Author: Cookson, C.
Biography:
COOKSON, Christopher (1791-1834: ancestry.co.uk)
His one book of verse was issued anonymously but information in the minor poems appended to the longer title poem of Glastonbury Abbey makes possible an identification of the author as Christopher Cookson. His parents were Dorothy Cowper (1754-1821) and her husband the Rev. William Cookson, rector at Forncett, Norfolk, and, later, a canon at Windsor. They had married at Penrith, Cumberland, on 17 Oct. 1788. (William’s sister, Ann, was the mother of William Wordsworth, q.v.) Cookson was born in Forncett on 27 Jan. 1791 and baptised there on 22 Mar. He studied at Eton College before being admitted to St. John’s College, Cambridge, on 29 Oct. 1808. He did not take a degree and instead joined the Indian army as a cadet in 1810. He rose to become a lieutenant in the 2nd Light Cavalry before resigning from the army in 1818. On 22 May 1821 he married Jane Ancrum in Chard, Somerset. They were living in Wellington, Somerset, when their son, Montague Hughes Cookson (later Crackanthorpe) was born in Feb. 1832 but likely other children were born earlier and had not survived. A daughter, Emma Anna Henrietta Cookson, was born on 15 Jan. 1834, after her father’s death on 1 Jan. 1834. His will, prepared in 1821, left his estate to his wife. A codicil, dated 10 Dec. 1824, appoints guardians for his children; unusually, he signed the codicil with an “X” rather than his name, perhaps because he was already ill. He was buried in St. John the Baptist churchyard in Wellington. A grandson, Hubert Montague Crackanthorpe, was a writer of short stories. (ancestry.co.uk 23 Feb. 2024; ACAD; ODNB [for Hubert Montague Crackanthorpe] 23 Feb. 2024) SR