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://www.findmypast.co.uk/

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]

https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/

https://bvi.gov.vg/

In 1834 the owning of one person by another was abolished in Britain and its overseas territories. The owners of enslaved people were paid compensation by the British government to a total of £20 million (worth something like £300 billion today). The debt incurred was finally paid off in 2015.

In an effort to “Dig Deeper, Look Closer and Think Bigger” (Black History Month headline, 2020), staff at Northumberland Archives have researched some of the slave owners that claimed compensation. They have used the University College London database, created from documents at the National Archives, as a starting point to understanding the links between individuals in Northumberland, the plantations they owned and the enslaved people who worked on them.

On 25th July 1839 a counterclaim for compensation was made by the Cooke family, Edward Cooke et al of Bywell Vicarage, St. Peter, Northumberland, and Anthony Nichol, possibly his brother-in-law, a merchant from Newcastle. Cooke’s counterclaim related to five plantation estates on the island of Tortola, the largest island of what is now known as the British Virgin Islands. The plantations in question had previously been owned by Richard Hetherington, former President of the Tortola, who had died in 1821. The estates were subject to a number of claims and counterclaims. The compensation amount exceeded £6,000 and was in relation to 395 enslaved people. The counterclaim made by Rev. Edward Cooke was unsuccessful, with the estates ultimately being settled in favour of Anthony William Maillard, a barrister resident on the island and grandson-in-law of the deceased.

Life in the British Virgin Islands

The Islands came under British control in the eighteenth century, originally being settled by the Dutch. Under British control the economy became a plantation-based one, predominately harvesting sugar. A House of Commons Select Committee of 1773 heard testimony from residents of Tortola that conditions had harshened over recent years. Amongst the enslaved population, land was scarce, malnutrition was rife and punishment was severe. Many enslaved people were whipped as it did not prevent the inflicted from working afterwards. In 1774 legislation was passed to define acceptable punishments towards those enslaved. Whilst it did not improve the life of many immediately, it did mark a point when things began to change.

Quakers, who began to settle on the Islands in the 18th century, were fundamentally opposed to slavery and freed a number of those enslaved. Quaker Samuel Nottingham gave freedom to 25 people with 50 acres of land in Long Look, Tortola, he encouraged a community to work together cultivating the land for the common good. By 1823 it was reported that the community had grown to 43, the residents were debt free, regular church attendees and had not appeared in front of a magistrate. Methodists were next to begin populating the Islands, those who had been manumitted (legally freed) were welcomed into the church, this in itself encouraged better treatment of people formerly enslaved. Through the church, schooling was provided, resulting in the white plantation owners beginning to see former slaves as ‘human beings deserving of humane treatment’.

In 1798 the Amelioration Act was passed in the Leeward Islands (a name given to a group of islands in the north east Caribbean Sea which includes the British Virgin Islands), this outlawed cruel and unusual punishments as well as setting out minimum standards for feeding and educating the enslaved population. The passing of the 1807 Slave Trade Act in Britain discontinued trade, while the enslaved were not given freedom, it gave plantation owners an economic incentive to treat the enslaved population better as they could only be replaced through birth (a child born to an enslaved mother was enslaved from birth) or through illegal trade. It is in the backdrop of these slow and minor ‘improvements’ that the trial of Arthur William Hodge takes place.

In 1811 Hodge became the only British man hung for murder of an enslaved person. As President of the Virgin Islands, Richard Hetherington was also President of the Court. The jury listened to witnesses detail the actions and punishments that had been carried out under Hodge’s command, they were gruesome and abhorrent. The charge of murder was in relation to a man named Prosper who had been subject to an hour-long cart-whipping. Hodge did not carry out the punishment, but he was culpable; an unknown enslaved person would not be held accountable for following the direction of their owner. Prosper was then tied to a tree with his hands behind his back, the whip was shortened (referred to as ‘close quarters’, to cause greater injury with less noise) and again whipped in the presence of Hodge until he fainted. A witness described “his head hanging down backwards, and [he was] no longer able to bawl”. The actions were repeated the following day.

Prosper died a fortnight later, most likely due to the injuries he had sustained. The reason for the beating? Prosper had been told to pay 6 shillings for a mango that had fallen from a tree, or be flogged. Hodge was tried for murder as his actions had exceeded what was considered acceptable or moderate chastisement, he showed malice and cruelty in his actions. Ill-treatment towards others enslaved by Hodge were also detailed in the adjournment and trial, including women and children, and one young girl believed to have been fathered by Hodge. Witnesses for the prosecution and defense were male and female, white and free individuals ‘of colour’. Hodge protested his innocence against the charge of murder. Hetherington told the jury that “if murder has been proved – whether on a white persons or on a black persons, the crime is equally the same with God and the law”. The jury found Hodge guilty, the majority of the jury recommended mercy. A sentence of hanging was passed a few days later by the Chief Justice.

There was also a history of revolts on the Islands. In 1790 an uprising on estates owned by Isaac Pickering began as it was believed that freedom to the enslaved had been granted in England, but the slave-owners were withholding this information to keep the population captive. Similar revolts occurred on a number of plantations in the 1820s and 1830s. After the slave trade was abolished in 1807 the Royal Navy patrolled the waters to free cargoes of people brought from Africa. From 1808, it was estimated that about 2,000 Africans were taken to Tortola in this way. After serving a 14-year ‘apprenticeship’ they were free. From 1822 onwards free Africans working in the Islands alongside the existing enslaved population caused jealousy and resentment. The most significant uprising occurred in 1831 when there was a plot to kill white males on the islands and escape to Haiti (Haiti was the only free black republic in the world at the time). Although not particularly well organised, military assistance from the neighbouring island of St. Thomas was required. The alleged plotters were executed.

The Slavery Abolition Act was passed in 1833, with abolition taking place August the following year; it continues to be marked with a 3-day ‘Festivals Holiday’ public holiday each year. Emancipation freed almost 6,000 enslaved; although in reality it was ‘phased out’ with many entering a period of forced apprenticeship with their owners. Many of the former enslaved population continued working on the same plantations in return for a small wage, with expenses of housing, clothing and medicine which had previously been paid by the owner.

Quaker Joseph John Gurney wrote that the plantation owners of Tortola were “decidedly saving money by the substitution of free labour on moderate wages, for the deadweight of slavery”. Hurricanes and drought impacted the Islands leading to economic decline, increased taxation and outbreaks of cholera and smallpox. Although some managed to amass savings, many former slaves were disenchanted that freedom did not appear to bring financial freedom or benefits. An insurrection in 1853 led to the white population fleeing the Islands; many former plantation owners did not return to their estates. By 1893 Tortola had two white people living on the Island, the deputy Governor and a doctor; the population was almost exclusively derived from those who had been enslaved.

Part two to follow……