This young lady was the daughter of William, Lord Cochrane, by
Catherine, daughter of the Presbyterian Earl of Cassilis and sister to
that Lady Margaret Kennedy whom Gilbert Burnet had married. Her father
had died before Claverhouse came on the scene, leaving seven children,
of whom Jean was the youngest. Her mother, whose notoriously Whiggish
sympathies had brought both her husband and father-in-law into
suspicion, was furiously opposed to the match; though worldly prudence
may have touched her heart as well as religious scruple, for
Claverhouse, though he had risen fast and was marked by all men as
destined to rise still higher, was hardly as yet perhaps a very eligible
husband for the pretty Lady Jean. But in truth it was a strange family
for him to seek a wife in, and many were the whispered gibes the news of
his courtship provoked at Edinburgh. Was this strong Samson, men asked,
to fall a prey at last to a Whiggish Delilah? Hamilton, whose own
loyalty was by no means unimpeachable, and who was no friend to
Claverhouse, affected to be much distressed by the Lady Susannah's
partiality for the young Lord Cochrane, and made great parade of his
disinclination to give his daughter to the son of such a mother without
the express consent of the King; and this Claverhouse chose to take as a
hit at him, who had not thought it necessary to ask any one's permission
to choose his own wife.
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