Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 11.djvu/229

 Way now in use, by a Double Scale. As also Stone-Measure and Gauging of Vessels by the same near and exact Way. Likewise a Diagonal Scale of 100 parts in a Quarter of an Inch, very easie both to make and use' (London, 1677). He soon after improved the rule, and revised the little work in which the mode of using it was set forth, republishing it in 1682, with the heading, 'A Treatise of Measuring by a Two-foot Rule which slides to a Foot.' A third, considerably modified, edition appeared in 1722. It was designated 'The Art of Practical Measuring easily performed by a Two-foot Rule which slides to a Foot,' and contained ' some useful Instructions in Decimal Arithmetick, and lastly some useful Directions in Dialling not hitherto published.' A fourth edition, carefully revised by John Ham, was issued in 1729, and a seventh in 1767.  COGGESHALL, RALPH (fl. 1207), chronicler, a native of Bernewell, Cambridgeshire, and a monk of the Cistercian abbey at Coggeshall, was chosen abbot in 1207, and about midsummer 1218, contrary to the wish of the convent, resigned the abbacy on account of ill-health. He took up the chronicle of Ralph Niger (edited by Colonel Robert Anstruther for the Caxton Society, 1851), who ended his work at 1161, corrected the expressions of indignation against Henry II with which the earlier writer concludes, and carried the chronicle down to 1178. The 'Chronicon Anglicanum' that bears the abbot's name begins at 1066. It contains several references to the affairs of the Cistercian order and to local events, such as those which concerned the monastery itself or its neighbourhood, and a large number of matters which were either told to the writer by visitors to the abbey, or which in various ways came under his notice and struck him as especially important or curious. Up to 1187 the entries are generally brief. After that date, when Ralph undertook the work, they become full, and are often of considerable importance. Although from an entry under 1207 it would seem as though the work was carried down to 1227, none of the copies of it extend beyond 1224. Manuscripts of the 'Chronicon' exist in the Cottonian collection in the British Museum, in the College of Arms, and in the National Library at Paris. From the imperfect Paris thirteenth-century manuscript, formerly belonging to the church of St. Victor, Martene printed the 'Chronicon' down to 1200, and from 1213-16 as distinct works in his 'Veterum Scriptorum. . . collectio,' v. 801-69, and nearly the whole is reprinted in 'Dom. Bouquet,' vol. xviii. The Cottonian MS., the author's autograph copy, has been followed by Mr. J. Stevenson in the edition he prepared for the Rolls Series in 1875. The 'Chronicon Terræ Sanctæ,' which has been ascribed to the author of the 'Coggeshall Chronicle,' is by another hand. Both the 'Chronicon Anglicanum' and the 'Chronicon Terræ Sanctæ' were printed by Mr. A. J. Donkin in 1856.  COK, JOHN (1392?–1467?), brother of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, was born about 1392, probably in or near London, as he was apprenticed to Thomas Lamporte, a goldsmith in Wood Street (then Wodestreet), Cheapside, and when a boy saw the coronation of Henry V in Westminster Abbey. In 1417 he was ordained priest, and in 1419 became a brother of St. Bartholomew's Hospital. That venerable foundation was then three hundred years old; its functions did not differ from those which it discharges at the present day, but instead of governors, physicians, surgeons, nurses, and chaplains, its temporal, medical, and ecclesiastical affairs were administered by a master, eight brethren, and four sisters, all following the rule of St. Austin, owning a nominal respect to the prior of the Augustinian canons of St. Bartholomew's of West Smithfield, but independent in estate and in internal regulation. John Whyte, a friend of the famous Sir Richard Whittington, was then master of the hospital, but resigned 19 Feb. 1422, and was succeeded by John Wakeryng, alias Blakberd, a brother of the hospital whom Cok and the other six brethren elected 'per viam Spiritus Sancti,' that is, by acclamation and without discussion. Wakeryng was a most active head during a period of forty-four years, and Cok's expressions show that he always regarded the master with love and admiration. Cok himself became the redituarius or renter, and in that capacity wrote with his own hand in the years succeeding 1456 a chartulary still preserved in St. Bartholomew's Hospital. This large manuscript, of which the whole, a very few lines of later date excepted, is in Cok's hand, contains a copy of every document of importance belonging to the foundation or bearing upon its property or rights. It begins with a record of the details of the estate in London and without, arranged by parishes, and of the chief tenants, from the first acquisition of each 