Elizabeth Batts Cook was the wife and widow of Captain James Cook.

She was the daughter of Samuel Batts who was keeper of the Bell Inn, Wapping and one of her husband's mentors.

She married James Cook at St Margaret's Church, Barking, Essex on 21 December 1762. The couple had six children: James (1763–94), Nathaniel (1764–80, lost aboard HMS Thunderer which foundered with all hands in a hurricane in the West Indies), Elizabeth (1767–71), Joseph (1768–68), George (1772–72) and Hugh (1776–93), the last of whom died of scarlet fever while a student at Christ's College, Cambridge. When not at sea, Cook lived in the East End of London and the family attended St Paul's Church, Shadwell, where their son James was baptised. After her husband was killed at Kealakekua Bay, Hawaii in 1779, Elizabeth Cook received an annual pension of 200 pounds from the Admiralty. In 1788, she moved to Clapham, Surrey.

Outliving her husband and children, she died on 13 May 1835 at the age of 93. Elizabeth Cook was buried in St Andrew the Great church in Cambridge with her sons, James and Hugh. She left a bequest to pay the minister, support five poor aged women and to maintain the family's monument.

Cook has no known direct descendants — all her recorded children predeceased her and died without issue.

A small memorial garden fountain was dedicated to Elizabeth Batts Cook on 27 February 1971 within the grounds of the E. G. Waterhouse National Camellia Garden at Caringbah South, NSW Australia. This garden is located within the Sutherland Shire, which also contains the place of Captain Cook's first landing on continental Australia at Botany Bay on 29 April 1770. The fountain is accompanied by a dedication plaque and a separate "storyboard" plaque which provides details of the life of Elizabeth Batts Cook. The text on the plaque reads: This fountain commemorates the life of Elizabeth Cook, wife of the famous navigator Captain James Cook. It is believed to be the only monument in the world to this woman of formidable courage and character.

Born Elizabeth Batts in 1742, she married James Cook on 21 December 1762 when she was 20 and he was 34 and already making a name for himself in the Navy.

They were married for 17 years but lived together only about four years in total in between Captain Cook's three epic voyages of discovery. They had six children, two of whom died as infants: George aged four months and Joseph one month. Their only daughter Elizabeth died at the age of four.

Captain Cook's death in February 1779 heralded a string of tragedies for Mrs Cook. Eight months later their son Nathaniel, 15, was lost at sea when his ship went down in a hurricane. Her remaining sons, Hugh, 17 and James, 31 died within weeks of one another in December 1793 and January 1794 - Hugh of scarlet fever at Cambridge, where he was a student, and James a Commander of the Royal Navy, who drowned.

The shock of these deaths confined Mrs Cook to her bed for two years and forever afterwards she observed four days of solemn fasting on the anniversaries of her bereavements, staying in her room praying and meditating with her husband's Bible.

Mrs Cook was known to be a skilled needlewoman and at the time of her husband's death in Hawaii she was embroidering a waistcoat for him to wear at court. The unfinished garment is exhibited at the Mitchell Library in Sydney along with Cook's relics, including the original grant for Captain Cook's Coat of Arms, awarded posthumously to his descendants in 1785.

Mrs Cook lived for another 56 years after her husband's death, and one of her proudest possessions was a gold medal, struck in his honour by the Royal Society. Her portrait, painted when she was 81, depicts a handsome, venerable lady with an oval face and an aquiline nose dressed, as always, in black satin. She wore a ring with a lock of her husband's hair in it and she entertained the highest respect for his memory, measuring everything by his standard of honour and morality. Her keenest expression of disapprobation was that Mr Cook - to her he was always Mr Cook, not Captain Cook - would never have done.

Before her death on 13 May 1835 at the age of 93, Mrs Cook went to great lengths to destroy all her private papers and correspondence with her beloved husband, considering them too sacred for other eyes. She was buried in the family vault at Great St Andrew's Church, Cambridge, between two of her sons.

She married James Cook at St Margaret's Church, Barking, Essex on 21 December 1762.[3][2] The couple had six children: James (1763–94), Nathaniel (1764–80, lost aboard HMS Thunderer which foundered with all hands in a hurricane in the West Indies), Elizabeth (1767–71), Joseph (1768–68), George (1772–72) and Hugh (1776–93), the last of whom died of scarlet fever while a student at Christ's College, Cambridge. When not at sea, Cook lived in the East End of London and the family attended St Paul's Church, Shadwell, where their son James was baptised, Elizabeth Cook received an annual pension of 200 pounds from the Admiralty. In 1788, she moved to Clapham, Surrey.

