Thomas Cooke of Pebmarsh

Thomas Cooke

• Born 1541 in Essex, England
• Died Nov 1621 at about age 80 in Pebmarsh, Essex, England
• Son of Robert Cooke and Joan Sydney
• Husband of Margaret Rice — married 1563 in Bures St. Mary Parish, Suffolk, England
• Husband of Elizabeth North — married 1566 (to 1567) in Pebmarsh, Essex, England
• Husband of Susan Brand — married 1568 in Boxford, Suffolk, England

Children of Thomas Cooke and Margaret Rice

1. Thomas Cooke II Esq (1564 - 1639) m Grace Upcher

Children of Thomas Cooke and Susan Brand

1. Elizabeth Cooke (1568 - 1638) m 1) Edmund Reade 2) Hugh Peter

Biography

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Cooke-182

Thomas Cooke was born about 1541 presumably at his parent's manor home in Pebmarsh, Essex, England.[1][2] His father was Robert Cooke and his mother was Joan (Johann) Syday (aka Sydney) Cooke.[3] Thomas was their oldest child and son. Both families were important local landowners of the yeoman class and had deep roots in Essex.

Thomas was only 18 years old when his father died in 1559 and then just two and a half years later, before his 21st birthday, his mother followed his father to the grave in December 1561. Although technically still a minor (boys reached their legal majority at 21; girls at 18), he already had filed to take over one of his late father's properties, a tenement in Crossehouse, in 1559. His mother's Will, as was customary at that time under English laws of primogeniture, left Thomas most of the family wealth and property but she made careful provisions so that Thomas had to share with his four younger brothers and two sisters when they reached 21 or 18 or were married. It demonstrates her vision and the family's close ties.

The year after his mother died, when Thomas had just turned 21, he married the woman who would turn out to be the first of his three wives: Margaret Rice of a neighboring village: Bures St. Mary, located 5 miles away from Pebmarsh on the Essex/Suffolk border. They were married in at St. Stephen's church there in 1562. In 1563 they had a son that they named Thomas Cooke, Jr. (or II). Alas, young Thomas was not yet two years old when his mother died in 1565, perhaps of a miscarriage or in childbirth, the leading cause of death for women under 30 at the time. Within a year, in 1566, young father Thomas Cooke married his second wife, Elizabeth North, b. 1545 in the town of Colchester, Essex, where the Cooke family owned property. Her parents are not known. They married in Pebmarsh, Essex. Unfortunately, Elizabeth died in 1567, most likely from her first pregnancy. She and Thomas had no children together.

The following year, on September 26, 1568, Thomas Sr., married for the third time to Susan Brand, then 21 years old, from Boxford, in Suffolk County (13 miles east of Pebmarsh). The wedding was again at St. Stephen's in Bures St. Mary. Susan joined the two Thomas Cookes in their home in Pebmarsh, Essex. They had a daughter, Elizabeth, in July 1573. Again, tragedy struck while Elizabeth was still under-age and Susan died, cause unknown around 1580. She was only 32 years old. Thomas was still under 40.

Apparently Thomas had buried enough young wives because although he lived another 40 years he does not seem to have remarried. With two minor children and his wealth, he had servants to take care of his household. On August 30, 1621, at the age of 80, still living primarily in Pebmarsh, Essex, he wrote his last Will & Testament. It was proven shortly after his death on November 26, 1621.

Thomas Cooke I's Will reveals a religious man who cared for those less fortunate than himself, and for his family. He was a man who wanted to leave them as well set in life as he could. Here it is:[4]

Will

• "To the poor of Pebmarsh, £5. To the poor of Alphamston and Lamarshe, 10s. to each parish. To the parish of Pebmarsh £5 as an increase to the stock given by Mr. Hugh Clapham, sometime minister of the parish, to purchase a house or lands. To Thomas Cooke, my grandson, a messuage called Goddards and all my lands which I late purchased of John Hilton, gentleman, and Mary his wife, situated in Gestingthorpe and Little Maplestead, co. Essex, now in the occupation of John Clark or his assigns. To my brothers Lawrence Cook and Robert Cook, during their natural lives, 40s. apiece yearly. To Thomas Wiscowe, the younger, my sister's son, £5. To every one of the children of my brother John Cook, deceased, my sister Wiscowe and my sister Sawen, deceased, and my brother Lawrence, not before nominated, 20s. apiece. To George Cooke, my grandson, lands in Lamarshe had by grant of Robert Becle of Lamarshe."
• "I forgive Edmund Reade, my son-in-law, the three score pounds due me by his bill of December 1, 1606. To my daughter Elizabeth, now his wife, three score pounds in one year after my decease. To my said daughter Elizabeth and to Margaret her daughter, now wife of John Lake, and Susan, now wife of my son Thomas, one "spur Riall" of gold apiece." [value = £1.5]
• "To Samuel Reade, my grandchild, £40, and to every of the residue of my daughter Reade's children unmarried, £10 to be paid within one year after my decease, to them or to their father for them. To every one of the children of my son Thomas Cooke, £20 apiece. The residue to my son, Thomas Cooke the younger, whom I make sole executor. If he refuse, my son-in-law Edmund Reade to be my sole executor. To Martha Reade, now wife of (???) Epps of London, my grandchild, £10."
• "To Johane Gillott, my late servant, 20s. To Maryon Edwards, Clement Chandler and Elizabeth Hayward, 5s. apiece, to William Scott, George Smith and Samuel Medcalf, 3s. 4d. apiece, and to Thomas Maninge, Thomas French and Richard Goodwin, 2s. 6d. apiece."
• Witnesses: George Coo, Robert Williams and Thomas Smithe.

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References

• https://wc.rootsweb.com/trees/118924/I3022/-/individual
• 'Pebmarsh ', in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Essex, Volume 3, North East (London, 1922), pp. 188-190. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/essex/vol3/pp188-190 [accessed 25 August 2022].