John Cooke (17 February 1762 – 21 October 1805) was an experienced and highly regarded officer of the Royal Navy during the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary Wars and the first years of the Napoleonic Wars. Cooke is best known for his death in hand-to-hand combat with French forces during the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. During the action, his ship HMS Bellerophon was badly damaged and boarded by sailors and marines from the French ship of the lineAigle. Cooke was killed in the ensuing melee, but his crew successfully drove off their opponents and ultimately forced the surrender of Aigle.
Cooke, unlike many of his fellow officers, was never a notable society figure. He was however well respected in his profession and following his death was the subject of tributes from officers who had served alongside him. Memorials to him were placed in St Paul's Cathedral and his local church in Wiltshire.
John Cooke first went to sea at the age of eleven aboard the cutterHMS Greyhound under Lieutenant John Bazely, before going ashore to spend time at Mr Braken's naval academy at Greenwich. He was entered onto the books of one of the royal yachts by Sir Alexander Hood, who would become an enduring patron of Cooke's.[2]: 95 In 1776 he obtained a position as a midshipman on the ship of the lineHMS Eagle, aged thirteen.[12]: 48 Cooke served aboard Eagle, the flagship of the North American Station, during the next three years, seeing extensive action along the eastern seaboard. Notable among these actions were the naval operations around the Battle of Rhode Island in 1778, when Eagle was closely engaged with American units ashore.[13] He distinguished himself in the assault, causing Admiral Lord Howe to exclaim "Why, young man, you wish to become a Lieutenant before you are of sufficient age!"[2]: 95 On 21January 1779, Cooke was promoted to lieutenant and joined HMS Superb in the East Indies under Sir Edward Hughes, but was forced to take a leave of absence due to ill-health.[2]: 95
Cooke returned to England and then went to France to spend a year studying, before rejoining the navy in 1782 with an appointment to the 90-gun HMS Duke under Captain Alan Gardner.[2]: 95 Cooke saw action at the Battle of the Saintes, at which Duke was heavily engaged. He remained with Gardner following the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783, bringing an end to the American War of Independence, and served as his first-lieutenant aboard his next command, the 50-gun HMS Europa.[2]: 95 Gardner became commodore at Jamaica, flying his broad pennant aboard Europa and retaining Cooke as his first-lieutenant until Cooke was injured in a bad fall and had to be invalided home.[2]: 95 He had recovered sufficiently by the time of the Spanish Armament in 1790 to be able to take up an appointment from his old patron, Sir Alexander Hood, to be third-lieutenant of his flagship, the 90-gun HMS London.[2]: 95 [13] When the crisis passed without breaking into open war, London was paid off and Cooke went ashore.[2]: 95
Frigate command
With the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in February 1793, Cooke rejoined Hood and became first-lieutenant of his new flagship, the 100-gun HMS Royal George, part of the Channel Fleet. On 21February 1794, Cooke was promoted to commander and given his first independent command, the small fire shipHMS Incendiary. Three months later, Incendiary was a signal repeater for the Channel Fleet during the Atlantic campaign of May 1794, relaying Lord Howe's signals to the fleet and operating as a scout in the search for the French fleet under Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse. On 1June 1794, Cooke was a witness to the battle of the Glorious First of June, although his tiny ship was far too small to engage in combat.[14]: 126 In the action's aftermath, Cooke was included in the general promotions issued to the fleet, becoming a post-captain on 23July 1794. For a year, Cooke was stationed off Newfoundland as flag captain to Sir James Wallace aboard the 74-gun HMS Monarch, before returning to Britain and being offered command of the 28-gun HMS Tourterelle.[2]: 96 Cooke accepted, but when he found out she was ordered to the West Indies, he resigned it, having been told by Gardner that further service in the West Indies would likely kill him.[2]: 96
