Surname Saturday ~ Cooke of Salem, Massachusetts

COOKE

House of Seven Gables
Salem, Massachusetts

Henry Cooke lived in Plymouth for a short time, and settled at Salem, Massachusetts around 1638 as a butcher.  He appears many times in the court records of Essex County for various reasons like defamation, or not returning an axe to a neighbor, or for being fined for “abusing the watch” [see the Records and Files of the Quarterly Courts of Essex County, Volume 1, (1636 – 1656), pages 115, 152, 183, 244,  etc].

Henry Cooke’s estate was administered on 26 June 1662. 

Salem Quarterly  Court Records, Volume 4, page 100 “Upon further consideration about ordering the estate of Henry Cooke, deceased, it was ordered July 7, 1662, that Isaack, the eldest son, have 24 pounds., and the other children, John, Henry, Judith, Rachell, Mary and Hanna, 12 pounds each, payable at age or time of marriage, and the widow was appointed administratrix”

The Cooke Genealogy:

Generation 1:  Henry Cooke, born 2 June 1615 in England, died 25 December 1661 in Salem, Massachusetts; married on 29 June 1639 in Salem to Judith Birdsall, daughter of Henry Birdsall and Judith Kempe, born 2 June 1611 in Norwich, England, and died 11 September 1689 in Salem.  Ten children born in Salem:

1. Isaac, (see below)

2. Samuel, born 30 July 1641; married Hope Parker

3. Judith, born 15 September 1643; married John Pudney/Putney

4. John, born 6 July 1647; married Mary Buxton

5. Martha, born 15 September 1649

6. Mary, born 15 September 1649; married Robert Moulton

7. Henry, born 30 December 1652; married Mary Hall

8. Elizabeth, born September 1654, died September 1654

9. Rachel, born 25 September 1654, married Elisha Kibbe

10, Hannah, born 9 September 1658; married Daniel Cannady

Generation 2:   Isaac Cook, born 3 April 1640, died about 1692; married on 3 May 1664 in Salem to Elizabeth Buxton, daughter of Anthony Buxton and Elizabeth Unknown.  Twelve children born in Salem:

1.  Samuel, married Mary Small

2. Elizabeth,  (see below)

3. Isaac,  born 9 February 1666, died young?

4. Mary,  born 12 November 1668; married William Johnson

5. Abigail, born 12 July 1670

6. Hannah,  born 15 October 1671; married William King

7. John,  born 12 March 1674

8. Sarah, born about 1676; married Jonathan King

9. Rachel, born 20 Feb 1676

10. Ebenezer, born 24 December 1677

11. Samuel,  born 1 October 1679; married Elizabeth Wilson

12. Isaac,  born 16 April 1689

Generation 3: Elizabeth Cook married Robert Wilson

Generation 4: Isaac Wilson married Mary Stone

Generation 5: Robert Wilson married Elizabeth Southwick

Generation 6:  Robert Wilson married Sarah Felton

Generation 7: Robert Wilson married Mary Southwick

Generation 8:  Mercy F. Wilson married Aaron Wilkinson

Generation 9:  Robert Wilson Wilkinson married Phebe Cross Munroe

Generation 10: Albert Munroe Wilkinson married Isabella Lyons Bill

Generation 11: Donald Munroe Wilkinson married Bertha Louise Roberts (my grandparents)

For more Cooke information:

There are very few references to Henry Cooke of Salem in books or articles.  What I have learned has been gleaned from primary source material such as vital records and court records. 

There is a good genealogical sketch of Henry Cooke and his descendants in The History of Salem, by Sidney Perley, Salem, Mass., 1926, Volume II, pages 43-45, with other references to Henry Cooke throughout all three volumes.

An Emerson Benson Saga: The Ancestry of Charles F. Emerson and Bessie Benson and the Struggle to Settle the United States Including 194 Allied Lines, by Edmund K. Swigart, Baltimore: Gateway Press, 1994, pages 167-8. 

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Copyright 2012, Heather Wilkinson Rojo