to him bearing an inscription written by T. J. Mathias, and a canon of his own composition. In person Cooke was ‘middle-sized, latterly rather corpulent, though when young extremely thin; he had a fine face, a soft concealed eye, and he was most strongly affected by music; showed great change of feelings, proceeding from a kind of creeping in the skin and hair, as he described it.’ A contemporary describes him as ‘one of the worthiest and best-tempered men,’ and he must have been an admirable teacher, numbering among his pupils such musicians as Parsons, Crosdill, Greatorex, the two Knyvetts, Hindle, Bartleman, Walmisley, Beale, and Spofforth. His principal compositions were written for the Academy of Ancient Music; his services, anthems, and numerous odes are now forgotten, but his glees, catches, and canons are still sung, and the library of the Royal College of Music possesses a large collection of his manuscript music.
Cooke was married (22 May 1758) to Miss Mary Jackson, who died 19 March 1784. According to her son, ‘she was a most amiable and affectionate woman, and possessed good property; was sister to Charles Jackson, esq., comptroller at the Foreign Office, General Post Office.’ By her he had ten children, five of whom died in infancy. Benjamin, his eldest son, a boy of great promise, was born 13 Aug. 1761, and died 25 Jan. 1772. Some manuscript compositions by him are preserved at the Royal College of Music. The other children who survived were Mary (b. 28 July 1762, died unmarried 28 Feb. 1819); Amelia (b. 7 Oct. 1768, died unmarried 16 May 1845); Robert [q. v.], and Henry. The latter was for many years in the General Post Office. He edited two books of organ pieces, and a set of nine glees and two duets by his father; he also wrote a little music which is extant in manuscript, and published a short biography of Dr. Cooke, and ‘Some Remarks on the Greek Theory of Tuning Instruments.’ He died at 2 Little Smith Street, Westminster, 30 Sept. 1840, aged 74.
[Some Account of Dr. Cooke, Lond. 1837; Grove's Dict. of Music, i.; Harmonicon for 1823 and 1831; Records of the Royal Soc. of Musicians and Madrigal Society; Pohl's Haydn in London, ii. 149; L. M. Hawkins's Anecdotes, i. 225–35; Burney's Account of the Handel Festival in 1784; European Mag. xxiv. 239; Add. MSS. 27669, 27691, 27693; Cat. of the Library of the Royal Coll. of Music; Chester's Westminster Abbey Registers.]
COOKE, EDWARD (fl. 1678), dramatic poet, was the author of ‘Love's Triumph, or the Royal Union,’ a tragedy, never represented on the stage, in five acts and in verse, Lond. 1678, 4to, with a dedication to the Princess of Orange. Probably he is the same person who translated ‘The Divine Epicurus, or the Empire of Pleasure over the Vertues. Compos'd by that most renown'd philosopher, Mr. A. Le Grand,’ Lond. 1676.
Another person of the same name published a work in verse entitled ‘Bartas Junior; or the World's Epitome: Man, set forth in his, 1. Generation, 2. Degeneration, 3. Regeneration,’ Lond. 1631, 8vo. In the address to the reader he says: ‘It is almost 12 yeares since I finished this subject, and now, by the importunity of a learned friend, divulged.’
[Langbaine's Dramatic Poets, p. 25; Addit. MS. 24492, f. 128 b; Baker's Biog. Dram. (1812), i. 147, ii. 397.; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.]
COOKE, EDWARD (1772–1799), captain in the royal navy, born 14 April, 1772, was son of Colonel Cooke of Harefield, and brother of General Sir George Cooke, who commanded the first division and lost his right arm at Waterloo; also of Major-Gen. Sir Henry Frederick Cooke, private secretary to the Duke of York. His mother, Penelope, daughter of Sir William Bowyer and sister of Admiral Sir George Bowyer [q. v.], after Colonel Cooke's death married General Edward Smith, uncle of Admiral Sir W. Sidney Smith. Cooke was made lieutenant on 14 Sept. 1790, and in 1793 was appointed to the Victory, going out to the Mediterranean as Lord Hood's flagship. In August he was entrusted with the negotiations with the royalist inhabitants of Toulon, a service which he conducted with equal skill and boldness (James, Nav. Hist., 1860, i. 75), and which resulted in Lord Hood's obtaining possession of the town and arsenal. Cooke was then appointed lieutenant-governor of the town, Captain Elphinstone (afterwards Lord Keith) being governor. He continued in this post till the evacuation of Toulon in the end of December. His services were rewarded by promotion, and on 12 April 1794 he was advanced to the rank of post captain. In June he had charge of the landing for the siege of Calvi, and took an active part in the subsequent operations, his zeal drawing forth the warm encomiums of Nelson, under whose immediate orders he was serving (Nelson Despatches, i. 409, 410, 413, 416, 476). In the following year he was appointed to the Sibylle, a fine 40-gun 18-pounder frigate, recently captured from the French, and in her went out to the Cape of Good Hope, whence he was sent on to the East Indies. Towards the end of 1797 he was at Macao, and sailed on 5 Jan. 1798 in company with Captain Malcolm of the Fox, designing to reconnoitre the Spanish force in the Philippines and, if
