JOHN COOKE – 1765 - 1845   I. London   For a long time John Cooke (1765-1845) was largely overlooked. At the end of the 18 th century there was a father and son partnership printing in London and publishing works which were fairly popular in their time. Tooley’s influential work on the mapmaking trade [1] had over 10 entries for the name Cooke and the first listed a father John (1731-1810) and his son and successor Charles Cooke (1750-1816). John was listed as Engraver, draughtsman , and publisher of London and this was followed by a list of London addresses. Charles was listed under Publisher of No.17 Paternoster Row . All of the addresses given for John the father and the three works noted all belonged to a different John Cooke. The works attributed to Charles were correct and included George Alexander Cooke’s (no relation) The Modern British Traveller (1802-1810), the Topography of Great Britain as well as an atlas, the Universal System of Geography . All of these works were

  II. Plymouth     The first guide book to any of the Three Towns is generally regarded as being The Picture of Plymouth; the text of this guide is credited to Henry Woollcombe (1778-1847), a local Plymouth resident and Attorney at Law of Frankfort Street, who founded the Plymouth Athenaeum and became Mayor of Plymouth (1813). [1] This guide was first issued by Rees and Curtis and contained one small map, The Town of Plymouth Dock 1811 ( 20 ) signed by John Cooke as engraver. There was no immediate reason to think John Cooke was local as the book was also sold by Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, a well-known London group of publishers and booksellers. With much expanded and revised text this was reissued as the Tourist's Companion (published by Granville & Son of Plymouth-Dock) with Cooke’s map and a second map in 1823 and 1828 ( 20 ). Significantly, for the second issue the date ( 1811 ) was deleted but New Road Stonehouse Plymo was added to Cooke’s signature. Thi

  III. Summary   As can be seen from the works quoted, Cooke was certainly resident at various London addresses until circa 1812 and various Plymouth addresses after 1812/13. He was certainly at 48 Union Street 1820-25 but was at 82 Union Street by 1827. Cooke is listed in Pigot´s 1830 directory [1] as engraver and copper plate printer at 82 Union Street (but under Miscellaneous ) and Mrs Nile is not listed - 48 Union Street was now occupied by the baker Thomas Philips (Mrs Nile’s address in the maps and charts of 1819/1820). The map in the Tourist's Companion of 1823 only gives the address as Union Street . The (circumstantial) evidence would point to Cooke working closely with, or even taking over, Mrs Nile´s business soon after 1820 and moving along the street (to larger/smaller premises) before 1827. Robert Brindlay´s Plymouth, Stonehouse and Devonport Directory of 1830 has John Cooke in Union Street and an Eliz. Nile at 85 Union Street.   Except for Cooke's New