Reverend Edward Cooke
The Clergy of the Church of England Database indicates that Edward Cooke was born 22nd December 1800 in Demereary. His qualification was noted as ‘lit.’, an abbreviation for literate or literatus, indicating that whilst Edward did not have a degree, he was considered by a Bishop to have sufficient learning to qualify for ordination. He became a deacon on 6th June 1824 at the Chapel of Christ Church, Cambridge and ordained as a priest the following year on 28th August by Bishop Shute Barrington of Durham. He was appointed as vicar of Bywell St. Peter 6th August 1828. The parish records held at Northumberland Archives confirm that Edward was connected to Bywell St. Peter prior to being appointed as vicar; in baptism records for 1824 he signs himself as ‘curate’, replacing this with ‘vicar’ by 1828. Edward appears in the Churchwarden’s minutes and accounts from 24th November 1825; as the Curate he signs the minute book to acknowledge attendance at a meeting held that day. He attends regular vestry meetings over the next twenty years discussing routine church business including who has been appointed as a churchwarden, monies or legacies received, monies spent on repairs or to assist poor parishioners and the purchase and maintenance of a ferryboat shared with neighbouring parish of Whittonstall to enable parishioners to cross the River Tyne to attend church services.
Whilst serving the parish, Rev. Cooke writes to the Trustees of Lord Crewe, (Lord Crewe, former Bishop of Durham died in 1721, trustees managed his legacy for charitable purposes for the benefit of the parish of Bamburgh and clergy in need). His letter to the Trustees dated 12th September 1829 seeks financial assistance, stating that his parish contains a population of one thousand, covering an area of 12 miles by 3 miles, “The value of the living being hardly one hundred pounds per annum, precludes a Clergyman the means of visiting, as frequently as he considers it his duty, the distant parts of such a parish”. The exact response to this letter is unknown, however, he writes a further letter to the Trustees on 30th November thanking them for the “kind benefaction of Twenty Pounds towards repairing the Parsonage House”. In September 1831 Edward advertised in the Newcastle Chronicle newspaper for a schoolmaster and clerk for the church, who could also teach the Sunday school. Further documents held at Northumberland Archives indicate that a cottage was annexed for the benefit of the Reverend and his successors in 1837.
During his time at Bywell St. Peter Edward marries and starts a family. A notice of Edward’s intended marriage appears in the Newcastle Journal newspaper in March 1841. Census records for the same year show Edward Cooke living at Bywell Vicarage with two female servants, Hannah Douglas and Margaret Robson, both aged 20. He marries Fanny Wallis at St. Hilda’s Church, South Shields on 8th June, days after the census was taken. In 1844 a daughter Anne or Annie Wallis Cooke is born, she is baptised on 2nd July.
On 23rd December 1844 it is noted in the Churchwardens’ minutes and accounts that “The vicar [is] absent on account of ill health”; notice of his death is recorded in The Gentleman’s Magazine as 7th March 1845. He was buried at Bywell St. Peter on 13th March 1845, aged 44, his death was recorded in Newcastle Journal newspaper a few days later on Saturday 15th. Fanny and Annie are also buried at the churchyard at Bywell St. Peter.
However, how is any of this related to a clergyman from Northumberland making a claim in the Virgin Islands for compensation following the abolition of slavery? The biggest clue came from the birthplace of Edward recorded in the Clergy database, Demereary, followed by the discovery of a notice in the Newcastle Courant newspaper dated 12th March 1831 confirming the marriage of Mr. Anthony Nichol to Mary, eldest daughter of Edward Cooke, Esquire, of Demerara, and sister of Rev. Edward Cooke of Bywell. It was also reported in the Newcastle Chronicle with added that information that Edward Cooke, Esquire, was deceased. Was Rev. Edward Cooke born in a British Colony to a father who was either a slave owner or trader? The 1841 Census records Anthony Nichol as a ship broker, as does the 1851 Census, with the addition that his wife Mary was born as a British subject in the West Indies. Anthony and Mary Nichol are buried in the churchyard at Bywell St. Peter.
