Francis Cooke "Mayflower Immigrant"

Francis Cooke, a woolcomber born in England about 1582 or 1583, was living in Leiden by 1603. He married Hester Mahieu there and came to Plymouth on the Mayflower in 1620 with their son John. His wife and other children later joined him. Cooke took part in Plymouth Colony land, highway, survey, jury, and boundary work over many years. He died in 1663.

Francis Cooke was born in England in August 1582, although the family-tree notes describe his birth only as about 1583. He worked as a woolcomber. He was living in Leiden by 1603, before the Pilgrim Separatist community emigrated to Holland. On July 20, 1603, or shortly afterward, he married Hester Mahieu in Leiden. The notes state that they belonged to the Leiden Walloon Church, a French-speaking Belgian congregation whose beliefs were described as similar to those of the English Separatists.

In 1620, Francis Cooke traveled to Plymouth on the Mayflower with his teenage son, John. William Bradford recorded them as “Francis Cooke and his son John. But his wife and children came afterward.” After the Pilgrims arrived at Cape Cod, Cooke was among those who signed the Mayflower Compact on November 11, 1620. His Plymouth house lot, assigned late that year, lay between those of Isaac Allerton and Edward Winslow.

Hester Cooke and children of the family arrived later on the Anne in 1623. The notes specifically identify Jane and Jacob among those arriving on that ship and state that two daughters, Hester and Mary, were born in Plymouth. In the 1623 Division of Land, Francis received two acres for himself and one acre for John, as well as four acres for his wife and children who had come on the Anne.

Cooke was among the fifty-eight planters who signed the 1626 agreement by which the colony’s stock, shares, lands, and other interests were purchased from the Merchant Adventurers. The later arrangements transferred the shares and debt to a group known as the Undertakers.

The 1627 Division of Cattle listed Francis Cooke’s household first, naming Francis, his wife Hester, and children John, Jacob, Jane, Hester, and Mary. The entry also included his nephew, Phillip Delanoy, and Experience Mitchell, who later married Cooke’s daughter Jane. On January 3, 1627/8, Cooke was one of six men chosen to lay out boundaries for twenty-acre grants intended for planters who had come under the joint-stock company.

Cooke performed a variety of civic duties in Plymouth Colony. In early 1633, the court assigned him to assist in resolving a financial dispute between Peter Browne and Dr. Samuel Fuller. In 1634 he was among the Plymouth men assigned to lay out highways. In 1637 he and others were appointed to lay out highways around Plymouth, Duxbury, and Eel River, and they reported back to the Plymouth Court two months later.

On October 1, 1636, John Harmon, son of Edmund Harmon, tailor of London, became Cooke’s apprentice for seven years. In a civil case concerning abuse of Cooke’s cattle, the court awarded him damages on March 7, 1636/7 against Mr. John Browne the younger. When Browne did not pay, the court reaffirmed its decision on June 7, 1637 and ordered payment.

Cooke continued to carry out land and survey work through the following decades. In May 1640, he and his son John were asked to calculate the acreage of Edward Doty’s meadows. In October 1640, he was appointed to determine the boundary between the lands of Thomas Prence and Clement Briggs at Jones River. In 1640/41, he was one of twelve men assigned to designate additional highways and survey and mark land boundaries in Plain Dealing. The next year, he was one of four Plymouth surveyors assigned to survey the highway for Jones River, and in 1645 he again served as a Plymouth highway surveyor. In June 1650, he and twelve others reported that they had marked a new route from Jones River to the Massachusetts Path through John Rogers’s property. In August 1659, the Plymouth Court again called upon him to settle a boundary dispute between Thomas Pope and William Shurtliff.

The notes also report that Cooke served on petty, grand, and civil-case juries during the 1630s and 1640s. In the 1643 Able to Bear Arms list, Francis Cooke and his sons Jacob and John were listed among the men of Plymouth.

In 1651, Bradford described Francis Cooke as still living, “a very olde man,” who had lived to see descendants in another generation. Bradford also recorded that Cooke’s son John, who had crossed on the Mayflower with him, was married and had four living children. On June 3, 1662, the General Court approved a list of thirty-three names, described as the “first borne children of this government,” to receive land purchased by the colony from Indigenous people. The notes state that the list included Cooke among several original Mayflower passengers.

Francis Cooke died on April 7, 1663, in Plymouth Colony. The family-tree notes state that he and Hester had seven children. Hester survived him; the notes report that she died after June 8, 1666 and was buried at Burial Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Historical context

Cooke’s life spanned the Leiden years of English religious migration and the early decades of Plymouth Colony. His Mayflower voyage, the arrival of family members on the Anne, and his later land and highway assignments reflect the practical work of establishing and administering a growing colonial settlement.

Sources & research

Original Family Tree Maker notes for Francis Cooke.
Current facts supplied with the profile.
Citation reference [2], supplied in the original notes, concerning Cooke’s survey and boundary work, including 1659.
Citation reference [6], supplied in the original notes, concerning the Mayflower Compact.
Citation reference [9], supplied in the original notes, quoting Bradford’s statement about Francis Cooke, John, and the later arrival of his wife and children.
Citation reference [10], supplied in the original notes, concerning Cooke’s Plymouth house lot, the Anne, and the 1623 land division; marked “self-published source” in one occurrence.
Citation reference [11], supplied in the original notes, concerning four acres for Cooke’s wife and children arriving on the Anne.
Citation reference [12], supplied in the original notes, concerning the 1626 Purchasers and Undertakers agreement.
Citation reference [13], supplied in the original notes, concerning the 1627 Division of Cattle.
Citation reference [14], supplied in the original notes, concerning the 1627/8 land grants and the 1633 dispute; marked “self-published source” in one occurrence.
Citation reference [15], supplied in the original notes, concerning highway, meadow, and boundary assignments.
Citation reference [16], supplied in the original notes, concerning John Harmon’s apprenticeship.
Citation reference [17], supplied in the original notes, concerning the cattle-abuse civil case.
Citation reference [18], supplied in the original notes, concerning the 1643 Able to Bear Arms list.
Citation reference [19], supplied in the original notes, quoting Bradford’s 1651 account.
Citation reference [20], supplied in the original notes, concerning the 1662 General Court land list.
Citation reference [21], supplied in the original notes, concerning Hester Mahieu Cooke’s death and burial.
One jury-service statement in the original notes is marked “citation needed.”