William Cockin

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William Cockin (baptised 1736 – 1801) was an English schoolmaster and versatile author.[1]

William Cockin
Born1736 (1736)
Burton-in-Kendal, England, United Kingdom
Died30 May 1801(1801-05-30) (aged 65)
Burton-in-Kendal, England, United Kingdom
Occupation(s)Schoolteacher, writer, accountant

Life

The son of Marmaduke Cockin (1712–1754), he was born at Burton-in-Kendal, Westmorland. His father was a schoolmaster.[1][2]

After time spent as a teacher in schools in London, Cockin was in 1764 appointed writing-master and accountant to

Lancaster Grammar School, a post he held for twenty years. He was then for eight years at John Blanchard's Nottingham Academy.[2]

Cockin retired to Kendal. He was a friend of George Romney the painter, and he died at Romney's house in Kendal, on 30 May 1801, aged 65. He was buried at Burton-in-Kendal.[2]

Associations

Among Cockin's friends was the Rev. Thomas Wilson of Clitheroe, and Peter Romney, brother of George, was a correspondent in the later 1760s.[2][3] Other associates were John Dawson, and Rev. John James D.D., of Arthuret.[1]

Works

Diagram from A Rational and Practical Treatise of Arithmetic (1766) by William Cockin

Cockin's works included:[2]

  • A Rational and Practical Treatise of Arithmetic, 1766.
  • Occasional Attempts in Verse, privately printed at Kendal.
  • Ode to the Genius of the Lakes, 1780.
  • The Theory of the Syphon, 1781.
  • The Fall of Scepticism and Infidelity predicted, 1788, in the form of a letter to James Beattie.[1]
  • The Freedom of Human Action explained, 1791
  • The Rural Sabbath, a poem, 1805. This posthumous volume includes a reprint of the Ode to the Lakes, with biographical notes.

Cockin contributed to the

Philosophical Transactions a paper An Account of an Extraordinary Appearance in a Mist near Lancaster.[4]

Elocutionist

In 1775 Cockin published The Art of Delivering Written Language; or, An Essay on Reading, dedicated to David Garrick, a work on elocution.[1] In this book Cockin is representative of the 18th-century elocutionary movement, and within elocutionist he is assigned to the "natural school".[5][6] His comment on the prescriptive approach of Thomas Sheridan, a leader of the movement, was that works of elocution might be as much about perceptions of ways of talking as speaking.[7]

Cockin noted in particular the connection between modulation in speech and silent reading.[8] He pointed out that in both speech and singing, pauses are used to frame and for emphasis.[9] He took comical mimicry to be a low form, in terms of artistic prestige. His exposition on the topic is now a standard authority for this attitude to imitation and mimesis.[10]

Guide books

Arthur Young.[11] This expanded work and a later edition influenced William Wordsworth's 1810 guide.[1] They contained the Letter on Keswick and Gray's Journal of the Lakes as appendices.[12] Other additions included an engraving of Grasmere, after John Feary;[13] Cockin was also responsible for footnotes, and tables of heights of the mountains.[14]

Notes

  1. ^
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/5786. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  2. ^ a b c d e f Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1887). "Cockin, William" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 11. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  3. JSTOR 41614438
  4. ^ Phil. Trans. (1780), lxx. 157.
  5. JSTOR 27742940
  6. ISBN 9780275964207
    . Retrieved 15 May 2018.
  7. JSTOR 518493
  8. JSTOR 10.1525/rh.2010.28.1.67
  9. JSTOR 3526232
  10. JSTOR 40646207
  11. JSTOR 41057329
  12. JSTOR 24040642
  13. ^ Woof, Robert; Museum, Grasmere and Wordsworth (1982). The discovery of the Lake District, 1750-1810: a context for Wordsworth: at the Grasmere and Wordsworth Museum, 20 May-31 October, 1982. Trustees of Dove Cottage. p. 23.
  14. ISBN 9780719066733
    . Retrieved 15 May 2018.

External links

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1887). "Cockin, William". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 11. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

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