John Cooke of Hendon and Mill Hill (1792-1796)
In 1792, shortly after moving to Mill Hill, Cooke produced a map of the road from London to Mill Hill and Barnet (2). This map has a strange appearance as it takes an unusual dog leg, meaning that the map area is a rectangle “broken” just over half-way up and bent at some 45°. The bare area between the map and the border is taken up with a dedication which is on the one hand a gesture of his sincere thanks to his friends and the public for their favours, but is also a method to let them know he has removed from London to Mill Hill as it even gives the coach times for potential customers. In the absence of any imprint, it is very likely that Cooke published the map himself to give to prospective clients.
Fig. 3. Cooke´s first signed work: A Mercators Chart … England to Greenland. (1789).
Over the period 1792-1796 Cooke seems to have been fairly active. Although none of his 50 plates for David Steel are dated, they would have been completed prior to publication in 1794. In that year two other works appeared with maps by Cooke: Select Views in Mysore and History of the British Colonies in the West Indies.
Known as Tipu (or Tippoo) Sultan of Mysore, Fateh Ali Kahn (1782-1799) experienced continuous warfare from the age of thirteen until his death at the age of 48. According to Dr Syed Mohd Amir,[1] the Tipu Sultan was, nonetheless, a great builder, pioneered a banking system and utilised military rocket technology. Tipu Sultan inflicted terrible losses on the British colonialists and their allies over many years and Mysore, headquarters of the East India Company, became known as the 'terror of Leadenhall Street', reflecting the immense damage he was doing to British trade, but he was eventually killed fighting Lord Wellesley, Governor-General of British India. In India today, Tipu Sultan is seen as a martyr, having destroyed the myth of British military invincibility.
Writing for the South African Military History Society in 2011, Dr Amir goes on to claim that: It is one of the greatest tragedies of the [Indian] nation that this monumental military strategist was brought to an end so early by the colonial authorities. Undoubtedly, the resistance given by Haider Ali and Tipu Sultan had no parallel in history during the second half of the eighteenth century. The British hit back again and again until they destroyed Tipu and erased all trace of what he had achieved in Mysore, even from the memory of the people, perhaps threatened by Tipu Sahib's modern mind, scientific temper and war-like spirit.
Select Views in Mysore (3), despite its name, was actually an account of the British successes in 1791-92 over the Tippoo Sultan and dedicated to Charles Marquis Cornwallis by the publisher, R Bowyer of the Historic Gallery in Pall Mall, London. Short chapters outlining the taking of each fort are accompanied by four maps: one was unsigned, one by Lodge and the two largest engraved by Cooke.
A completely different work was Bryan Edwards´ History of the British Colonies in the West Indies or The history, civil and commercial, of the British colonies in the West Indies, published by John Stockdale in London ìn 1794. This contained nine maps with the imprint of Stockdale of Piccadilly and apart from two by Cooke (4), only the map of Barbadoes is signed (Allen sc.). Other maps include a general map of the West Indies, Jamaica, St Vincent, Antigua, Virgin Islands, St Christopher and Nevis, as well as St Christopher´s. The maps were drawn under the direction of Bryan Edwards, a merchant living in Jamaica and trading in the West Indies.
Although born in Westbury, Wiltshire, Edwards (1743-1800) was known to have been in Jamaica as early as 1759, being supported by an uncle, Zachary Bayly, a plantation owner. On Bayly´s death, Edwards inherited his wealth together with six Jamaican plantations. Edwards always supported the slave trade, and was described by abolitionist William Wilberforce as a powerful opponent.
On a number of occasions Edwards tried to secure a seat in Parliament, the first time as member for Chichester in 1782. He was in Jamaica again from 1787 to 1792 before he then settled in England as a West India merchant. Unsuccessful in Southampton 1795, he became Member of Parliament for Grampound, a corrupt Cornish borough, along with Robert Sewell, another pro-slavery politician with interests in Jamaica in 1796. Edwards retained this seat until his death in 1800.[2]
Two years after these two maps specifically engraved for Edwards´ British Colonies in the West Indies, Cooke engraved a map published by William Faden which was then illegally copied and published by Stockdale in a second work by Edwards (7) published in 1797 on the French colony of St Domingo[3].