Instead in early 1796 he took command of the 36-gun frigateHMS Nymphe. Nymphe was employed in the blockade of the French Atlantic ports over the next year, and on 9March 1797 was in company with HMS St Fiorenzo when they encountered the returning ships of a short-lived French invasion attempt of Britain that had been defeated at Fishguard in Wales.[15]: 80 The French ships attempted to escape into Brest, but were hunted down by the British, who forced the surrender of Résistance and Constance in turn after successive short engagements.[16] Neither of the British ships suffered a single casualty in the combat, and both French ships were subsequently purchased into the Royal Navy, bringing prize money to Cooke and his crew.[17]
Despite this success, Cooke was unpopular with his men due to the strict discipline he enforced aboard his ship. This was graphically demonstrated just two months after the action off Brest, when Nymphe became embroiled in the Spithead mutiny. Cooke attempted to assist Admiral John Colpoys at the mutiny's outbreak, and was ordered ashore by his crew when he tried to return to his ship. Cooke was tactfully removed from command by the Admiralty following the mutiny, although he was returned to service two years later aboard the new frigate HMS Amethyst in preparation for the Anglo-Russian invasion of the Batavian Republic.[12]: 48 During the invasion, Amethyst conveyed the Duke of York to the Netherlands and later participated in the evacuation of the force following the campaign's collapse.[2]: 96
Cooke was involved in operations in Quiberon Bay during the remainder of 1799, and in 1800 participated in an abortive invasion of Ferrol. During this time, Amethyst captured six French merchant ships and small privateers.[18] During 1801, Cooke participated in the capture of the Dédaigneuse off Cape Finisterre, helping Samuel Hood Linzee and Richard King chase her down on 26 January. Amethyst was not heavily engaged with Dédaigneuse and received no damage, but aided in pursuing and trapping the French ship so that she could be seized. Dédaigneuse was later purchased into the Royal Navy as HMS Dedaigneuse.[19]: 136 Shortly afterwards, Cooke captured the Spanish ship Carlotta and the French privateerGénéral Brune in the same area.[20]
Trafalgar
With the Treaty of Amiens, Cooke briefly retired on half-pay before being recalled to the fleet at the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars in 1803. Cooke was requested as flag captain by Admiral Sir William Young at Plymouth, but Cooke tactfully refused, instead applying for active service. He received command of HMS Bellerophon on 25 April 1805. In May, after the large combined French and Spanish fleet, under Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve escaped from Toulon, beginning the Trafalgar campaign, Cooke was ordered to join a flying squadron under Vice-Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood. The squadron arrived off Cádiz on 9 June and Collingwood detached Bellerophon and three other ships to blockade Cartagena under Rear-Admiral Sir Richard Bickerton. When the combined fleet entered Cádiz on 20 August, Collingwood recalled Bickerton's force and mounted a blockade of the port. Collingwood was reinforced with more ships, and was later superseded by Nelson. Cooke was heard to say at this time that "To be in a general engagement with Nelson would crown all my military ambition."[13] Nelson had Villeneuve's fleet trapped in Cádiz and was blockading the harbour awaiting their expected attempt to escape.
