Sir Henry Cochrane: From shop assistant to king of the castle!
In his latest Times Past column, Jonathan Smyth looks at Henry Cochrane who began as a shop assistant in Bailieborough, and went on to own Bailieborough Castle.
I thought the tale of Henry Cochrane to be a fascinating story, having worked myself as a shop assistant in the late 1990s for O’Gorman’s SuperValu. However, Cochrane’s success is in the vein of the time-honoured from rags to riches novel where the underdog achieves success beyond their wildest dreams.
Henry Cochrane was born on December 2, 1836, to William, a farmer, and Sarah Cochrane née McQuade who lived in Graughclough House in the townland of Graughclough, near Mullagh, Co Cavan. William Cochrane appears in the tithe applotment for 1833 under the name of ‘Coghran’ which is alternative way of spelling the same surname. A Richard Coghran is listed in the same townland and was most probably a relative.
An account of Henry’s life by Pauric J. Dempsey appears in the dictionary of Irish biography where it is noted that after a ‘rudimentary education’ Cochrane went to work for a Belfast linen Mill and after some time he worked as a shop assistant.
Information from an edition of the Celt on September 17, 1904, informs us that Henry Cochrane was a self-made man who came from humble beginnings and began his working life as an apprentice shop assistant in a grocery shop in Bailieborough owned by Mrs Chambers. He worked very hard and later went on to a successful business career with the large mercantile company of Cantrell and Cochrane who had ‘extensive works ‘ in Dublin and Belfast, while he also held the position of chairman of Thacker and Hoffe Limited, a wholesale, and chemist company.
Henry entered public life in 1876 to become a member of the Dublin Corporation and was appointed to a number of jobs over the years, including Justice of the Peace for Dublin, Cavan and Wicklow, deputy Lieutenant for Dublin County and High Sheriff of both Co. Wicklow and Co. Cavan. Sir Henry Cochrane married Margaret Gilchrist, the only daughter of Richard Gilchrist of Dublin. Mr and Mrs Cochrane lived at Woodbrook, Bray, Co Wicklow.
Knighthood in 1887
During the jubilee honours of 1887, Henry Cochrane was given a knighthood in recognition of his prominent service to the manufacturing industry as head of the firm of Cantrell and Cochrane. When Dublin City showed no inclination to mark Queen Victoria’s jubilee, Cochrane kicked up a fuss and got them to change their minds. He travelled in person to Windsor where the queen knighted him. When the Prince Albert Victor and Prince George of Wales came to Dublin, they were received by Sir Henry and the Committee of Citizens in Dublin. He was later made a baronet by King Edward.
Bailieborough Castle
Cochrane’s dealings in business made him rich and with his money he bought the Castle in Bailieborough that once belonged to Lord Lisgar. The Lisgar Estate was split into 82 lots and on Monday 29 April 1901, they were sold under the watchful eye of Lord Justice Ross in the Land Judges Court, Dublin. Bidding for the lots was described as ‘keen’ and caused the judge to make the remark that Bailieborough was another ‘Klondike’.
Bailieborough Castle along with 760 acres of land were bought by Sir Henry Cochrane, the one-time Bailieborough shop assistant to Mrs Chambers. In total, Cochrane paid £3,875 for the castle and the land.
The locals were delighted with the news that Henry had become the new owner and on May 11, 1901, this paper recorded that his brother John Cochrane had received the congratulations of many well-wishers in the district who were pleased that the place had not been sold to some timber merchant who might chop down the forest and destroy ‘the appearance’ of the countryside.
Unfortunately, the tree-loving locals were to be disappointed. On Tuesday, December 31, 1901, the auctioneer John Wauhope acting on the instructions of Cochrane, was asked to sell about 600 trees that were blown down in a storm. The flattened forest included larch, scotch fir and spruce trees. Then in January 1904, Henry Cochrane auctioned up to 2,000 trees from the plantations at Corlurgan, Urcher and Cloverhill on the old Lisgar estate. The trees that were sold had to be felled and removed by the buyers before February 1, 1904.
Gate Lodges
An advertisement was placed in August 1902, by Henry Cochrane which instructed J. Coleman at the Surveyor’s Office in Bailieborough to give notice to contractors and builders who may be interested in tendering for work to be carried out on his estate. The jobs that needed to be done were: 1. Do general repairs and painting to the three Gate Lodges and Gardeners Lodge; 2. Repair the two-eyed stone bridge and wooden bridge over the main river (about 270 perches) between the castle and lake and the new concrete dam; 4. Clean up the old river and connecting drains through the demesne.
Sadly, because of his declining health, Cochrane never got to fully enjoy the splendour of the Castle and was rarely able to make the journey from Bray to Bailieborough. All the same, it was said that Henry spent a considerable sum of money on restoring the Castle and the grounds.
Cochrane’s eldest son
Walford’s book on the ‘County families’ contains information about Henry Cochrane’s eldest son, Sir Ernest Cecil Cochrane who received an education at Trinity College Dublin and afterwards entered the law profession having been called to the ‘bar of the inner temple’. In time, Ernest became a magistrate for Co. Cavan, having formerly been captain of the third battalion of the Connaught Rangers. He was appointed an ‘Honourable Gentleman-in-waiting’ to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland between 1908 and 1909.
Earnest was married twice; firstly, to Amy Davies from Surrey England, whom he married in 1898 and remained with her until their marriage was dissolved in 1911, and thereafter he wed, secondly, Elsa Dorothea Schumacher, youngest daughter of Erwin Schumacher. Henry Cochrane Baronet died at home in Woodbrook, Bray on September 11, 1904. Following his death, the Castle and land were inherited by his nephew W.L.B. Cochrane, a solicitor based in Dublin.
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