Sir Anthony Cooke (1504 – 11 June 1576) was an eminent English scholar who became tutor to Edward VI. He is particularly remembered because of his attitude to educating his daughters who were taught both Latin and Greek.

The Cooke family home was the now demolished Gidea Hall at Romford in Essex. Cooke was a convinced Protestant who supported the claim to the throne of the ill-fated Lady Jane Grey. This led to his imprisonment in the Tower when Mary I was able to secure the throne. After his release from the Tower, he fled the country to get away from Mary's reintroduction of Catholicism. He returned following the accession of Elizabeth I.

Cooke had five daughters:

• Mildred (1524?1589), married Lord Burghley
• Elizabeth (1527-1609), the infamous Lady Hoby, married both Sir Thomas Hoby of Bisham Abbey and John, Baron Russell
• Anne (1528-1610), married Sir Nicholas Bacon and became the mother of Francis Bacon
• Catherine (1530?-1583), married Sir Henry Killigrew^[1]

He was one of the co-owners of Burton Dassett in Warwickshire and conducted a lengthy, but ultimately unsuccessful legal campaign to block the sale of part of the estate to Peter Temple^[2].

There is an elaborate memorial to him in Romford parish church. This notes his" exceptional learning, prudence and piety? ^[3]. However, a recent biographer (Marjorie McIntosh), describes him as ?a strong protestant of a dark and unforgiving colour? ^[4].

Note

There is a discrepancy between Nuttall's Encyclopedia and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, the former spells the first name Antony and the later Anthony.

References

1. ↑ Dictionary of National Biography, vol 31, p. 106]
2. ↑ NW Alcock, Warwickshire Grazier and London Skinner 1532-1555 (OUP, 1981)
3. ↑ quoted in Marjorie Keniston McIntosh, Sir Anthony Cooke: Tudor Humanist, Educator and Religious Reformer (in Proceedings, American Philosophical Society; vol. 119, No. 2, 1975)
4. ↑ Marjorie Keniston McIntosh, A Community Transformed (Cambridge University Press, 2002)