The grandson of one of Gloucester’s leading civic figures and MP for the city in William III’s reign, Cooke was only in his early twenties when put forward and chosen for the city in 1705, whereupon Lord Sunderland (Charles, Lord Spencer*) noted his election as a gain for the Whigs, while in another list he was noted as a ‘Churchman’. He voted on 25 Oct. for the Court candidate in the division on the Speaker, and on 18 Feb. 1706 again supported the Court on the ‘place clause’ in the regency bill. Inactive in the House, he was, however, observed to have been ‘very pressing’ in 1707 for the appointment of his uncle as dean of Gloucester, though his efforts in this regard came to nothing. He was incorrectly classed as a Tory in a list of early 1708 but accurately marked as a Whig in another analysis of about the same time. He was returned again in 1708 but died, predeceasing his father, in June 1709, aged 26.3 Luttrell, Brief Relation, vi. 457; Hist. Reg. Chron. 1724, p. 52; Williams, 206.
COOKE, William II (1682-1709), of Highnam Court, nr. Gloucester
Family and Education
b. 18 Dec. 1682, 2nd but 1st surv. s. of Edward Cooke (d. 1724) of Highnam, Glos. by Mary, da. of Rowland Newborough of Berkley, Som.; gds. of William Cooke I*. educ. M. Temple 1702. unm. 1 IGI, Glos.; Vis. Glos. ed. Fenwick and Metcalfe, 47–48; W. R. Williams, Glos. MPs. 206.
Offices Held
Freeman, Gloucester 1705.2 Gloucester Freemen (Glos. Rec. Ser. iv), 61.
Address
Main residence: Highnam Court, nr. Gloucester.
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