Cockin, John

Cockin, John an English Congregational minister, was born at Thornton, near Bradford, in 1783. In youth he was remarkable for his studious habits. When about eleven years old he was led to Christ by reading Doddridge's Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, and some years afterwards was admitted to Church fellowship at Queen Street, Sheffield, where he was apprenticed to a bookseller. In 1804 he entered the Independent Academy, Idle, and at the close of his course settled at the Lane Chapel, Holmfirth, near Huddersfield, where he remained forty-three years, during which period he was. kept from his work only one Sunday by illness. The last twelve years of his life were spent almost in seclusion at Halifax, where he died, October 17, 1861. Both in the pulpit and on the platform Mr. Cockin was effective and popular. In conversation he excelled. He had a great ascendency over others, and possessed a strong character. He wrote and published a Life of his father, the Reverend Joseph Cockin, Sketches after Reading, and one or two controversial pamphlets on Calvinism. See (Lond.) Cong. Year- book, 1862, page 226.