The Ormiston branch of the Cockburn family stems from the marriage in 1370 of John Cokburne, second son of Sir Alexander de Cokburne, to Johanetta de Lyndessay, an heiress who owned the estate of Ormiston in East Lothian. John Cockburn of Ormiston and his brother Ninian Cockburn were Protestant supporters of the Scottish Reformation and came to support the English cause in 1548 during the war of the Rough Wooing. John Cockburn of Ormiston was another enthusiastic proponent for the modernization of Scottish agricultural practice. The financial consequences of his plans were as ruinous to the Ormiston branch of the Cockburns as they were to the Langton branch. He attempted to demonstrate the benefits of his reforms in a model community at Ormiston. His ambitious schemes ran into financial difficulties and he was required to sell the estate of Ormiston in 1747 to John Hope, 2nd Earl of Hopetoun.