COCHRANE, Thomas (1691-1778), of Wester Stanley, Renfrew.

Returned for Renfrewshire in 1722 on the Dundonald interest, Cochrane seems to have been a follower of the Duke of Argyll, to whom, as governor of Minorca 1712-16, he probably owed his Minorca appointment. This appointment gave rise to a lawsuit with his predecessor in 1726, when Cochrane’s counsel was Duncan Forbes, Argyll’s henchman, Robert Dundas, a member of the anti-Argyll faction, the Squadrone, appearing for his opponent.D. Robertson, Appeal Cases 1707-27, pp. 558-61. He did not stand again. He was in Edinburgh during the Forty-five, afterwards giving evidence against the Provost, Archibald Stewart, at his trial for surrendering to the rebels.W. Cobbett, State Trials, xviii. 1056-7. Succeeding to the Dundonald earldom in 1758, he died 27 June 1778, leaving his son ‘a mass of debts and pressing creditors’.A. & N. L. Clow, ’Archibald Cochrane, 9th Earl of Dundonald’, Chemistry and Industry, xxiv. 217-20.