On the evidence of the 1851 census, Robert Cochrane was born c. 1827 at Dalry, the second known child of Thomas Cochran and Jean Crawford.

At the time of the 1851 census, Robert Cochrane was an unmarried engine man, aged 27, living in the family home at Old Manse, Dalry.

Robert Cochrane was already deceased in 1895 but provision was made for his widow, Sarah Wylie or Cochrane of Dalry in the Mutual Trust Deed and Settlement subscribed by his sister Mary Cochrane and Mary’s husband Aulay Steele, at Helensburgh on 28^th March 1895.

In common with James Cochrane, Sarah dropped out of the picture in the Codicil thereto, subscribed by the same parties, again at Helensburgh, on 18^th May 1897, yielding the suspicion that she too had died in the intervening period.