In the late 1790s much attention was being paid to the lucrative trade in the West Indies and Edwards, staunch proponent of slavery, wrote his second popular work, An historical survey of the French colony in the island of St Domingo, or Haiti today. A couple of years earlier William Faden had hired John Cooke to engrave a large broadsheet map of the island, based on the work of Don Joseph Solano of 1776 but apparently with new material added.
With this map being available, Stockdale had a reduced copy drawn up by Isaac Palmer and it was included in copies of the work. Nevertheless, copies are found with Cooke´s map tipped in.[4] When Faden took Stockdale to court for plagiarism, Stockdale replied that Faden had used Solano´s material, hence he was within his rights to copy Faden´s.[5]
Also at this time, but for different reasons, there was still considerable interest in Toulon and its harbour. French royalists had taken control of the port and opened it to the British fleet, hoisting the Royal flag on 1st October, 1793. Napoleon, still a young artillery colonel, made the harbour untenable by capturing the forts which dominated the harbour. It was the victory that made his name. The Chart of the roads and harbours of Toulon with their environs was published April 12th 1795 in London by William Faden, then Geographer to His Majesty and to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales with the signature of J. Cooke, now living in Hendon, Middlesex (5).
A year later, in 1796, William Faden published another large map engraved by Cooke: a map of the country surrounding Cooke´s own residence. The Manor and Parish of Hendon (8) was a very detailed plan of the parish, numbering every parcel of land. The map cost one guinea (price is included in the title wreath, but faintly, Fig 4) and a note after the publishers´ imprint states Where may be had the Book of Reference to this Map. Price 5s. This refers to An Index, or, Book of References to the Map of the whole manor and parish of Hendon.
Fig. 4. Parish of Hendon, title panel, price is very faint, just above ribbon.
The Index title is followed by John Cooke´s name before that of Faden, the publisher, signifying Cooke´s importance in the work. This is followed by: Price of the Map, with the book £1. 6s. – The book not to be had separate from the map. Following Faden´s imprint the names of W Walker, J Harris and John Cooke are listed.
The address for Harris is given as Swetting´s-Alley [sic]. This would actually be 3 Sweeting´s Alley, near the Royal Exchange. John Harris (c. 1740-1811) was map and print seller associated with a large number of engravings published from 1780 to 1805.[6] From circa 1789 he was also operating from 8 Old Broad Street. There was a notice of his death in Hendon in the Gentleman`s Magazine for 22nd December 1811.[7] Incidentally, Harris´ name appears in an announcement for a new print of the Victory at Camperdown which he is to publish, found facing the title page to (David) Steel´s Original and Correct List of the Royal Navy for 1798.
The 31 pages of listings in the Index are preceded after a few Errata by two appeals from the author. In the first: To Those Gentlemen who wish to have their Maps Framed, Varnished, and the Divisions coloured or bound in the Book, will please to address to Mr COOKE, Engraver, Hendon, and they shall have them executed in the best Manner. The second, below this, reiterates his role: J COOKE presents his Duty to the Freeholders and Copyholders of Hendon, and should any Mistakes be discovered, which an Undertaking of so complex a Nature, are unavoidable, he will esteem it a favour of any Gentleman to point out the same, and they shall be rectified. Cooke was clearly Faden´s equal as publisher and not simply the engraver.
John Boydell and his nephew Josiah Boydell established their Shakspeare Gallery[8] in 1789 but they were already well known and well respected and their circle of friends included wealthy patrons and artists. They attempted to establish an English school of historical painting. Shakspeare in the name was a project to publish a new edition of William Shakespeare´s work illustrated with works by the leading artists of the day.
