Cooke Family Limmerick 1770's

Sorry for the double post.

Hi Peter,

I am also descended from Arthur Langford Cooke, born in Ireland around November 1788 and died in  Waltair, Andhra Pradesh, India, on 13 Sept 1847. (On his army application, he didn't know where he was born apart from Ireland nor his birth date.)

This line is certainly fascinating, and I am currently in contact with more than half a dozen other descendant from Australia (where I am) and the UK.

We know a great deal about Brigadier Arthur Langford Cooke (ALC) and I thought I had traced all his descendants fairly well, so I would be fascinated to hear where your family fits in. :)

I am descended from his son Richard Campbell Green Cooke who came to Australia (an utterly despicable person who died under questionable circumstances from alcolohol or drugs in a lunatic asylum in Brisbane, Australia, in 1875.)

I'm also interested in how you believe the Cooke family came from Limmerick, as we can only trace them in Ireland to the City of Dublin and the County of Kildare (Celbridge and Morristown) back to around the 1690s where we lose them.

If you're descended from ALC, like him, you also share blood descent from King Hery VIII and Mary Boleyn, through ALC's grandmother Mary Burleigh.

ALC's father, Major Richard Cooke, was in the 5th Royal Irish Dragoons which was part of the British Army. However ALC served in India as part of the Honorable East India Company Army (EIC Madras). Two of his sons also went on to serve with the EIC army.

ALC joined the EIC army in 1804, probably aged around 16. I think prior to that he might have been educated in Cheshire in England, so he wouldn't have spent much time in Ireland.

In 1819, aged 30, ALC married Emma Trewman, the daughter from a newspaper publishing and printing family in Exeter, however Emma died in 1842 leaving ALC and four surviving (out of seven) children. We have pictures of ALC, Emma Trewman and the children from that couple as miniature pantings dating from the early 1800s.

ALC then aged 54, remarried a young widow, Mary Ann Masters (then aged 21!) and had a further three children. He died at 58, probably from exhaustion!

His uncle, Arthur Langford Cooke, was also a fascinating man. He was remebered as a dear friend in the will of Governor William Franklin, the son of Benjamin Franklin (and the son who held the kite with the key in the famous lightning experiment). He was also a close friend of some of the French nobility in exile during the revolution ... but that is also a long an interesting story. We also know a huge amount more about the uncle, but no space or time to fill it all in here.

The Cookes themselves are a bit of an enigma.

It seems back in the late 1800's the family believed they were descended from Sir Edward Coke, the British Chief Justice during the reign of Elizabeth Ist. The belief was so strong that a number of descendants changed their surname back to Coke as being "the original family name".  The original change of name from Coke to Cooke was evidently to escape political repurcussions in Ireland under Cromwell in the 1600s.

However, to our best efforts, we haven't been able to confirm those beliefs.

The Cookes were certainly wealthy merchants with considerable landholdings and there are suggestions that at least two Cooke family members held the seat of the Mayor of Dublin.

If you'd like further information and to get in contact with other Cooke descendants, please email me at stuartanders@hotmail.com

Regards,

Stuart

Hi Stuart we are already in contact in Aus with my sister Loraine. Sorry but i have been trying to get things about the cookes ans still do not know much myself.   Will send you a email and would love to get as much info i can off you. I joined this site hoping i can get some info from ireland as much as i can about as may as i can.. Cheers Peter....