Outliving her husband and children, she died on 13 May 1835 at the age of 93.[3] Elizabeth Cook was buried in St Andrew the Great church in Cambridge with her sons, James and Hugh. She left a bequest to pay the minister, support five poor aged women and to maintain the family's monument.[4]

Cook has no known direct descendants — all her recorded children predeceased her and died without issue

Capt Cook's Family Tree

John Cook Born: Ednam, Roxburghshire, Scotland
x 19 Jan 1693, Ednam Jean Duncan Born: Smailholm

b1 James Cook Born:4 Mar 1694, Ednam? Baptised:12 Mar 1694, Ednam Died: 1 Apr 1779, Redcar, North Yorkshire Buried:1 Apr 1779, St Germain's, Marske-by-Sea
x10 Oct 1725, St Peter and St Paul, Stainton in Cleveland Grace Pace of Thornaby Born:1702 Died: 15 Feb 1765 Buried: All Saints, Great Ayton

b1c1 John Baptised: 10 Jan 1727/8, Ormesby Died: 20 Sep 1749 Buried: Great Ayton
b1c2 James Born: 27 Oct 1728, Marton Baptised: St. Cuthbert's Died: 14 Feb 1779, Hawaii Buried: Hawaii
x 21 Dec 1762, St Margaret's, Barking, Essex Elizabeth Batts

b1c2d1 James Born: 13 Oct 1763, Shadwell, London Baptised: St Pauls, Shadwell Died: 25 Jan 1794 Appointed Jan 1794 Commander of Sloop Spitfire Lost in an open boat, Poole Harbour off Isle of Wight Buried: St-Andrew-the-Great, Cambridge dsp
b1c2d2 Nathaniel Born: 14 Dec 1764, Mile End Old Town, London Baptised: St Pauls, Shadwell Died: 5 Oct 1780 Midshipman in Thunderer lost with all hands at sea in a hurricane off West Indies dsp
b1c2d3 Elizabeth Born: 1767 Died 9 Apr 1771 Buried: St-Andrew-the-Great, Cambridge dsp
b1c2d4 Joseph Born: 26 Aug 1768 Died: 13 Sep 1768 Buried: St-Andrew-the-Great, Cambridge dsp
b1c2d5 George Born: 8 Jul 1772 Died: 1 Oct 1772 Buried: St-Andrew-the-Great, Cambridge dsp
b1c2d6 Hugh Born: 23 May 1776 Died: 21 Dec 1793 of scarlet fever whilst a student at Christ College, Cambridge Buried: St-Andrew-the-Great, Cambridge dsp

b1c3 Christiana Baptised: 31 Jan 1731/2, Ormesby Died: 1795
x NN Cocker

b1c3d1 NN daughter Died: Asdown
b1c3d2 NN daughter
x NN Tree

b1c3d2e1 Ann Tree Born:1765 Died: 1867
x Wm Rumsey

b1c3d2e1f1 James Rumsey No known children

b1c4 Mary Baptised: 13 May 1733, Marton Died: 30 Jun 1737, Great Ayton Buried: 1 Jul 1737
b1c5 Jane Baptised: 21 May 1738 Died: 12 May 1742, Great Ayton
b1c6 Mary Baptised: 7 Dec 1740 Died:17 Jun 1741, Great Ayton Buried: July 1741
b1c7 Margaret Baptised: 20 Jul 1742 Buried: 17 Oct 1804
x 4 Sep 1764, All Saints, Great Ayton, James Fleck Born: 14 Feb 1739, Redcar Died: 1817

b1c7d1 James Baptised: 12 Jun 1765 Died: 1828
x 4 Feb 1794, Kirby Margaret Rowntree Known children
b1c7d2 Margaret Baptised: 18 Apr 1767 Died: 15 Dec 1800
x 15 Mar 1795, Marske Palister Thompson Known children
b1c7d3 Grace Baptised: 17 June 1770
x 21 Aug 1787, Marske John Carter Known children
b1c7d4 Mary Baptised: 21 Aug 1772
x 9 Sep 1794, Easington George Duck Known children
b1c7d5 Thomas Henry Baptised: 23 May 1775 Died: 1817, Boston, Lincs.
x 9 May 1799, Marske Hannah Potts Known children
b1c7d6 William Baptised: 2 Apr 1777 Died: 14 Apr 1777, Marske
b1c7d7 John Baptised: 9 Mar 1779 Died: 9 Oct 1835
x 30 Jan 1819, Monkwearmouth Isabella Cropton No known children
xx Isabella Black Known children
b1c7d8 Christiana Baptised: 31 Jul 1781 Buried: Naval almshouses, Deptford, London
x Thomas Hustler No known children

b1c8 William Born: 12 Jan 1745 Baptised: 26 Feb 1745 Died: 29 Jan 1748, Great Ayton Buried: 30 Jan 1748

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