) | spouse-type = | issue = | issue-link = | issue-pipe = | noble family = Cockayne | house-type = | father = Sir Thomas Cockayne | mother = Lady Anne Stanhope (daughter of Sir John Stanhope) | christening_date = 20 December 1608 | christening_place = | death_date = 1684 | death_place = | burial_date = | burial_place = | religion = | occupation = Baronet, Landowner, Cavalier, Poet and Writer. }}

'''Sir Aston Cockayne, 1st Baronet''' (1608–1684) Also spelt '''Aston Cockain''' was, in his day, a well-known Cavalier and a minor literary figure, now best remembered as a friend of Philip Massinger, John Fletcher, Michael Drayton, Richard Brome, Thomas Randolph, and other writers of his generation.{{sfn|Maidment|Logan|1967|p={{Page needed|date=February 2011}} }}

==Biography== thumb|left|150px|Cockayne coat of arms Aston Cockayne was the son of Thomas Cockayne and Ann, the daughter of Sir John Stanhope; Cockayne was born at Ashbourne Hall in Derbyshire, and baptised on 20 December 1608.{{sfn|A. E. Cockayne|1863|p=223}} He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge,<ref>{{acad|id=CKN624A|name=Cokayne, Aston}}</ref> the University of Oxford, and at the Inns of Court. Like many other aristocrats of his time, he travelled through Europe in his youth, spending much of 1632 in France and Italy;{{sfn|A. E. Cockayne|1863|p=223}} like a few, he became fluent in their languages, and translated works of literature into English.{{citation needed|date=February 2011}}

Cockayne was a Roman Catholic, and like other Catholics in his country in his era, was active in resistance against the Church of England and the social order that supported it. On 10 January 1641 Charles I elevated him to baronet. During the English Civil War he took the Royalist side.{{sfn|A. E. Cockayne|1863|p=223}} He joined the future Charles II in exile for a time.{{citation needed|date=February 2011}} For much of the English Interregnum he lived on his estate of Pooley Hall, at Polesworth in Warwickshire.{{sfn|A. E. Cockayne|1863|p=223}}

Cockayne was a cousin of the poet Charles Cotton (1630–87), and had connections with Cotton's circle, which included Izaak Walton (1598–1683).{{citation needed|date=February 2011}}

Cockayne held the lands and Lordships of the Manors of Pooley in Warwickshire, and of Ashbourne. But in his later years he suffered financially,{{sfn|A. E. Cockayne|1863|p=223}} due to gambling.{{citation needed|date=February 2011}} He sold Ashbourne Hall to Sir William Boothby (see Boothby baronets), in 1671 to pay creditors,{{sfn|A. E. Cockayne|1863|p=223}} and the family subsequently lost his manor at Pooley Hall in Warwickshire. He died in poverty.{{citation needed|date=February 2011}}

==Works== Cockayne is the author of ''A Masque at Bretbie,'' which was performed on Twelfth Night of the Christmas season in 1639, and of ''Small Poems of Divers Sorts'', published in 1658. He also wrote plays: ''The Obstinate Lady,'' a comedy (first printed 1657), and ''Trappolin Suppos'd a Prince,'' a tragicomedy (printed 1658); and ''The Tragedy of Ovid'' (or ''Ovid's Tragedy'') (printed 1662). All three were published in one volume by Francis Kirkman in 1669. His works and his surviving letters constitute still-useful sources of information on the social and cultural affairs of mid-17th-century England.{{citation needed|date=February 2011}}

Cockayne's ''Small Poems'' collection of 1658 included verses to Humphrey Moseley, publisher of the 1647 Beaumont and Fletcher folio. In that poem, Cockayne, a friend to both Massinger and Fletcher, noted that Massinger was part-author of many plays in the 1647 Beaumont and Fletcher folio—which eventually inspired a sweeping examination of the authorship problem in the canon of John Fletcher and his various collaborators.<ref>McGee, C.E., Magnusson, A. Lynne, eds., ''The Elizabethan Theatre XV: PART I: Collective Invention and Collaboration'', (Meany, Toronto, 2002); various articles.</ref> He dedicated his tragedy on Ovid, to his cousin Charles Cotton.{{citation needed|date=February 2011}}

==Family== He married Mary Kniveton, daughter of Sir Gilbert Kniveton Baronet,{{sfn|A. E. Cockayne|1863|p=223}} High Sheriff of Derbyshire.{{citation needed|date=February 2011}}

Aston and Mary had 3 children: A son, who died in his father's lifetime, leaving no issue; and two daughters, Mary and Isabella, who were co-heiresses. {{sfn|A. E. Cockayne|1863|p=223}}

Aston's titles and Lordships passed to main Cockayne family line; to Caleb Cockayne the male representative of the family proceeding from the sons of Sir Edward Cockayne, Sir Aston's grandfather.

