COCKS, James (1773-1854), of 7 Chesterfield Street, Mdx.

Cock’s inherited his father’s founding interest in the Charing Cross banking firm of Biddulph and Cocks in 1804, together with two houses at the same location and £1,000. PROB 11/1414/603; G. Chandler, Four Centuries of Banking, 158. He sat for Reigate for ten years until 1818, on the interest of his cousin the 2nd Baron Somers, and was returned again on a vacancy in 1823. He was a silent Member, who reflected his patron’s Grenvillite connections by giving general support to Lord Liverpool’s ministry. He divided against repeal of the assessed taxes, 18 Mar., for the grant for Irish churches, 11 Apr., and against repeal of the Foreign Enlistment Act, 16 Apr. 1823. He voted against inquiries into the prosecution of the Dublin Orange rioters, 22 Apr., delays in chancery, 5 June, and the currency, 12 June 1823. He divided against reform of Edinburgh’s representation, 26 Feb., and inquiry into the prosecution of the Methodist missionary John Smith in Demerara, 11 June 1824. He voted for the Irish unlawful societies bill, 25 Feb., and Catholic relief, 1 Mar., 21 Apr., 10 May 1825. He voted to receive the report on the salary of the president of the board of trade, 10 Apr. 1826. He divided again against reform of Edinburgh’s representation, 13 Apr., and against Russell’s resolutions on electoral bribery, 26 May 1826. He was undisturbed at Reigate at the general election that summer.

He divided for Catholic relief, 6 Mar., and the duke of Clarence’s annuity, 16 Mar. 1827. He voted with Canning’s ministry for the grant to improve water communications in Canada, 12 June 1827. He divided against repeal of the Test Acts, 26 Feb., but for Catholic relief, 12 May 1828, and the Wellington ministry’s emancipation bill, 6, 30 Mar. 1829. He voted against the transfer of East Retford’s seats to Birmingham, 11 Feb., the enfranchisement of Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester, 23 Feb., and Jewish emancipation, 5 Apr., 17 May 1830. He divided against a reduction in judicial salaries, 7 July 1830. After his unopposed return at the general election that summer the ministry listed him among their ‘friends’, but he disappointed them by his absence from the crucial division on the civil list, 15 Nov. 1830. He voted against the second reading of the Grey ministry’s reform bill, 22 Mar., and for Gascoyne’s wrecking amendment, 19 Apr. 1831. At the ensuing dissolution he was replaced by his nephew Joseph Yorke.

Cocks’s involvement with his banking house, which was renowned for its fashionable and aristocratic clientele, and which had easily weathered the financial storm of 1825-6, had apparently ceased in about 1827. Chandler, 165, 223-7. He died in January 1854 and left his Mayfair house and real estate in Hertfordshire and Worcestershire to his nephew Henry Somers Cocks. PROB 11/2185/95; IR26/1990/44.