Francis Cooke

Early life and trade

Francis Cooke's English ancestry and exact birth are unproven; a baptism of a Francis, son of Thomas Cooke, at Biddenden, Kent, on 6 April 1572 has been noted as a possible clue but is about ten years too early for him.^[17] His betrothal record of 1603 presumes a birth in 1582 or before.^[3] Wikipedia gives his birth as about 1583, and a note on the 1643 Plymouth list of those able to bear arms suggests he was then under sixty and so probably born no earlier than 1583.^[1][10] His first appearance in the historical record is as a witness at Raphael Roelandt's betrothal in Leiden on 25 April 1603.^[16] In Leiden he was recorded as "Franchoijs Couck", a bachelor from England, by trade a woolcomber.^[9]

Leiden, marriage and family

Francis Cooke was betrothed to Hester Mahieu in Leiden in 1603 and married her there on 20 July 1603 or shortly afterwards.^[7][56][60] The banns were published, but no marriage entry survives in the Dutch Reformed Church records.^[7] The couple lived in Norwich among the Walloons there, probably from 8 August 1606 until 1 January 1608, and before and after that time belonged to the Leiden Walloon congregation.^[11] On 1 January 1608 the pair, identified as "Franchoys Cooke et Esther sa femme", received communion in the Leiden Walloon congregation.^[8] The Cookes joined Robinson's Separatist congregation in Leiden sometime after their daughter Elizabeth was baptized on 26 December 1611.^[2] According to Wikipedia, Francis and Hester Cooke had seven children: John, an unnamed child buried in Leiden in 1608, Jane, Elizabeth, Jacob, Hester and Mary.^[53] Their son John was baptized in the Walloon church at Leiden, as Jean, between 1 January and 31 March 1607, and their daughter Elizabeth was baptized there on 26 December 1611.^[14][15] Their daughter Mary was born in Plymouth about 1625 and married there on 26 December 1645.^[6]

Mayflower voyage

When the congregation decided to go to America in 1620, Cooke and his thirteen-year-old son John committed to the voyage, while his wife Hester and the younger children remained in Leiden and followed later.^[13] Nathaniel Morton's list printed in New-Englands Memoriall (1669) names him among the sixteen Compact signers then still living at Plymouth.^[28]

Life in Plymouth

In the 1623 division of garden plots for those who came first in 1620, Cooke's plot was laid out on the street at Plymouth.^[32] At the public court of 22 May 1627 the first lot of the Division of Cattle fell to Francis Cooke and his company, made up of his wife Hester and children John, Jacob, Jane, Hester and Mary together with six young men; the lot drew the least of the four black heifers and two she-goats.^[34] Cooke's children John, Jacob, Jane, Hester and Mary were also named in the 1627 Plymouth records.^[5] He was one of the Purchasers who in 1627 bought out the rights of the London Adventurers, and he signed the agreement between the Purchasers and the Undertakers on 1 June 1627 (new style).^[21]

Cooke was listed among the freemen of the Incorporation of Plymouth in the roll of 1633 and was assessed in the colony rate of that year.^[26][39] In December 1636 he took an apprentice for seven years from 1 October 1636, to be clothed and given twelve bushels of corn at the end of the term.^[38] A parcel of upland at the end of Goodman Shaw's land at Smelt River was granted to him, to be laid out for him.^[30]

By a deed of gift recorded 10 June 1646, on the marriage of his son Jacob, Francis and Hester Cooke promised Jacob one hundred acres of land and, at the decease of the longer liver of the two of them, the team with all its furniture.^[46] On 9 April 1650 Francis Cooke gave his son Jacob all his right in one hundred acres at North River that had been granted to him on 5 October 1640.^[22] He received a grant on 25 December 1655/4 January 1656 of three holes of meadow at the hither end of the Great Meadow called Jones River, and he is on the list of Purchasers.^[19] His name was in the Plymouth section of the list of freemen of 1658.^[18] In March 1651 he and his son John were recorded among the proprietors of the Plymouth lands at Punckateesett, now Little Compton, Rhode Island, and on 22 March/1 April 1663/4 they are shown as owners of the eighteenth lot there.^[40] A deed of 1/11 August 1672 stated that a share being sold had been given to the seller by his grandfather Francis Cooke of Plymouth.^[23]

Later life, death and burial

Francis Cooke made his last will and testament on 7 December 1659, being "weake and Infeirme in body yett in prfect memory", committing his soul to God and directing that his body be interred in a decent and comely manner.^[43] Witnesses later gave oath that they had seen Francis Cooke of Plymouth sign his will on that date.^[48] By the will he left his wife Hester the use of all his lands, upland and meadow, during her life, and gave his "Dear and loveing wife" all his moveable goods and all his cattle of every kind, to be at her disposal.^[41][52] He appointed his "Deare wife" and his son John Cooke joint executors; the witnesses were John Alden and John Howland.^[51] The Plymouth Colony records contain the entry "Francis Cooke Died the seaventh of Aprill 1663", and Wikipedia states that he died at Plymouth on 7 April 1663.^[1][4][45] The Mayflower Descendant dates his death to "Tuesday, 7/17 April, 1663", the double date explaining variant renderings of 7 and 17 April.^[49] He died in 1663 at about 80 years old.^[50]

An inventory of the estate of Francis Cooke, deceased, was taken and appraised on 1 May 1663 by two appraisers.^[42] The goods and chattels came to £86 11s 1d besides housing and land, with about £4 due to the estate and £2 10s due from it.^[47] The inventory was exhibited before the court at Plymouth on 5 June 1663 and attested on oath by his widow Hester Cooke.^[44]