==Ancestry== {{ahnentafel |collapsed=yes |align=center |boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc; |boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9; |boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc; |boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc; |boxstyle_5=background-color: #9fe; |1= 1. '''Sir Aston Cockayne''' |2= 2. Sir Thomas Cockayne, Lord of Ashbourne and Pooley |3= 3. Lady Anne Stanhope |4= 4. Sir Edward Cockayne, Lord of Ashbourne and Pooley |5= 5. Lady Jane Ashby |6= 6. Sir John Stanhope, Lord of Shelford Manor{{citation needed|date=February 2011}} |7= 7. Lady Katherine Dorothy Trentham{{citation needed|date=February 2011}} |8= 8. Sir Thomas Cockayne "The Magnificent", Lord of Ashbourne and Pooley{{citation needed|date=February 2011}} |9= 9. Lady Dorothy Ferrers{{citation needed|date=February 2011}} |10= 10. Sir Nicholas Ashby, Lord of Willoughby{{citation needed|date=February 2011}} |11= 11. – |12= 12. Sir Thomas Stanhope MP, Lord of Shelford Manor{{citation needed|date=February 2011}} |13= 13. Lady Margaret Port{{citation needed|date=February 2011}} |14= 14. Sir Thomas Trentham{{citation needed|date=February 2011}} |15= 15. Lady Jane Sneyd{{citation needed|date=February 2011}} |16= 16. Sir Francis Cockayne, Lord of Ashbourne and Pooley{{citation needed|date=February 2011}} |17= 17. Lady Dorothy Marrow{{citation needed|date=February 2011}} |18= 18. Sir Humphrey Ferrers, Lord of Tamworth Castle{{citation needed|date=February 2011}} |19= 19. Lady Margaret Pigot{{citation needed|date=February 2011}} |20= 20. – |21= 21. – |22= 22. – |23= 23. – |24= 24. Sir Michael Stanhope, Lord of Shelford Manor{{citation needed|date=February 2011}} |25= 25. Lady Anna Rawson{{citation needed|date=February 2011}} |26= 26. Sir John Port "The Younger", Knight of the Bath{{citation needed|date=February 2011}} |27= 27. Lady Elizabeth De Giffard{{citation needed|date=February 2011}} |28= 28. Sir Richard Trentham{{citation needed|date=February 2011}} |29= 29. Lady Marie Ireland{{citation needed|date=February 2011}} |30= 30. Sir William Sneyd{{citation needed|date=February 2011}} |31= 31. Lady Margaret Colclough{{citation needed|date=February 2011}} }}

==Notes== {{reflist}}

==References== *{{cite book|editor-last=Maidment |editor-first=James |editor2-last=Logan | editor2-first=William Hugh |year=1967 |title=Dramatic Works of Sir Aston Cokain'', Edinburgh, William Paterson, 1875'' |location=New York |publisher=Ayer Co}}

;Attribution *{{source-attribution|{{cite journal|author=A. E. Cockayne |title=The Family of Cockayne |journal=The Gentleman's Magazine|volume=215|year=1863 |page= [https://books.google.com/books?id=UusIAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA223 223]}} }}

==Further reading== *{{cite encyclopaedia|first=Martin |last=Garrett |year= 2004 |title=Sir Aston Cokaine |encyclopedia=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography}}

{{s-start}} {{s-hon}} {{succession box | before = Sir Thomas Cockayne | title = Lord of Ashbourne Hall | after = Sir Caleb Cockayne | years = 1638–1684}} {{succession box | before = Sir Thomas Cockayne | title = Lord of Pooley Hall | after = Sir Caleb Cockayne | years = 1638–1684}}

{{s-reg|en-bt}} {{s-bef| before = New Creation }} {{s-ttl| title = Baronet Cockayne of Ashbourne | years = 1642–1684 }} {{s-aft| after = Sir Caleb Cockayne }} {{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cockayne, Aston}} Category:1608 births Category:1684 deaths Category:English dramatists and playwrights Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford Category:Cavaliers Category:People from Ashbourne, Derbyshire Category:English male dramatists and playwrights Category:English male poets