The Franco-Spanish fleet escaped Cádiz on 18October 1805, but was soon chased down by Nelson and brought to battle on 21 October. Nelson formed his fleet into two divisions; the weather column would attack to the north under his direct command and the lee column would operate to the south under the command of Cuthbert Collingwood in HMS Royal Sovereign. Cooke was stationed fifth in Collingwood's line, and so was one of the first ships engaged in action with the combined fleet. Cooke took the unusual step of informing his first lieutenant William Pryce Cumby and his master Edward Overton of Nelson's orders, in case he should be killed.[12]: 47
Bellerophon was soon closely engaged with the French, breaking through the enemy line and closing with Aigle. As with the other French ships in the fleet, Aigle's rigging and mastheads were occupied by musketeers and grenadiers, who kept up a steady fire on Bellerophon and took a heavy toll of sailors exposed on the British ship's deck. Much of the fire was directed at the quarterdeck, where Cooke, Cumby and Overton stood. Cumby noted with surprise that Cooke was still wearing his uniform coat, which sported epaulettes that marked him out as the ship's captain to French snipers. Cooke had forgotten to remove the epaulettes and recognised the danger they represented, but replied "It is too late to take them off. I see my situation, but I will die like a man."[12]: 48
As the action continued, the Captain Pierre‑Paul Gourège of Aigle ordered his crew to board and seize Bellerophon, hoping to use their superiority of numbers to overwhelm the British crew. Cooke sent Cumby below to make sure that the lower-deck guns continued to fire into the French ship as the battle continued overhead, and threw himself at the French sailors pouring onto Bellerophon's quarterdeck, shooting an enemy officer dead and engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the men behind him.[12]: 48 Within minutes Cumby had returned to the deck with reinforcements from below, passing the mortally wounded Overton on the ladder. The badly wounded ship's quartermaster was also present, and he informed Cumby that Cooke had fallen in the melee.[21]: 52 Cumby's charge cleared the French from the deck of Bellerophon, and he found Cooke dead on the quarterdeck, two musket balls lodged in his chest. Cooke's last words had been "Let me lie quietly a minute. Tell Lieutenant Cumby never to strike."[12]: 48
Cumby took charge of the battered Bellerophon, directing her fire into Aigle and ultimately forcing the French ship's surrender after the arrival of other British vessels. Bellerophon had suffered grievously, losing 27 dead and 127 wounded.[21]: 52 Although Aigle was lost in the chaotic storm which followed the battle, Bellerophon survived, primarily due to Cumby's leadership. He was later promoted to post captain for his services in the action.[12]: 52 Cooke's body was buried at sea the day after the battle with the other fatal casualties from Bellerophon.[13]
Cooke's death, as with those of George Duff and Admiral Nelson himself, was widely mourned in Britain. Cooke's widow Louisa and their eight-year-old daughter, Louisa Charlotte, were given numerous awards and presents, including the gold medal minted for the captains who had fought at the action, and a large silver vase presented by Lloyd's Patriotic Fund. The gold medal and vase were gifted to the nation by Caroline Augusta Rolles, Cooke's great-granddaughter, after her own death on (1931-01-14)14 January 1931.[e] On 12 April 1806, Louisa and Louisa Charlotte were awarded a widow and child pension by the British Government, of £200 (equivalent to £20,500 in 2023) and £50 respectively.[23]
At least some of the money the family received was spent on a large wall plaque mounted in StAndrew's Church in Donhead St Andrew, Wiltshire, close to the family home at Donhead Lodge in StBartholomew's Street.[12]: 49 [24][25] The plaque commemorates Cooke's life and death and also that of his wife. A memorial was also raised to him in St Paul's Cathedral. Tributes from fellow officers were also forthcoming, including from the future explorer John Franklin, who had served on Bellerophon at Trafalgar and had said of Cooke that he was "very gentlemanly and active. I like his appearance very much."[12]: 48 A number of letters that Cooke wrote to his brother prior to Trafalgar are held by the National Maritime Museum.[26]
Cooke had married Louisa, néeHardy, on 15June 1790 at St Leonard's, Shoreditch. Louisa was the fourth daughter of Josiah Hardy, the former Governor of New Jersey, and later consul at Cádiz.[2]: 95 Cooke had leased Donhead Lodge from Baron Henry Arundell in 1803 and Louisa remained in residence there until 1813.[27][24] She died at her home, 9 Montpellier Terrace, Montpellier, Cheltenham, on (aged 96).[28] The funeral was held at St Peter's, Leckhampton, on 11February 1853, with interment following in the churchyard.[29][f] Louisa Charlotte Cooke, their only child, was born on (1797-01-26)26 January 1797 at Stoke Damerel, Plymouth.[2]: 95 Louisa Charlotte married Abraham John Newenham Devonsher of Kilshanick, County Cork, at Cheltenham, on 9March 1820.[30] Formerly of Hinton Charterhouse, she died after a short illness at StAnne's, Albion Street, Cheltenham, on 30 April 1871(1871-04-30) (aged 74).[31][g] She was interred at Bouncer's Lane Cemetery, Prestbury, Cheltenham, on 5May 1871.[32][h]
Sayer and Baker were the respective maiden names of Cooke's grandmother, Elizabeth, and mother, Margaret.[1][3]
Crest
A dexter arm, erect, proper encircled with a wreath of laurel vert (green), the hand holding an estoile argent.
