Author: Cooke, William
Biography:
COOKE, William (1745-95: ancestry.co.uk)
Different spellings of his surname make tracing this author a challenge. William Cooke is the spelling on the title page of his Poetical Essays of 1774 but Coke is given on the title page of A Poetical Essay on the Early Part of Education, written when he was headmaster of Thame grammar school (1773-83) but published in 1785. All other records, including those for Thame school, use Cooke. His father’s surname is given as Cook in CCEd and ACAD but as Cooke in ODNB. William Coke or Cooke was baptised at Enford, Wiltshire, on 2 Dec. 1745, the son of the Rev. William Cooke (1709-80), an antiquarian and numismatist, and his wife Anne Hurtt. They had married at Wootton Rivers, Wiltshire, on 11 Apr. 1743. He studied at New College, Oxford, (matric. 7 Feb. 1765, BA 1768, MA 1774) and was ordained a deacon in 1768 and priest in 1771. In 1769 his poem, The Conquest of Quebec, was published. Thame grammar school was managed by the Fellows of New College who appointed him headmaster in 1773. The introduction to his book on education expresses his views against the excessive use of corporal punishment in public schools and on the proliferation of private schools run by unprincipled, ignorant men. The book lists subscribers from the aristocracy and Oxford university. On 2 July 1774 he married Elizabeth Clerk or Clerke of Upminster, Essex; it is not known if they had children and no records have been found. In 1778 he was granted a MA by Gonville and Gaius college, Cambridge, on incorporation of his degrees from Oxford. In 1783 he was made vicar of Worminghall and he held that post until his death on 27 Mar. 1795. Although he is not named on the title page or elsewhere in the book, ODNB credits him with ensuring that his father’s posthumous The Medallic History of Imperial Rome was published by subscription in 1781. (ancestry.co.uk 9 Feb. 2024; findmypast.co.uk 9 Feb. 2024; ODNB [William Cooke, father] 9 Feb. 2024; ACAD; Alumni Oxonienses; CCEd 9 Feb. 2024; thamehistory.net 9 Feb. 2024)
Other Names:
- William Coke