COOK, Simon

Like Richard Deverose alias Steynour*, the other MP for Norwich in the Parliament of 1426, Cook is an obscure figure. From Salle in north-east Norfolk, he was admitted to the freedom of the city in the early 1390s and set up trade as a mercer.4 Norwich city recs., ‘Old Free bk.’, NCR 17c, f. 28. There is no evidence for his earliest years in the city and he appears not to have held any office before his election as a treasurer in 1406. Cook participated in at least one mayoral election, in 1414, but he himself never became mayor. He took part in this election as of Wymer, the ward he is likely to have represented as an alderman.5 Recs. Norwich, i. 276. Ten years later, he and other aldermen put their names to an indenture defining their duties, namely to give the mayor good counsel, to keep secret matters discussed among themselves, to uphold their fellow aldermen and to avoid slander, and they swore to obey the indenture’s articles.6 CPR, 1429-37, p. 32; R.H. Frost, ‘Aldermen of Norwich, 1461-1509’ (Cambridge Univ. Ph.D. thesis, 1996), 13-14.

As an MP, Cook spent a total of 84 days attending his only Parliament and travelling to and from its venue of Leicester. He was entitled to daily wages of 2s., so the city owed him £8 8s. by the time he had completed his duties as an MP. It appears that he was Norwich’s sole representative for more than half the Parliament, since there is no evidence that the city elected a replacement for Deverose after he died on 17 Mar., just before the end of the first session.7 Norwich city recs., view of treasurers’ acct., 1429-30, NCR 7d.

Cook probably survived into the following decade, since a Simon Cook was among those in Norfolk expected to swear an oath to keep the peace administered throughout the country in 1434.8 CPR, 1429-36, p. 406. There is very little evidence of his personal affairs. He appears to have had at least one child, since Robert Brampton, an esquire from Brampton in north-east Norfolk, married Isabel, the daughter of ‘Simkin Cock’ of Norwich.9 F. Blomefield, Norf. vi. 433-4. Brampton died in 1469. He and Isabel were buried in Brampton church. Cook was involved in property dealings in the city during the reigns of Henry IV and Henry V, but it is not clear whether any of this property belonged to him. Associated with him in two of these transactions was the chaplain, Giles Cook, no doubt a relative.10 Norwich city recs., ct. rolls, 1399-1405, 1413-21, NCR 1/16, 17. Other putative relatives include Thomas Cook, an alderman of Norwich in the 1420s,11 C219/12/4; 13/5; CPR, 1429-36, p. 32. and John Cook, a draper and alderman of the city in Edward IV’s reign.12 C219/17/1, 3; Paston Letters ed. Davis, i. 582, 588, 605; ii. 570, 599. John was perhaps John Cook, s. and h. of Adam, in turn bro. and h. of Philip Cook of Norwich: CAD, vi. C6969.