Escutcheon
Gules (red) three crescents or (gold), a chief of the last, quartering, Sayer, viz. gules a chevron between three sea-pies argent (white) a chief ermine; and Baker being argent a castle between three keys sable (black). Impaled by Hardy, viz. sable on a chevron ermine between three escallops argent as many griffins' heads, erased of the field.
Motto
Sortem meam protegit Deus, translates as "God protects my fate".[35]
Sir Charles Hardy, Admiral of the Fleet and Governor of New York
Footnotes
^
A number of sources, including Thomas Heathcote's Nelson's Trafalgar Captains and Their Battles (2005), Colin White'sThe Trafalgar Captains (2005), and John Knox Laughton's entry for Cooke in the Dictionary of National Biography (2004), give a birth year of 1763 and omit most information about Cooke's early life. Nicholas Tracy's entry in Who's Who in Nelson's Navy (2006) provides fuller coverage of Cooke's early life, and includes a specific baptism date. Cooke's baptism register entry, for the parish of StMary, Whitechapel, records that he was "borne [sic] 17th February" and baptised "in 4 Tenters".[36] Tenters was then part of the Tenterground in Goodman's Fields, London. Joseph Howard'sMiscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica (1896) states the same birth and baptism date (as well as naming godparents), and goes further, by stating that the baptism took place at the Cooke's home.[1] Furthermore, Cooke's father, Francis, is recorded in the 1762 Land Tax Assessment Book for the Parish of StMary, Whitechapel, as residing between Alie Street and Leman Street (West side), close to the corner of North and East Tenter streets.[37] At the time, Francis worked as a ledger writer at the nearby Navy Pay Office on Broad Street.[38] Lastly, Cooke's elder brother, Christopher, was also baptised at the Cooke's home in the parish of StMary, on 8August 1759, and the baptism register entry records that he was baptised "in the Tenter Ground Goodman [sic] Fields".[1][39]
^For the location of the Navy Pay Office, see the "notice" in the 1 March 1763 edition of The London Gazette.
^Probably Jane Pigott the wife of Thomas Pigott. Jane was godmother to Cooke's younger sister Jane. Thomas was the godfather to Cooke's elder sister Margaret.[1] William Henry Ricketts of New Canaan Plantation, StJames, Jamaica, and Longwood, Hampshire.[11]
^Ada Louisa Rolles died on (1931-04-18)18 April 1931 and left her interest in the gold medal and vase to her sister Caroline Augusta for life, and afterwards, to the Greenwich Hospital.[22] For the details of Ada Louisa's bequest see "Cheltenham Lady's Will" in the 25 June 1930 edition of the Cheltenham Chronicle. For the Greenwich Hospital bequest records, see "List of Admiralty Records" (1974).
^For the location of the grave and inscription, see "Leckhampton StPeter Monumental Inscriptions. Grave identification K14": "Sacred to the memory of Louisa, relict of Captain John Cooke of H.M.S. Bellerophon, who fell in the action off Cape Trafalgar. October 21. 1805. She departed this life February 5th 1853 aged 96 years. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of GodHebrews 4:9".
^For Louisa's probate notice and previous residence, see the "deceased estate notice" in the 9 January 1872 edition of the London Daily News. For Louisa's place of death, see the "death notice" in the 3 May 1871 edition of the Cheltenham Examiner.
^
Barfoot, Peter (1791). The Universal British Directory of Trade, Commerce, and Manufacture. Vol. 1. London: John Wilkes. p. 354. OCLC33982916.
