William Cooke (politician, around 1537)

William Cooke (* around 1537; † May 14, 1589 in London ) was an English politician who was elected twice as a member of the House of Commons .

William Cooke was the second surviving son of Sir Anthony Cooke and his wife Anne Fitzwilliam . His father was a wealthy member of the gentry from Essex to convey who tried his children a comprehensive education. As a Puritan , his father went into exile during the reign of Queen Mary the Catholic . William Cooke was to study at Peterhouse in Cambridge and at Gray's Inn in London from 1553 , but it is possible that he followed his father into exile in France. After Elizabeth I ascended the throne in 1558, his father returned to England. With the support of his brother-in-law William Cecil , who became the Queen's chief minister, the young Cooke was elected MP for Stamford in Lincolnshire in the 1559 general election. In the House of Commons , Cooke was considered a radical Protestant. In the 1563 general election, he was elected MP for Grantham . In 1564 he accompanied the Queen on her trip to Cambridge , where he was made an honorary Master of Arts . After his father's death in 1576, his older brother Richard inherited his father's estates, but his brother-in-law Cecil had previously given William Cooke a lucrative position in the Court of Wards . In 1569 he was given the lucrative guardianship of Thomas Strickland , the heir of Walter Strickland , who had left considerable estates in Westmorland and Yorkshire . Cooke soon sold the rights to guardianship to Walter Strickland's widow. In the general election in 1571 and in the subsequent elections, he no longer ran. He lived mainly in London but also owned estates in Essex, Warwickshire , Devon and Kent . From around 1583 he served as Justice of the Peace for Middlesex . He died a rich man and was buried in St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church in London.

Cooke had married Frances Gray, daughter of Lord John Gray of Essex, younger brother of Henry Gray, 3rd Marquess of Dorset . With her he had four sons and three daughters, including:

• William Cooke (1574-1619)

In his will, he had divided his estate among his three surviving sons.

Web links

• Roger Virgoe: COOKE, William I (d.1589), of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Mdx. (History of Parliament Online, Ref Volumes: 1558–1603)