Squire Cocks died, aged 89 and unmarried, after a lifetime of generosity – of both money and affections. Henry Andrew William Cocks was the last of the Killinghall and Pemberton families, which had ruled Middleton St George for six centuries. He built the village’s first ironworks, and he donated money to schools and churches.
In his will, he left £1,000 each to ‘my two reputed sons’ Charles and Arthur Robinson, plus a further £1,000 to ‘my reputed son’ Frederick Robinson, as long as he didn’t fall into debt. Another £1,000 was left to ‘my reputed son, Henry Wilkinson, of Middleton One Row, postmaster’.
Squire Cocks left £2,000 each to ‘my three reputed daughters’ Harrietta, Louisa and Patience Graham, ‘children of my friend, the late Margaret Ann Graham of Middleton One Row’.
Wilmot Warmington, ‘son of Mrs Sarah Warmington of Wolverhampton’, inherited another £500. How Mrs Warmington warmed the cockles of Squire Cocks’ heart is unknown.
He also left £200 to his housekeeper Alice Slater ‘as an acknowledgement of her kindness and attention to me’.
Another £200 bequest was to the Wesleyan chapel in Middleton One Row, the construction of which he had funded in 1872 with identical houses on either side of it. It is said these matching homes accommodated his most accommodating mistresses: Mistress Robinson on one side and Mistress Graham on the other.
(‘Memories’, The Northern Echo, 2004)