^Debrett, John, ed. (1786). "Assurance Offices". The Royal Kalendar. S. Crowder, G. Robinson, W. Goldsmith, J. Bew et al. London: Debrett's. pp. 231–234. OCLC181804820. Retrieved 12 June 2021. Or Complete and Correct Annual Register for England, Scotland, Ireland and America.
^
"12 deeds of Donhead Lodge" (1820) [Abstract of Title]. 16 deeds of Donhead Lodge and other property in Donhead St Andrew, including the workhouse, Series: Property deeds, ID: 2637/2. Chippenham: Wiltshire and Swindon Archives. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
^
"Register of burials" (1853) [Digital image]. Leckhampton, St Peter parish records, Series: Parish registers for St Peter, Leckhampton, ID: P198/1/IN/1/16, p. 12. Gloucester: Gloucestershire Archives. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
^Berry, William (1828). "Supplement to the Dictionary of Arms". Encyclopædia Heraldica, or the Complete Dictionary of Heraldry. Vol. 3. London: Sherwood, Gilbert and Piper. p. 303. hdl:2027/uc1.b000779849. OCLC7404857. See the entry on Hardy.
^
"Register of baptisms" (1762) [Microfilm]. Saint Mary, Whitechapel, Whitechapel High Street, Tower Hamlets, Series: Church of England Parish Registers, 1538 to 1812, London, England, ID: P93/Mry1/010 (Microfilm Reference X024/088), p. 43. London: The London Archives. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
^
"Land tax assessment book" (1762) [Microfilm]. Land Tax Commissioners for Middlesex, Tower Division, Series: Parish of St Mary Whitechapel, land tax assessment books, ID: CLC/525/MS06015/030 (former reference MS 06015/30). London: The London Archives. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
^
"Register of baptisms" (1759) [Microfilm]. Saint Mary, Whitechapel, Whitechapel High Street, Tower Hamlets, Series: Church of England Parish Registers, 1538 to 1812, London, England, ID: P93/Mry1/010 (Microfilm Reference X024/088), p. 29. London: The London Archives. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
Heathcote, Thomas Anthony (9 February 2005). Nelson's Trafalgar Captains and their Battles: A Biographical and Historical Dictionary. Barnsley: Pen & Sword Maritime. ISBN978-1-84415-182-0. OCLC1026832230. A biographical dictionary of the two flag officers and captains of 27 battleships, four frigates and two minor combatant vessels that were present under Nelson's command at the historic battle of Trafalgar, 21 October 1805.
Rawes, Julian (2012). "Section K — Tombstone Inscriptions". In Miller, Eric (ed.). Leckhampton StPeter Monumental Inscriptions (with photos) (Report). Additional comments by Eric Miller. Later additions from Eric Miller added by Paul McGowan. Leckhampton: Gloucestershire Family History Society. p. 119. 1820 (Gloucestershire Archives Reference Number D10009).
Clarke, James Stanier; McArthur, John, eds. (1807). "Biographical Memoir of the Late Captain John Cooke". Naval Chronicle. January to June. 17. London: Joyce Gold: 352–366. hdl:2027/uc1.b2990338. OCLC456688985. Containing a General and Biographical History of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom with a Variety of Original Papers on Nautical Subjects.
Grove, Charlotte (2009). Lane, John; Kay, Valerie Lane (eds.). The Diaries of Charlotte Grove. 1811 to 1818. Vol. 1 (2nd ed.). Colchester: Claret Jug Publications. ISBN978-0-9557226-6-0. OCLC458729069. Louisa Cooke continued to live at Donhead Lodge for some years and she, together with Louisa Charlotte, are mentioned frequently in the early diaries (volume 1). Frances Lipscomb appears often in the company of Louisa Charlotte, her first cousin. Cooke's older sister, Margaret (1760–1835), married Reverend William Lipscomb, rector of Welby, Yorkshire. Other names associated with the Cookes include: Markland, Schuyler, Helsham, Gibney, Hamilton and Godby.