Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
Description
[Brief biography contributed by John O’Grady.]
September 1608 - 16 October 1660
A leading lawyer, and widely regarded in his day as a fair and humane judge.
- Born at Husbands Bosworth, Leicester, son of Isaac & Elizabeth Cooke.
- Educated at Wadham College Oxford [1622-24], and Gray’s Inns, to which he was called in 1631, King’s Inns, Dublin, 1634.
- Married to Frances Cutter at St. Olave’s, September 1646.
- On 10th January 1649, he was appointed Solicitor-General and prepared a first draft of the charge against King Charles 1st, i.e., that of waging war on his people. Between the 20th and 27 January 1649, he led the prosecution of King Charles, and secured the verdict.
- King Charles was executed on 30 January 1649.
- In March 1650, Cooke was appointed Chief Justice of Munster, Ireland, and in 1655 was Recorder of Waterford, where he lived.
- On 4th May 1660, King Charles 2nd was proclaimed King of England. Cooke was arrested in Dublin shortly afterwards, and sent under guard to London.
- In October 1660, all of the surviving regicides were committed for trial.
- On 13th October, Cooke was tried, convicted, and sentenced.
- On 16th October, he was hanged, drawn, and quartered at Charing Cross.
References
- DNB [1892 edition] ed. Leslie Stephens, Vol. X11, page 70 [He is referenced here as Cook, John]
- The Tyrannical Brief, the man who sent Charles 1 to the scaffold, by Geoffrey Robertson QC, Chatto & Windus, London
Wikipedia
John Cook (1608 – 16 October 1660),[1] was the first Solicitor General of the English Commonwealth and led the prosecution of Charles I. Following the English Restoration, Cook was convicted of regicide and hanged, drawn and quartered on 16 October 1660.
[edit] Biography
John Cook was the son of Leicestershire farmers Isaac and Elizabeth Cook whose farm was just outside Burbage. He was baptised on 18 September 1608 in the All Saints church in Husbands Bosworth and educated at Wadham College, Oxford, and at Gray's Inn. Cook and his wife Frances had a son (name unknown) and a daughter, Freelove,[2] who was still a baby in 1660 when Cook was executed. Prior to his appointment as prosecutor, he had established a reputation as a radical lawyer and an Independent.
In a 2005 biography of Cook, Geoffrey Robertson argued that Cook was a highly original and progressive lawyer: while representing John Lilburne he established the right to silence and was the first to advocate many radical reforms in law, including the cab-rank rule of advocacy, the abolition of imprisonment for debt, courtroom Latin, fusion of law and equity and restrictions on the use of the death penalty. Cook was among the first to argue that poverty was a cause of crime and to urge probation for those who stole to feed starving families; he originated the duty to act free of charge for those who could not afford it. Although he was not fundamentally anti-monarchist, he was forced to this stance when Charles refused to recognise the legality of the court or answer the charges of tyranny against him. Robertson writes that Cook bravely accepted his fate at the Restoration when many others compromised with the new regime.[3]
The idea of trying a king was a novel one; previous monarchs had been deposed, but had never been brought to trial as monarchs. The High Court of Justice established by the Act consisted of 135 Commissioners (all firm Parliamentarians); the prosecution was led by Cook.
His trial on charges of high treason and other high crimes began on 20 January 1649, but Charles refused to enter a plea, claiming that no court had jurisdiction over a monarch.[4] When Cook began to read the indictment, Charles I twice tried to stop him by ordering him to "Hold" and twice tapping him sharply on the shoulder with his cane. Cook ignored this so Charles then rose to speak, but Cook resumed speaking, at which point Charles struck Cooke so forcefully on the shoulder that the ornate silver tip of the cane broke off and rolled onto the floor. Charles nodded to Cook to pick it up, but Cook stood his ground and after a long pause, Charles stooped to retrieve it himself. This is considered an important historical moment that was seen as symbolising the divine monarch bowing before human law.[3][4]
As a regicide, Cooke was exempted after the Restoration of Charles II from the Indemnity and Oblivion Act which indemnified most opponents of the Monarchy for crimes they might have committed during the Civil War and Interregnum (1642–1660). John Cook was tried and found guilty of high treason for his part in the trial of Charles I. He was hanged, drawn and quartered with the radical preacher Hugh Peters and another of the regicides on 16 October 1660. Shortly before his death, Cook wrote to his wife:
We fought for the public good and would have enfranchised the people and secured the welfare of the whole groaning creation, if the nation had not more delighted in servitude than in freedom".[5][6]
The journalist, historian and anti-Corn Law propagandist William Cooke Taylor (1800–1849) claimed descent from Cook.[7][8]
[edit] Notes
- ^ Also spelt John Cooke
- ^ Robertson 2005, p. 4.
- ^ a b Robertson 2005,[page needed].
- ^ a b Robertson 2002, p. 5
- ^ Robertson 2006, p. 352.
- ^ Robertson 2011, "My hero: John Cooke".
- ^ Taylor 2004.
- ^ The Gentleman's Magazine, 1850, pp. 94–96
[edit] References
- Taylor, William Cooke (2004). Maume, Patrick. ed. Memoirs of Daniel O'Connell (reprint ed.). University College Dublin Press.
- Robertson, Geoffrey (2002). "Chapter 1, The Human Rights Story". Crimes Against Humanity: The Struggle for Global Justice (2nd ed. ed.). Penguin Books. p. 5. ISBN 978-0141010144.
- Robertson, Geoffrey (2005). The tyrannicide brief: the story of the man who sent Charles I to the scaffold. Chatto & Windus/Vintage. ISBN 9780099459194.
- Robertson, Geoffrey (2006). The Tyrannicide Brief (illustrated ed.). Pantheon Books. ISBN 1400044510.
- Robertson, Geoffrey (23 April 2011). "My hero: John Cooke". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/apr/23/john-cooke-my-hero-geoffrey-robertson.
[edit] External links
- Biography of Cook British Civil Wars website
- Audio from a talk on John Cooke by Geoffrey Robertson for Bristol Radical History Group
| Legal offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Edmund Prideaux | Solicitor General 1649–1650 | Succeeded by Robert Reynolds |
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| Name | Cooke, John |
| Alternative names | |
| Short description | |
| Date of birth | 1608 |
| Place of birth | |
| Date of death | 1660 |
| Place of death | |