Adam Cockburn, Lord Ormiston

[1] Adam Cockburn was appointed Lord Justice Clerk in place of Sir George Campbell of Cessnock on 28 November 1692 and at about the same time was sworn a Privy Councillor.

[1] He was one of the Commissioners named to inquire into the Massacre of Glencoe on 28 May 1695, and became somewhat unpopular in some quarters because of the powers awarded to his position in order for him to reach conclusions in the matter.

On 6 February 1699 he succeeded Lord Raith as Treasurer-depute of Scotland, which he retained until the accession of Queen Anne, when he was dismissed from all his offices.

Seen as an enlightened landlord, in 1698 he granted an 11-year lease to a Robert Wight, who was the first tenant farmer in Scotland to enclose his fields with a ditch and hedge, also planting trees with the hedgerow to act as a windbreak.

He was retoured heir to his brother John in the family's ancient estate of Ormiston, East Lothian, on 28 December 1671.