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Cooke Family Website
  "Mayflower"
 FRANCIS COOKE
OF
THE MAYFLOWER
 Francis Cooke was a woolcomber from Blythe, parish of York, near Scrooby, England before he joined the Pilgrims
at Leyden, Holland where he is recorded to have been from 1607 to 1609.Marriage intentions were posted 4 Jul 1609 and
he married while in Leyden, Hester Mahieu, a Walloon, who was born in France.
She was the daughter of Jennie LeMahieu of Canterbury, England.
The actual date of his birth is unknown, and the record of his death contains no mention of his age; but in 1643,
the Plymouth authorities made a list of all the men in the Colony, between the ages of 16 and 60, who were able to bear arms.
The fact that Francis Cooke's name appears in this list is sufficient evidence that he was then under sixty years of age.
He must, therefore, have been born after August 1583. Against this official record, which is practically the statement of
Francis Cooke himself, must be accepted accordingly, and nothing can be found but the following entry in Bradford's
list of passengers: "Francis Cooke is still living, a very old man, and hath seen his children's children, have children",
and the marginal note in an unknown hand: "dyed 7 Apr 1663 above 80". This marginal note is the same hand that added
the notes concerning the deaths of Bradford and Standish, both of which are incorrect. These errors cast suspicion on the
age of in the Cooke note, and the statement "above 80" was probably due to the well-known tendency to overestimate the
years of aged persons after their death. Moreover, a marginal note in an unknown hand, made possibly years after the death of
the person, and in a book which never belonged to any member of the Cooke family, can have no weight against the official
enrollment of 1643.
When Bradford wrote the words quoted, early in 1651, his own age was sixty-one, and he was but sixty-seven when he died,
yet he considered himself "aged" for in the introduction to the Hebrew phtrases which precede his history he wrote: "Though I
am grown aged, yet I have had a longing desire, to see with my own eyes, something of that most important language..." It is
evident that Bradford considered a man "aged" although he was under sixty-seven. Cooke was under sixty-eight when
Bradford wrote, but the Colony records show that although Bradford's activity in the public service was kept up until his death, Cooke's practically ended in 1645. Prior to that time there was hardly a year in which Cooke did not serve the public in some capacity, but after June 1645 he was called on but three times. It is reasonable to suppose that he had become enfeebled by advancing years and appeared to be older than he was. In any case there is nothing in Bradford's indefinite statement which
can be accepted as disproving the official record of 1643.
Bradford's words: "hath seen his children's children, have children" probably meant simply that Cooke had lived to
see great-grandchildren born, for there is not the slightest evidence that the 1651 children had been born to more than one
of his grandchildren. That one was, Elizabeth, daughter of Experience & Jane (Cooke) Mitchell, who married 16 Dec
1645, John Washburn, and before Apr 1661, had seven children, at least one, and probably two of them,
born before Bradford wrote.
Francis Cooke was probably a husbandman after he came to Plymouth and both his sons became farmers.
He was not dignified by the title of "Mr." but his frequent service on the Grand Inquest, trial juries and a Surveyor of Highways,
makes it clear that he was a man of sound judgement and had the respect and confidence of the Colony.[1]
 [1] "Mayflower Descendant Quarterly" (1901) Vol. III Article by G.E. Bowman, Pages 95-105.
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