THE COOKE FAMILY PART 2
FEBRUARY 2000 A
breakthrough was finally made in the Cooke family mystery. The information
above was all that I had for 9 years. I had found only two additional
items but they had lead nowhere. I had found a marriage in High Bickington
parish between Charlotte Cooke, William's sister and James Wood. I tried
to find anyone researching the Wood family and Charlotte with no luck for
over two years. I also found a Michael Cooke , a farmer at Langley Barton
in Devon in White's 1850 directory. I did not know who he was but the Langley
connection sounded promising. I did not follow this lead.
I passed all my information on to my cousins Bill
and Brian to use. Bill emailed me in February to say that he had made a
breakthrough. He had found someone who knew one of Michael Cooke's descendants.
This gentleman lived in the same village as this lady and knew of her family
history. He then passed on her information and passed us on to the Cooke
family historian.Major Brian Davies is in the process of writing a comprehensive
history of the Cookes of Devonshire England from the 1600's to the present
day.I have read drafts of some of the chapters and it promises to be a
good read.I will let people know when this is published and how to order
a copy here.
Brian's information has filled in a lot of gaps and
repaired a number of mistakes. Fortunately we have been able to do the
same for him.My information on the Cooke family of Devonshire indicated
that George and Betty had 5 children, Samuel ,William,Sarah,Charlotte and
Maria , the boys being baptised at Atherington church and the girls being
baptised at High Bickington. What I did not know was that there were 6
older children all baptised at St. Giles in the Woods, the parish immediately
to the west of Atherington and High Bickington. I had missed these children
because I did not know the parishes of Devon.
GEORGE COOKE THE ELDER
George Cooke, William's father was born in 1744 in Ottery
St. Mary, south Devon. It appears that his mother may have gone home to
to have him as the family was already living in north Devon at the time
of his birth.George was the son of Michael Cooke (1707-1747) and Margaret.George
was the eldest of 4 children, his older brother,Michael having died at
age 7 in 1747. George spent his early years living with his parents on
a farm they rented called Dodscott. Their landlord was Lord Rolle a man
with extensive land holdings all over Devon. He had been their landlord
in Otterton, south Devon before the move north. 
George Cooke the Elder married Elizabeth
(Betty) Walkey in 1777 at Great Torrington, a town just west of Dodscott,St.
Giles in the Wood.George purchased Langley Barton in 1783 with a
sitting tenant. The family were not able to move in until the tenant left
ssveral years later.
Something is known about life at Langley Barton because
the account books for the years 1740 to 1788 still exist.George appears
to have kept busy with farming. He supplemented his income by making cider
which he bottled himself. A seal off a bottle labelled "G..Cooke Langley
1789" was found on the property when renovations were made several years
ago.George also received rent for a small house on his property and he
ran a bank with several partners.
Betty Walkey may be the Betty Walkey born in 1755
the daughter of John Walkey and Susannah Laramy of Little Torrington..
This avenue of research has still to be followed.
.
A recent photo of Langley Barton
WILLIAM COOKE
William's early years would have been spent on the farm with
his siblings. Michael Cooke, the
eldest son, was set to inherit the farm from George. What was William
to do with his life? The account books state that in 1816 George Cooke
the Elder bought a half share in the brige "FRIENDS" for 475 pounds sterling.
He spent another 20 pounds on repairs to the ship. He then gave the ship
to William who was living in Newfoundland. Over the next few years George
sent William more money to help him in his business. This means that William
was already in Newfoundland when his father gave him the brig "FRIENDS".Click on the sketch to see a bigger version of this sketch (185K)
This is a sketch of the "FRIENDS".
William ,according to the English cousins returned
to England for a visit in 1843. He never returned after that. They found
out that he died in 1868, a year after his death. The Cookes of England
and the Cookes of Quebec lost touch with one another for 132 years. It
is excitng to be involved in the re-connection of the family after such
a long break. We have also found that we are not alone. Some of the English
Cookes immigrated to Canada and the U.S. in the years following William's
departure from England.Perhaps they were inspired by his adventures in
the New World.
We have now found that we have cousins in New York,Pennsylvania,Kansas,North Dakota,
, Illinois,Washington,California and Alberta.
One of the Alberta cousins lives only 20 minutes away from here.
People in Devon speak with a different accent and use some unique words.Click here to see how different.
back to the Index Page
See Cookes in the 1851 census for Devon
More photos of Langley Barton
info on the Cookes of North Dakota
The Cookes of Illinois and Kansas
High Bickington,Devon's web page
