Richard Cooke MP (bef. 1530 - 1579)

Born before 1530 in Gidea Hall, Essex, England [uncertain]

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 3 Oct 1579 after age 49 in Gidea Hall, Essex, England [uncertain]

Problems/Questions Profile managers: England Project WikiTree [send private message], Joseph St. Denis [send private message], and Ross Holman [send private message]

Richard Cooke MP is managed by the England Project. Join: England Project Discuss: england

Biography

Richard Cooke MP is Notable.

Richard Cooke was a Tudor courtier who sat in the House of Commons as a Member of Parliament during the reigns of Edward VI and Elizabeth I.

He was not the father of Francis Cooke, who immigrated to America in the Mayflower in 1620.

Richard was the son of Sir Anthony Cooke and his wife Anne, the daughter of Sir William Fitzwilliam.^[1] His family lived at Gidea Hall, in the Royal Liberty of Havering in Essex.

He was one of nine children. He became the eldest surviving son after the death of his elder brother Anthony of "the sweating sickness" as a young man.^[2]

His father, Sir Anthony, was a gentleman of the bedchamber in the Royal Household, a member of parliament and held other official positions. However, his father’s greatest contribution was in the field of education, especially of women.

Richard’s five sisters received an education as good, or perhaps better, than him and his brothers, and gained a reputation as “eminent scholars both in prose and poetry.” Richard, on the other hand, has been described as “a man of great personal modesty and limited intelligence, devoted to hunting.”

Like his father, he was also a member of parliament, but he served different constituencies. Among offices held were Groom of the privy chamber, Port of London searcher, and Justice of the Peace for Essex.

He was a Member of Parliament in the Second Parliament of Edward VI, as well as the First and Second Parliaments of Elizabeth I.

He married before 1559 : Wife: Anne Caulton, daughter of John Caunton.

Among their children were:

1. Sir Anthony Cook (1559-1604), MP for Lymington and East Retford, m. Avis or Anne Waldegrave
2. Phillipa Cooke

Groom, privy chamber by 1551-3; searcher, port of London 22 Feb 1552-?7; j.p. Essex 1558/59, q. 1561-2, 1575-d.^[3][4]

Followed his father to court and served alongside him in the privy chamber. It was as a replacement for his father that he first sat in Parliament in the spring of 1553. The borough of Stamford had begun by acceding to Cecil's request to elect Sir Anthony Cooke, who was Cecil's father-in-law, as its senior Member, but when the sheriff made his return two weeks later it was Richard Cooke who occupied that position. The change can scarcely have been made save at the father's request, and the most likely explanation is that having sat through the four sessions of the previous Parliament the publicity-shunning Sir Anthony Cooke withdrew in favour of his son.

Under Mary, Cooke's path diverged from his father's. If he was the man of that name who swore allegiance to the Queen on 16 Jul 1553 he early submitted to the new regime, and although his household appointment came to an end he retained the post in the London customs which he executed through a deputy. When his father went abroad in the spring of 1554 Cooke probably remained in England: he was perhaps already a married man with responsibilities of his own to add to the care of his father's. The ‘Master Cooke's son’ who saw John Brett leave Strasbourg in Jul 1556 could have been one of his younger brothers, and he was certainly in England in the following spring when his father's wish for a visit from him during his convalescence was apparently turned down by the government. Sir Anthony Cooke then wrote of him to Cecil, ‘I have not had at all times most cause to be content with him, but now, I fear, I shall be loth to lack him’.

Richard Cooke sat with his father and his brother William in the first two Elizabethan Parliaments but none of the three was destined for more than local office.

He succeeded the family estate on the death of his father on 11 June 1576.^[5] He died on 3 October 1579, little more than three years after his father.^[6][7]

His will was proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury on 17 November 1579.^[8][9] His will is transcribed here.

Research Notes

Date of birth
The History of Parliament gives his date of birth as "by 1530".^[10] This is consistent with his father's birth in 1505/6, his parents' marriage sometime before 1523,^[11] his eldest sibling being "ten years old in 1536,"^[2] and Richard holding the office of groom of the privy chamber by 1551-3.^[10]

Knighthood
Some internet family trees style him "Sir Richard Cooke." In his will, made shortly before his death in 1579, he describes himself as "Richarde Cooke of Guidiehall in the Countie of Essex Esquire." There is no record of a knighthood in the Knights of England and The History of Parliament does not mention one either. Metcalfe's The visitations of Essex describes him as both "Sr Richard Cooke" (at page 39) and "Richard Cooke ... esq're" (at page 382).

Date of marriage
This profile stated that his date of marriage was 31 December 1574 and gave the source as W J Harrison, New Light on Francis Cooke (1925).^[12]

Sources

1. ↑ W C Metcalfe (editor), The visitations of Essex by Hawley, 1552; Hervey, 1558; Cooke, 1570; Raven, 1612; and Owen and Lilly, 1634, London, 1878, page 39 and page 382. Google Books (accessed 14 May 2020)
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Marjorie McIntosh, 'Sir Anthony Cooke: Tudor Humanist, Educator, and Religious Reformer' in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, volume 119, number 3 (12 Jun 1975), pages 233-250. JSTOR (subscription service, accessed 26 May 2020)
3. ↑ See his full Biography at the History of Parliament
4. ↑ See a short Biography at Wikipedia
5. ↑ The National Archives. C 142 - Chancery: Inquisitions Post Mortem, Series II, and other Inquisitions, Henry VII to Charles. Reference: C 142/177/52. Description: Coke Antony, knight: Essex. Date: 19 Elizabeth.
6. ↑ 'COOKE, Richard I (by 1530-79), of Gidea Hall, Essex', History of Parliament Online (accessed 18 May 2020)
7. ↑ The National Archives. C 142 - Chancery: Inquisitions Post Mortem, Series II, and other Inquisitions, Henry VII to Charles. Reference: C 142/189/45. Description: Coke, Richard: Essex. Date: 22 Elizabeth.
8. ↑ The National Archives. Reference: PROB 11/61/533. Description: Will of Richarde Cooke of Guidiehall, Essex. Date: 17 November 1579.
9. ↑ Ancestry.com. England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858 [database on-line]. RIchard Cooke. Probate Date: 17 Nov 1579 (accessed 14 May 2020); citing The National Archives; Kew, England; Prerogative Court of Canterbury and Related Probate Jurisdictions: Will Registers; Class: PROB 11; Piece: 61. Ancestry Record 5111 #903392.
10. ↑ ^{10.0 10.1} Bindoff, S T, editor. The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509-1558: COOKE, Richard (by 1530-79), of Gidea Hall, Essex. 1982. Accessed 15 Mar 2019.
11. ↑ D L Calkins, 'Cooke, Sir Anthony (1505/6–1576)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Oct 2019 (accessed 26 May 2020)
12. ↑ Walter James Harrison, New Light on Francis Cooke,et al Vol XXVII, No 4, Oct, 1925, p.145 (The Mayflower Descendant) Note: Several fictitious ancestries have been presented, some clearly hoaxes (one can be found in "New Light on the Pilgrim Story", chapter 6. For a discussion of why this is a hoax, see English Ancestry and Homes of the Pilgrim Fathers, by Charles Banks). COOKE1

• History of Essex. The Liberty of Havering. Page 436 fn St Edward the Confessor, Romford

See also:

• Richard Cooke in: Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 18 June 2020), memorial page for Richard Cooke (unknown–1579), Find a Grave Memorial no. 204483538, citing St. Edward the Confessor Churchyard, Romford, London Borough of Havering, Greater London, England ; Maintained by Todd Whitesides (contributor 47553735) .