COOKE, Edward (d. 1684), of Highnam, Churcham, Glos.

Both in his will, and in the words of another in the sermon preached at his funeral, Edward Cooke left to posterity an account of how he moved from armed opposition to the Stuarts to become their ‘honest Ned Cooke’, the defining experience of his life. As the second son of a family that had migrated from Essex to Gloucestershire, Cooke was destined for a career in law, and according to his biographer spent seven or eight years in formal education.17Funeral Sermon, 29. His legal studies were interrupted by the civil war, when following the lead of his father, Cooke was commissioned as an officer in the army of Henry Grey, 1st earl of Stamford, a force associated with that of Robert Devereux, 3rd earl of Essex. Despite Cooke’s efforts in raising support for his troop, it is unlikely that much came of it, since Stamford was forced to retreat to Gloucester and left his regiment to Edward Massie as a defensive force for the city.18Glos. RO, D2510: Cooke to John Smyth of Nibley, 26 Dec. 1642; R. Hutton, Royalist War Effort, 1642-46 (1982), 34-5.

Cooke was commissioned during 1643 by Sir William Waller, and he was probably the son of Sir Robert Cooke who was active in parleying for Waller with the royalists at Hereford in April.19Duncomb, Collections, i. 256. Cooke may have inherited elements of his father’s regiment, which was lost in the battle of Roundway Down. In June 1643, he passed on a command from Waller to Nathaniel Fiennes I* to send troops to block the king’s army from reaching Oxford. He gave evidence in the court-martial of Fiennes for surrendering Bristol on 26 July 1643.20CCSP i. 242. He may have been the Colonel Cooke who in May 1644 was witness to a case of cowardice by an officer at Cheriton Down. In March 1645 he was on active service in Hampshire, and was re-commissioned on 10 April 1645 by the Committee of Both Kingdoms to command a regiment of 600 horse, from which New Model or existing soldiers of Waller’s were excluded. The new regiment was put under the command of Edward Massie at Gloucester, and its intended purpose was to prevent the king’s army from making progress from Oxford to Worcester. On 23 April it was reported that the regiment was on its way to Massie. On 5 May, however, there was a change of plan, and Cooke’s regiment was drawn away to the west country. By 26 June, Cooke was at Taunton, and on 9 July 1645 was involved in a skirmish against a party of George Goring*. Cooke, ‘of much temper and resolution, carried himself gallantly in that service, and received a shot through both cheeks’.21CSP Dom. 1644, p. 172; 1644-5, pp. 397-9, 416, 418, 420, 457, 458, 474, 476, 617; Anglia Rediviva, 19, 71; Luke Letter Bks. 475, 521.

In August 1645, while he was recuperating, Cooke’s regiment was formally incorporated into the cavalry brigade commanded by Massie under the direction of the Committee of the West.22CSP Dom. 1645-7, p. 38; HMC Portland, i. 237. In January 1646 Cooke was stationed in Dorset, where he was given charge of the siege of Corfe Castle with three regiments. He was surprised at Wareham by a raiding party from Oxford, and was forced simply to strengthen his force outside Corfe. From Shaftesbury with 1,000 horse, he re-took Wareham for Parliament, and was required to provide a continuous guard for the county.23CSP Dom. 1645-7, pp. 38, 338, 339, 341; Anglia Rediviva, 189, 190, 192, 194; Ludlow, Mems. i. 130. He was later sent again to north Devon, and he was not present at the taking of Corfe in February, which was left to his colleague in the brigade, Colonel John Fitzjames*.24Anglia Rediviva, 208. Cooke and Fitzjames had by this time become close friends, with Fitzjames addressing him in letters of December 1645 and March 1646 as ‘Dear Ned’.25Alnwick, Northumberland 547, ff. 14v, 22. Their friendship survived the disbandment of the brigade, and in October 1646 Cooke was using his local influence in an attempt to gain Fitzjames a ‘recruiter’ seat at Shaftesbury, while in return Fitzjames was in discussions with Edward Herle* ‘to procure him [Cooke] a burgess place in Cornwall’.26Alnwick, Northumberland 547, ff. 45, 55v. Neither plan came off. When Massie was nominated as lieutenant-general of the regiments destined for Ireland in April 1647, Cooke was expected to join him as colonel of a new regiment, leaving Fitzjames jubilant that ‘I should live to see such gallant men as our Massie and yourself valued and made much of according to their merits’.27Alnwick, Northumberland 547, f. 91. Parliament’s decision to drop Massie brought any such hopes to an end.

