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is a census-designated place (CDP) in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. The population was 19,388 at the 2000 census. It includes Hunt Valley, a business park.
Cockeysville was named after the Cockey family which helped establish the town. Thomas Cockey (1676-1737) settled in Limestone Valley in 1725 at Taylor's Hall (an area now just north of Padonia Road and east of I-83). Joshua Frederick Cockey (1765-1821) built one of the first homes in the area in 1798 and built the first commercial structure (a hotel) in 1810 in what would become the village of Cockeysville. His son, Judge Joshua F. Cockey (1800-1891) lived lifelong in the village and built the train station (what would be part of the Pennsylvania Railroad) and accompanying commercial buildings in the 1830s.
Cockeysville was the scene of some Civil War activity. Confederate soldiers pushed into the Baltimore area intending to cut off the city and Washington from the north. On July 10, 1864 Cavalry General Bradley T. Johnson led troops into Cockeysville, destroying telegraph lines and tearing up track along the Northern Central Railway. They also burned the first bridge over the Gunpowder Falls, just beyond nearby Ashland, Maryland.
After the war, Joshua F. Cockey, III (1837-1920) founded the National Bank of Cockeysville (1891) and other commercial ventures in the community, as well as developed dwellings along the York Turnpike (now York Road) that made up the village of Cockeysville.