Genealogy Ludwig » Josiah Cooke (1610-1673)

Personal data Josiah Cooke 

• He was born in the year 1610 in Leyden, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands.
• (Arrival) in the year 1634 in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
• (Arrival) .
• He died on October 17, 1673 in Eastham, Barnstable, Massachusetts, United States, he was 63 years old.
• He is buried in Cove Burying Ground, Eastham, Barnstable, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America.

Household of Josiah Cooke

He is married to Elizabeth Ring.

They got married on September 16, 1635 at Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts, he was 25 years old.

Child(ren):

1. Anna Cooke  1635-1656
2. Bethiah Cooke  1638-1687 
3. Lydia Cooke  ± 1640-????
4. Josiah Cooke  1643-????

Notes about Josiah Cooke

JOSIAH COOKE was born about 1610 probably in England but nothing more is known of his origins. 

At one time it was contended that Josiah was the son of Francis Cooke of the Mayflower and that he came to New England with the rest of the Cooke family aboard the ship Ann in 1623. However, his name does not appear on the passenger list for the Ann. 

Robert Charles Anderson, in his 1995 "The Great Migration Begins" cited George Ernest Bowman's comments of 1901 as still being definitive. In a footnote in volume 3 of "Mayflower Descendant" Bowman presented a simple and convincing argument. Not only had he never found "a single record which remotely indicates the existence of any kinship," but he had found several records which prove "conclusively that they were not father and son." Bowman cites three:

(1) A court case in which Francis was the plaintiff and in which Josiah sat on the jury. Bowman points out that the court would not allow a son to sit on a jury judging the father. 

(2) An agreement which the court would have required to be signed by all of Francis's living children which Josiah, who was alive, did not sign, and;

(3) a deed which states that it is made by all the children which does not include Josiah. (MD 3:97)

Josias Cooke arrived in Massachusetts Bay by early 1634 as he is on the Cambridge Tax List for that year. On 24 Mar. 1633/34 he and Edward Doty were fined six shillings eight pence each for breaking the peace, and since Doty drew blood from Cooke, Doty was to pay him three shillings four pence for it.

He married, 16 Sept.1635, Elizabeth Ring, the widow of Stephen Deane and daughter of William Ring and Mary Durrant. William Ring died in Leyden before the family immigrated to New England and Mary (Durrant) Ring died, 15 Jul. 1631, in Plymouth Colony.

Josias became a freeman of Plymouth sixteen months later on January 3, 1636/37. Subsequently he served as a grand juror, a petit juror (numerous time), highway surveyor, constable, and served on a committee for dividing lands at Green's Harbour. He was granted 40 acres of land on the north side of Fres___ Lake in 1638, and purchased other land from Stephen Hopkins. His name is on the 1643 list of Plymouth men able to bear arms. 

In 1643 a committee consisting of Gov. Bradford, Thomas Prince, John Doane, Nicholas Snow, Josiah Cooke, Richard Higgins and Edward Bangs was chosen to select a site for a new settlement. They chose Nansett (Eastham) but, concluded that it was too barren to acommodate all those who lived at Plymouth. However, they bought a tract of land called Pocket and two islands lying before Potonnumquat with a beach, besides all the land called Namkeket. This grant included Eastham, Wellfleet and Orleans. The church of Plymouth in consideration of the sum it had paid conveyed the land to Thomas Prince, John Doane, Nicholas Snow, Josias Cooke, Richard Higgins, John Smalley and Edward Bangs, who immediately commenced a settlement at Nanset. 

Two years later Josiah moved to Nausett (Eastham). Always a prosperous man, he came into his own at Eastham. He served as magistrate, selectman and deputy for the town, and several times as Colonial Auditor, authorized by the court to examine the accounts of the treasurer of the Colony, and, as agent of the Colony, was authorized to treat with the Indians in the purchase of land. He served for many years as surveyor, deputy to the court, grand juror, and was “commissioned to marry, in Eastham”. 

7 July 1648 he was allowed to sell wine in Nanset (Eastham) and be a registered Inn keeper for the same place. Early provision was made in Plymouth for taverns and ordinaries. Those who kept them were obliged to be licensed, and were not to suffer any to be drunk, nor to tipple after 9 o'clock at night. 

Josiah Cooke was one of the first proprietors of the present town of Abington, having received, 8 June 1664, in company with Lieut. Joseph Rogers, Giles Hopkins, Henry Sampson, and Experience Mitchell received a grant from court of all that tract of land lying between Bridgewater and the Massachusetts Bay Company. 

Josiah Cook's will was dated 22 September 1673 and read as follows:

"Josias Cooke senior aged about 63 years" bequeathed to "my loving wife Elizabeth" during her life, and after her decease to "my natural son Josias Cooke all my above said upland and meadow, orchard, house and housing ... excepting my share of the land at Pochett Island and about two or three acres lying without the fence"; after wife's decease all moveables "to be equally divided betwixt my son Josias Cooke and my daughter Bethyah Harding, or her children after her," except the following legacies: to "my grandchild Joseph Harding all my share of land at Pochet Island"; to "my grandchildren Josiah and Maaziah Harding forty acres of upland and five or six acres of meadow in the township of Plymouth adjoining to a place called Cook's Pond"; to "my grandchild Anna Snow" several head of livestock; to "my grandchild Steven Twining a musket which was formerly his grandfather Deane's"; to "my daughter Merriam Deane" a cow and œ5; to "my son Josias" wearing clothes; to "grandchild Josias Cooke my rapier, belt and musket"; to "my other grandchildren Richard Cooke and Maaziah Harding my proportion of land at Saconett"; and to "my grandchild Richard Cooke after my wife's decease my Great Bible"..

Josias Cooke died, 17 Oct. 1673, at Eastham, Plymouth Colony. The inventory his estate was taken 20 Oct.1673 and totaled £104 17s. 4d., with no real estate included. His will was proved 29 Oct. 1673 and administration was granted to "Elizabeth Cook" on the estate of "Josias Cook," deceased.

We find him to have been a man of talent, energy and perseverance; the qualities that fitted him to be a pioneer in the New World. Josiah Pain Wrote the Josias was a very energetic man and appears to have given much more attention to material things than did his peers in the early settlement of Eastham. He was impulsive and often in embroilments with some of his neighbors with impetuous temperaments. Some information on his cases of litigation are on record. They are principally of a defamatory character and show unmistakably that Mr. Cooke had some ver implacable neighbors, who delighted in giving him trouble, not caring whether their slanderous charges would be sustained or not. At Plymouth Josias and Edward Doty were fined for fighting. The many public positions he held in town from the settlement of Eastham in 1645 to his death in 1673 show that he was a man that the majority of his fellow townsmen had confidence in and respected. Of his religious life there is nothing positive however, it is inferred he was a member of the church.

Children of Josiah Cook and Elizabeth Ring: 

·Josiah Cook II, born prob. 1645 at Plymouth; married, 27 Jul 1668 at Eastham, Deborah Hopkins, daughter of Gyles Hopkins and Catherine Wheldon. He died 31 Mar 1731 at Eastham, Mass.

·Anna Cook, married, 18 Jan 1655, Mark Snow, son of Nicholas Snow and Constance Hopkins. She died about 1659. 

·Bethiah Cook, married, 4 Apr 1660, Joseph Harding, son of Joseph Harding and Martha Doane.

·Lydia Cooke, married Tilden Faunce.

Reference: Joseph Herman Simpson, The Genealogy of Francis Cooke and Other Families, 1899, pp. 6-7.

 

Source: https://familysearch.org/tree/person/MC3R-SW2/details

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