page_title: John Cooke (Royal Navy officer)
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: John Cooke (Royal Navy officer) / Early life
context_page_description: John Cooke 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 line Aigle. 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.
context_section_description: John Cooke was born on 17 February 1762, the second son of Francis Cooke (1728–1792) and his wife, Margaret (1729–1796), née Baker. Francis was the third son of the Reverend John Cooke and Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Dr. Thomas Sayer, Archdeacon of Surrey. Margaret was the second daughter of Moses and Mary Baker, of the Parish of St Christopher le Stocks, in the City of London. The Cooke family line had come from Devon, where they had been landowners and shipowners at Kenbury, near Exeter, and Topsham. The Reverend John Cooke was a former rector of Chilbolton and Bishop's Waltham, and was appointed a Canon and 5th Prebendary of Winchester Cathedral by Bishop Trelawny.
  By 1750, Francis was established at Greenwich as an Admiralty ledger writer in the Cashiers' Branch of the Navy Pay Office, and as the Treasurer of the Greenwich Hospital, London. Francis became a director of the Amicable Society for a Perpetual Assurance Office by 1775 and was appointed Cashier of the Navy on 17 July 1787 by The Right Honourable Henry Dundas. Francis had married Margaret on 29 May 1757 at St Mary's, Chatham, Kent. John Cooke was baptised on 5 March 1762, at the Cooke's home in the Tenterground at Goodman's Fields, in the parish of St. Mary, Whitechapel. Sir John Bentley and William Henry Ricketts, were godfathers, Mrs Pigott of Bloomsbury Square, was godmother.
caption: Greenwich Hospital, in the painting London from Greenwich Park, in 1809, by William Turner
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