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Rh was shipwrecked. Being detained at St. Thomas after the wreck, he conceived the idea of a steamship line from New York to California via the isthmus of Panama, and wrote concerning it to the Philadelphia &ldquo;United States Gazette&rdquo; and the New York &ldquo;Courier and Enquirer.&rdquo; The attention of the state department was called to the correspondence by Consul W. G. Moorhead, and in about two years the Pacific mail steamship company was organized. Mr. Cooke afterward lived in California, where he was actively connected with shipping interests. He was the first to announce to the authorities at Washington, through a despatch from the military governor of California, the discovery of gold in the Sacramento valley. Becoming involved by suretyship for a reckless speculator, he lost his fortune, and returned to Sandusky in comparative poverty. He then engaged in journalism, becoming one of the owners of the Sandusky &ldquo;Register,&rdquo; and afterward of the Columbus &ldquo;State Journal.&rdquo; In 1856 he was a presidential elector, and in 1861 became a partner in the house of Jay Cooke &amp; Co. He was appointed the first governor of the District of Columbia, but resigned in 1873. The last twenty years of his life were spent in Georgetown, where he was noted for his benefactions. He built a mission church in that city, gave $20,000 toward an Episcopal church, and made other gifts for public benefit.

COOKE, Elisha, politician, b. in Boston, Mass., 16 Sept., 1637; d. 31 Oct., 1715. He was gradu- ated at Harvard in 1657. After serving as an as- sistant under the old government, he was sent to England in 1689 as the agent of Massachusetts for the restoration of the charter. Being unwilling to submit to any abridgment of the liberties of the peoj^le, he opposed the new charter in 1691. He was elected councillor in 1693, and rejected by Gov, Phipps, but was re-elected in 1694, and con- tinued in the council till 1703, when Gov. Dudley negatived his election, continuing to do so for several years in succession. He was a physician by profession, and was highly esteemed as such. He served in places of 2)ubiic trust over forty years. — His son, Elisha, b. in Boston, 20 Dec, 1678; d. 24 Aug., 1737, was graduated at Harvard in 1697. He was a representative to the general court from 1713 till 1734, and in the former year opposed a public bank. He was elected to the council in 1717, took the popular side against Gov. Shute, and, on his re-election in 1718, was informed by that magistrate that " his attendance at the board would be excused." In 1720 he was elected speaker of the house of representatives, but was rejected by the governor, who dissolved the assem- bly when it refused to admit his right to control its action. He was agent for the province in Lon- don in 1723, and was again chosen to the council in May, 1726, soon after his return. He was ap- pointed a justice of the court of common pleas in Suffolk county in 1730. Mr. Cooke was long the leader of the popular party in the province, and published several political tracts.

COOKE, George Frederick, English actor, b. in Westminster, 17 April, 1756 ; d. in New York, 26 Sept., 1812. His father, an Irish captain of dra- goons, died soon after his birth, and he removed with his mother to Berwick-upon-Tweed, where he was apprenticed to a printer. A strolling com- pany interested hiin in the theatre, and, after fre- quently taking part in private theatricals, he left his trade in 1771, and in 1776 made his first public appearance in Brentford in the tragedy of " Jane Shore." After acting with various provincial companies he made his first decided success at Manchester in 1784. He joined the Dublin com- pany in 1794, became the hero of the stage there and in Cork and Manchester, and in 1800 played Richard III. with success at Co vent Garden thea- tre, London. For ten years he was the rival of John Kemble, and played both in tragedy and comedy in the largest cities in Great Britain, his most popular char- acters being Rich- ard III., Shylock, lago, Sir Giles Overreach, Kitely, and Sir Pertinax Macsycophant. Pie sailed for the United States in 1810, and appeared, on 21 Oct., as Richard III. be- fore 2,000 specta- tors in the Park theatre, New York. Here, before the play began, he re- quested the audi- ence to stand while

" God Save the King " should be played, and finally carried his point, calmly taking snuff during the tumult that followed his'demand. His conduct was equally capricious at Philadelphia and Baltimore ; but his acting, which was the finest that had been seen in this country, attracted large audiences. His inveterate habits of intemperance, which had long vexed his managers, finally terminated his life. He is buried in St. Paul's churchyard, New York city, where a monument was erected to his memory by Edmund Kean in 1821. It was repaired by Charles Kean in 1846, and again by Edward A. Sothern in 1874. The inscription, written by the poet Hal- leck, includes the couplet :

Kean considered Cooke the greatest of modern actors, Garrick alone excepted. His memoirs were written by William Dunlap (2 vols., London, 1813), and Dunlap's novel, "Thirty Years Ago" (1836), contains notes of his conversation and many inci- dents of his life and character.

COOKE, John P., musician, b. in Chester, Eng- land, 31 Oct., 1820 ; d. in New York city, 4 Nov., 1865. His father was a musician and actor. After leading the orchestra of the Adelphi, the Strand, and Astley's, London, he came in 1850 to New York as leader at Burton's theatre in Chambers street, and was afterward musical director at several other New York theatres. He composed and ar- ranged music for the " Winter's Tale," " Midsum- mer Night's Dream," and other Shakespearian plays, and when engaged at the Old Broadway theatre wrote melodies for the " Sea of Ice," which added much to its success. He also composed several pieces that have been thought worthy of more pretentious musicians.

COOKE, John Rogers, lawyer. b. in Bermuda in 1788 ; d. in Richmond, A'a., 10 Dec, 1854. He practised law in Virginia with distinction for more than forty years,' and during that time was concerned in nearly all the great cases carried to the higher courts of that state. He held a commission, in 1807, in the Frederick troop that marched to the seaboard when the "Chesapeake" was fired upon, and in 1814 he was a member of the legislature. In 1829 he was a member of the convention that framed the constitution of Virginia, and served, with Chief-Justice Marshall, ex-President Madison, and John Randolph, on the