There are three different Edward Cooke’s listed as Colonists in British Guiana (part of the British West Indies and included Demerara/Demerary); Edward Cooke, Esquire who died 2nd July 1808, seems like the most likely candidate, based on date, to be the father of Rev. Edward Cooke and his sister Mary. There is an E. Cooke recorded as a Militia Lieutenant in Demerary in February 1804 in the Essequebo and Demerary Gazette People. Guyana Colonial Newspapers reported in 1807 that Edward Cooke was a proprietor of a ‘runaway and arrested slaves’. In 1810 creditors to the estate of Edward Cooke are being asked to come forward in the Essequebo and Demerary Royal Gazette. A letter of manumission petition cited in the Royal Gazette in July 1817 states that “Thomas Frankland [petitioner], for the mulatto (a person of mixed black and white parentage) woman Kitty Gillian, otherwise Kitty Cooke, for herself and child, Maria Rosina, formerly the property of Edward Cooke, and sold after his demise”.
Evidence links Rev. Edward Cooke and slavery via his father and another possible indirect connection via his brother-in-law Anthony Nichol, a ship broker. It was relatively common for slave-owners to give their surname to their enslaved workers, it was also known for slave-owners to father children, with the notice relating to Kitty Cooke, a mulatto, is it possible that the Reverend had blood relations who were enslaved. The links between Edward and the island of Tortola are tenuous at best. Charles Robinson, one of the original executors of the Hetherington estates, took two enslaved females to Demerara. In the 1818 Registers, the plantation listed after the schedule for Richard Hetherington belonged to the ‘children of Thomas and Mary Frances Cooke’, could they be connected to Edward Cooke? Rev. Cooke’s approach to the Trustees of Lord Crewe demonstrates that he felt unable to complete his role as Clergyman to the best of his abilities due to financial constraints and received financial aid to repair property. Did the compensation claim represent an opportunity to ease these financial concerns? What exactly motivated Rev. Edward Cooke to make a counterclaim against the estate of Richard Hetherington, and only that estate in particular, for compensation are unknown. We do know that the claim was ultimately unsuccessful; so whatever lead to the claim being made did not come to fruition. The link between a Bywell St. Peter, Northumberland and Tortola, British Virgin Islands remains unclear.
Bibliography
Records held at Northumberland Archives: –
EP 45/7; Baptism register, Bywell St. Peter, Northumberland. Digital copy accessed via Reading Room.
EP 45/14; Burial register, Bywell St. Peter, Northumberland. Digital copy accessed via Reading Room.
EP 45/19; Churchwardens’ minutes and accounts, Bywell St. Peter, Northumberland.
NRO 452/C/2/2/5/451 [letter to Trustees of Lord Crewe, 12 September 1829]
NRO 452/C/3/1/90/36 [letter to Trustees of Lord Crewe, 30 November 1829]
DN/R/3/41/1 [deed dated 18 February 1837]
Online resources: –
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/ [Legacies of Black Slave-ownership, UCL database]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_the_British_Virgin_Islands
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_Look_Estate
http://en.wikipedia.org.wiki/Leeward_Islands
http://www.britishexecutions.co.uk/
“A report of the trial of Arthur Hodge, Esquire (late one of the members of His Majesty’s Council for the Virgin Islands) at the island of Tortola, on the 25th April, 1811, and adjourned to the 29th of the same month, for the murder of his Negro man slave named Prosper”, accessed via https://www.loc.gov
https://www.ancestrylibraryedition.co.uk/
“The Gentleman’s Magazine”, July-June 1845, Volume 24, accessed via https://www.hathitrust.org/
https://bmscofe.org.uk/heritage/bywell-st-peter-s-graveyard
http://www.lordcrewescharity.org.uk/
https://vc.id.au/ [https://vc.id.au/tb/bgcolonistsC.html and https://www.vc.id.au/edg/indexes.html]