After his military career had ended, Cooke stayed in the south of England, and was in Newport, Isle of Wight, on 29 November 1648. From Carisbrooke castle, the king summoned Cooke, James Stewart, 1st duke of Richmond and the 2nd earl of Lindsey (Sir Montagu Bertie†), when news of a possible plot in the army to capture Charles reached him. Despite Charles’s reluctance to let him brave the wind and rain on an atrocious night, Cooke left the castle to seek assurances of the king’s safety from Captain Rolfe, deputy governor of Carisbrooke, and Thomas Bowreman*, governor of the island. Both provided Cooke with answers which at least with hindsight he considered ambiguous. On his return, there were further nocturnal discussions, and Cooke took Lindsey through the lines of troops and back, using passwords, to demonstrate that the king could escape. Charles demanded Cooke’s advice on two occasions – ‘Ned Cooke, what do you advise in this case?’ ‘Ned, I command you to give me your advice’ – and Cooke reluctantly counselled escape. Charles declined, and the following day, when he was moved to Hurst, instructed Richmond to ‘command Colonel Cooke from me not to forget the passages of this night’.28Rushworth, Hist. Collns. vii. 1344.

In the weeks that followed, Cooke continued to act as an emissary for Charles’s close advisers, and in the build-up to the king’s trial was sent by Sir John Berkeley* to Oliver Cromwell* with messages from the king. Cromwell rejected these overtures, apparently refusing to see Berkeley on grounds of personal safety. In the last days of the king’s life, Cooke apparently interceded with Sir Thomas Fairfax*, Cromwell and others to postpone judgment against Charles, offering a list of peers who would be willing to lend themselves as hostages, presumably while negotiations continued.29Ludlow, Mems. i. 177; Funeral Sermon, 34. After the regicide, Cooke returned to the law, and was called to the bar in 1649. He continued to correspond with Fitzjames throughout that year, helping him and his father-in-law, Nathaniel Stephens* in their attempts to secure payment of arrears and other moneys owed to them.30Alnwick, Northumberland 548, ff. 51v, 57v, 58, 62, 63v, 80v, 81v, 82v, 87; 549, ff. 1, 1v, 9. Although his obituarist claimed that he had avoided ‘all the glittering honours and ensnaring gaieties of an usurping tyrant’s court’, Cooke made new contacts in London, including Sir Arthur Hesilrige* and the lord deputy of Ireland, Charles Fleetwood*, and thereafter was occasionally resident at Fleetwood’s residence, Wallingford House.31Funeral Sermon, 31; Alnwick, Northumberland 549, f. 9v; 551, ff. 71v. In September 1652 he served the Rump as a commissioner determining difficult legal cases arising from claims to indemnity on articles of war, a position of obvious importance to his royalist friends and acquaintances.32A. and O.

Cooke spent much of the mid- to late-1650s travelling around the countryside, staying at Woodstock, Badminton, Cobham, Roehampton and Ampthill, and occasionally returning to Highnam, where he was building himself a new house. During this period he kept company not only with former royalists such as the earl of Lindsey and Lord Herbert of Raglan (Henry Somerset*, later 3rd marquess of Worcester), but also with Presbyterians such as Robert Rich, 2nd earl of Warwick, and his former commander, the earl of Stamford. His correspondence with Stamford’s son-in-law, Lord Bruce (Robert Bruce†) shows a love of hunting, hawking and horse-flesh that was shared by many in this circle.33Wilts. RO, 1300/429, 434, 436, 441-3, 446, 448, 453, 457, 462-3, 469. Cooke was able to use his position to do what he could to help royalists keep out of prison, by entering into bonds for their release. In this low-key way, he was evidently acceptable to both government and monarchists: he ‘maintained his interest with the king’s enemies purposely to serve his friends’. Among the king’s enemies with whom he enjoyed a cordial relationship was Sir William Lockhart*, ambassador to France.34TSP vi. 770.

Cooke’s election for Tewkesbury in the 1659 Parliament must have owed much to the interest of his late father and the continuing link between the Cookes of Highnam and the local area. The burgesses of the town had offered the seat to John Thurloe* and invited him to choose his own partner for the second seat, suggesting that Cooke was by no means unacceptable to the government.35TSP vii. 572. Perhaps surprisingly for such a mercurial character, Cooke was listed among prominent Presbyterians, such as Lambarde Godfrey, Thomas Bampfylde and Sir George Boothe who declined to take the oath at the beginning of the session.36Henry Cromwell Corresp. 451. In the chamber, Cooke was broadly supportive of Richard Cromwell* and the protectorate, acting on 14 February as a teller against the republicans on a motion to recognise the lord protector, and as teller on 22 March on a motion recognising the legal right to sit of Irish Members, who were mostly loyal to the regime. On 1 April, Cooke was elected to the committee for Irish Affairs, a further recognition of his interest in the topic which had preoccupied his father.37CJ vii. 603b, 618b, 623a. Although the diarists did not record any speech by him, John Mordaunt (Viscount Mordaunt) noted Cooke’s prominence in the debate on admitting the old peers to the Other House in early March:

