Does anyone know offhand if the Alex we know has any relation to this fellow?
Michael
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001.
Cockburn, Sir Alexander James Edmund
1802-80, British jurist. He was called to the bar in 1829, and a
volume of reports on election cases (1832) brought him into national
prominence as a trial lawyer. He was made recorder for Southampton
(1841) and was elected to Parliament from there (1847). He was noted
particularly for his defense advocacy, one of his most famous
successes being the acquittal (1843) of Daniel McNaghten, who had
killed Sir Robert Peel's secretary, on grounds of insanity; the
"McNaghten rules" became the basic definition of criminal
responsibility in most English-speaking jurisdictions. In Parliament,
Cockburn successfully defended Lord Palmerston's handling of the "Don
Pacifico" dispute (1850). He served as attorney general (1851-56) and
was chief justice of common pleas (1856-59) and lord chief justice
(1859-80), presiding over the famous Tichborne case.
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright © 2001 Columbia
University Press.