Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 12.djvu/96

 mery, sprang up in their later years. Stern protestant as he was, none was more prompt to render assistance to a Roman catholic neighbour in time of need. A strict disciplinarian, he leaned always to the side of mercy when the courts of his church had to deal with delinquents.

Cooke's biographer quotes from Lord Cairns the saying that for half a century his life ‘was a large portion of the religious and public history of Ireland.’ Orangemen carry his likeness on their banners (though he was no orangeman), and his statue in Belfast (erected in September 1875) is still the symbol of the protestantism of the north of Ireland.

Cooke died at his residence in Ormeau Road, Belfast, on Sunday, 13 Dec. 1868. A public funeral was voted to him on the motion of the present primate, then bishop of Down and Connor. He was buried in the Balmoral cemetery on 18 Dec. In 1813 he married Ellen Mann of Toome, who died on 30 June 1868; by her he had thirteen children.

Cooke's first publication was a charity sermon preached at Belfast 18 Dec. 1814, which went through three editions in 1815; of this discourse Reid says ‘it is remarkable for the absence of evangelical sentiment.’ Remarkable also is Cooke's collection of hymns under the title, ‘Translations and Paraphrases in Verse … for the use of the Presbyterian Church, Killileagh,’ Belfast, 1821, 12mo (McCreery speaks of an edition, 1829, ‘for the use of presbyterian churches,’ not seen by the present writer), with a closely reasoned preface, in which he condemns restriction to the psalms of David in christian worship; in later life he had the strongest antipathy to the public use of any hymnal but the metrical psalms. In 1839 he undertook a new edition of Brown's ‘Self-interpreting Bible,’ Glasgow, 1855, 4to; second edition [1873], 4to, revised by J. L. Porter. The manuscript of an analytical concordance, begun in 1834 and finished in 1841, which he had taken to London for publication, perished in a fire at his hotel. Sermons, pamphlets, and magazine articles in great abundance flowed from his pen.

[The biography of Cooke by his son-in-law, Josias Ledlie Porter, D.D., now president of Queen's College, Belfast (1st edit. 1871; third, or people's edition, Belfast, 1875), is a sustained eulogy, very ably and thoroughly done from the writer's point of view. A brief but valuable memoir is given in Classon Porter's Irish Presbyterian Biographical Sketches, 1883, p. 39 sq. See also Killen's edition of Reid's Hist. Presb. Ch. in Ireland, 1867, iii. 396 sq.; McCreery's Presb. Ministers of Killileagh, 1875, pp. 225 sq.; and Killen's Hist. of Congregations Presb. Ch. in Ireland, 1886, p. 266 sq. Crozier's Life of H. Montgomery, 1875. i., throws light upon the Arian controversy, but takes a very unfavourable view of Cooke's character. Original authorities will be found in the Minutes of Synod, which are printed in full from 1820; reports of speeches are given in the ‘Northern Whig,’ a journal strongly biassed against Cooke. Cooke's own organ was the ‘Orthodox Presbyterian,’ a magazine not established till December 1829; the Arians had the ‘Christian Moderator,’ 1826–8, and the ‘Bible Christian’ from February 1830. Smethurst's report is in the ‘Christian Reformer,’ 1822, p. 217 sq. Worth reading, on the other side, is ‘The Thinking Few,’ 1828, a satirical poem, by the Rev. Robert Magill of Antrim. For Cooke's encounter with O'Connell see ‘The Repealer repulsed,’ 1841. Respecting Cooke's second period at Glasgow College, information has been given by a fellow-student, the Rev. S. C. Nelson.]  COOKE, JO. (fl. 1614), dramatist, was the author of an excellent comedy entitled ‘Greene's Tu Quoque, or the Cittie Gallant. As it hath beene diuers times acted by the Queenes Maiesties Seruants. Written by Jo. Cooke, Gent.,’ 4to, published in 1614, with a preface by Thomas Heywood. Another edition appeared in 1622, 4to, and there is also an undated 4to (1640?). Chetwood mentions an edition of 1599, but no reliance can be placed on Chetwood's statements. Greene, a famous comedian, took the part of Bubble, the Cittie Gallant, who constantly has on his lips the words ‘Tu Quoque:’ hence the origin of the first title ‘Greene's Tu Quoque.’ In the ‘Stationers' Register,’ under date 22 May 1604, we find entered, ‘Fyftie epigrams written by J. Cooke, Gent.’ Cooke's play has been reprinted in the various editions of Dodsley's ‘Old Plays.’ (‘A Pleasant Comedie: How to chuse a Good Wife from a Bad,’ is attributed in a manuscript note on the title-page of a copy of the edition of 1602, preserved in the Garrick collection, to ‘Joshua Cooke,’ whose name is otherwise unknown.)



COOKE, JOHN (1666–1710), civilian, son of John Cooke of Whitechapel, London, surveyor of the customs, was born on 29 Aug. 1666, was admitted into Merchant Taylors' School in 1673, and was thence elected to St. John's College, Oxford, in 1684 (, Merchant Taylors' School;, Register of Merchant Taylors' School, i. 280). While in statu pupillari, being a partisan of William III, he obtained a lieutenant's commission in an infantry regiment, and served in Ireland at the time of the battle of the Boyne. Returning to Oxford he resumed his studies, and graduated B.C.L. in 1691 and D.C.L. in