I cannot omit Colonel Cooke’s industry in this affair, [who] employs his rhetoric day and night to make the young Presbyterian men sensible how prejudicial it will be to the nation if this vote passes not in the affirmative, and adds ad terrorem that if it passes not the House must be dissolved.38Bodl. Clarendon 60, f. 209.

Cooke’s aristocratic connections may also have influenced his inclusion on various committees that favoured the interests of peerage: those for examining the detention of the Protestant 23rd or 16th earl of Arundel (Thomas Howard) overseas, and the compensation payable to the countess of Worcester (mother of his friend, Lord Herbert of Raglan) for the confiscation by the state of her London house. By contrast, he came down hard on radicals in the army. He was among those who drew up impeachment articles against William Boteler* for abuses allegedly committed by him during his time as major-general for Northamptonshire.39CJ vii. 632a, 637a, 639a. His role in a division on 14 April on the excise farmers suggests that he considered paying the tax a grievance, and this also fits with his profile as one of the leading ‘country gentlemen’ in the House.40CJ vii. 639b.

As Mordaunt’s comments suggest, even during this Parliament the exiled royalists were interested in Cooke, and he was soon approached by John Grobham Howe* and Sir Horatio Townshend*, both working in the king’s interest.41Clar. SP. iii. 432. By August 1659 it was thought that George Villiers, 2nd duke of Buckingham was in correspondence with Cooke about returning to England. Cooke was also considered to be influential among the Secluded Members in January 1660, even though he was not one of them, and that month was an envoy to George Monck* on their behalf.42CCSP iv. 351, 526, 532, 533. At the same time, Cooke was counselling caution among the royalists. Mordaunt’s attempts to persuade the royalists to declare themselves in favour of a free Parliament were quashed by Cooke. He was considered firmly one of the Presbyterians, tried to persuade Sir William Waller to stick with that party, and in mid-February was still distancing himself from the out-and-out cavaliers.43Mordaunt Letter-Book, 177; CCSP iv. 535, 548, 561. His closest political ally may have been Edward Massie, with whom he had served in the parliamentary army. By the end of that month, however, Charles was in direct contact with Cooke, and from this point, he was one of the king’s party: ‘honest, active and hopeful and will stand and fall with the king’.44CCSP iv. 611.

On 12 March 1660, Cooke was appointed as a militia commissioner in Gloucestershire, and may also have been made colonel of horse. This appointment was resisted by the county gentry, who were presumably still more Presbyterian than royalist in outlook. When he went down to the county, Cooke gave up the cipher by which he had been communicating secretly with the king’s party: its temporary disappearance caused problems for Edward Hyde*. Cooke reported on the loyalty of Woodstock corporation in June, but was not himself included in local tax commissions, and had to wait until 1662 to find a place in the commission of the peace. His reward lay instead in Ireland. In July 1662, he was appointed a commissioner for the Act of Settlement there, and later that year a commissioner for fraudulent decrees for land.45CSP Ire. 1660-62, pp. 577, 610; CCSP v. 210. Family connections and Gloucestershire links made him a natural ally and client of James Butler, 1st duke of Ormond [I]. He sent Ormond long and frank newsletters from London, concentrating on parliamentary business, from the late 1660s to shortly before his death. Cooke’s love of hunting and court gossip are prominent themes.46E.g. HMC Ormonde, n.s. iv. 261, 345, 356, 359, 368; v. 6-11; vi. 5-8, 9-11, 50-4, 223, 400, 418-9. Cooke was also an agent or man-of-business for James Norreys, 1st earl of Abingdon. 47Funeral Sermon, 35. In his last years, he remained a popular figure at court, especially with Charles II himself. When he was absurdly accused by Titus Oates of being a Jesuit, Sir William Waller, son of Cooke’s old general, rounded on the informer: ‘You are certainly mad, for this person is Colonel Edward Cooke, so well known and beloved by the king and by all the nobility’.48Memoirs of Thomas, Earl of Ailesbury (2 vols. 1890) i. 27, 43, 354. Cooke died in London on 29 January 1684, and was buried at Highnam.