The Boydells published very many fine books with aquatints and planned to produce a comprehensive History of the Principal Rivers of Great Britain. However, after the effort expended on the first of these, An History of the River Thames, this idea was abandoned although many early examples contain both title pages. The aquatints were executed by J C Stadler, an excellent artist. The main author of the work was William Combe (1742-1823). Rather unkindly, he is referred to as a “general hack”, chiefly remembered for his Three Tours of Dr Syntax but the Encyclopaedia Britannica reveals he was a proliferous writer, especially of satire.[9]
Fig. 5. View of the Thames from History of the Principal Rivers of Great Britain.[10]
The Principal Rivers usually appears in two volumes with 76 aquatint plates (Fig. 5), with one section of Cooke´s map of the Thames often being placed at the beginning of each volume (6). Considering the number of prints of Joseph Constantine Stadler which survive, surprisingly little is known about him. Sources note only that he was an aquatint engraver of German origin active in London between 1780-1812[11]. He engraved Robert Bowyer's drawings for Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg's Picturesque Scenery of Great Britain (1801) and worked on many publications for Rudolph Ackermann. Some 12 engravings by Stadler appear in C S Gilbert´s Cornwall, which also included another map by Cooke (see 23).
Besides a number of other works at this time, Cooke executed a large and detailed plan of Philadelphia by John Hills (9). Copies of this very large plan are found with the imprint of John and Josiah Boydell at the Shakespeare Gallery and they were probably the main publishers of the map. Cooke was already known to the Boydells and, assuming that they were instrumental in the map´s execution and Hills was the American publisher, this may explain why they chose him to engrave the map.
Philadelphia's grid pattern is a direct result of the confused, complicated system of streets in London which contributed to the London Fire of 1666[12]. As Jefferson Moak has pointed out: William Penn (1644-1718), the English writer and influential Quaker, was the founder of Philadelphia and he wanted to have a system of streets that would be both wide and organized. Penn authorised Thomas Holme to prepare his Portraiture of Philadelphia of 1682/3 using a grid pattern. The original street names of Philadelphia for the east-west streets were originally to be reserved for prominent Philadelphians. However, tensions led to Penn's renaming of these major thoroughfares into tree and bush names, e.g. Vine, Sassafras, Mulberry, Chestnut, Walnut, Locust, Spruce, Pine and Cedar. The numbering system we see today was not instituted until 1857 in which buildings between Front & 2nd are the 100 block, between 2nd & 3rd the 200 block, etc. The standardized system imposed 150 years ago has not been amended within the Center City area but has seen modifications in the outlying neighbourhoods.[13] John Cooke´s map is extremely large and clearly engraved and at nearly 70 x 100 cm has house blocks, wharves and gardens in some detail. The streets are laid out between the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers already, although most residents live in the two or three streets nearest and parallel to the former.
Fig. 6a. Trade card for J Cooke while in Mill Hill (c.1792-94).
Cooke lived for three years at Mill Hill before moving to Hendon 1795-96. We even have a trade card printed and distributed during his time there (Figs. 6a and 6b). By comparing the trade card with the large map of Hendon (5) we can identify Cooke´s residence. On the latter there is only a numerical system for identifying plots of land. However, on the trade card we can clearly see that John Cooke Engraver lives at the last house off Mill Hill leaving the village towards Wise Lane: this is No. 143 on the large map in Ratclif(fe) Lane (Cooke´s Plate 11)[14], and may well have been Oak Cottage in today´s Hammers Lane: it was originally named after the Ratcliffe family who lived there almost 200 years.
The houses and land belonged to the Rev. William Martin Trinder LL.B. (Oxford), M.D (Leyden), a preacher in Hendon. During the period 1783-1804 he wrote a good number of books ranging from printed versions of his Practical Sermons preached at Hendon (1786) to Nine letters on military subjects, published in the True-Briton, in the year 1803 (1804).
Fig. 6b. Trade card for J Cooke while in Mill Hill (c.1792-94). Detail.
Some were on the subject of health, including An enquiry, by experiments, into the properties and effects of the medicinal waters in the county of Essex (1783) and An essay concerning the outward and salutary application of oils on the human body (1797). Although he published many of his works himself, Trinder had his essays sold by various booksellers including J Cooke in Oxford, probably Joshua Cooke. We do not know of any connection between John and J Cooke but it could have been a distant relative who obtained the lodgings for John Cooke.
The address in Ratcliffe Lane, according to the Index, is known to consist of a Brick Dwelling House, with Garden, Yard, Out-offices, Stables, Chaise-house, &c. a small cottage adjoining ditto: likewise a Cottage, with Brick Front, with Garden and Pightle (i.e. enclosed area), adjoining called Bunn´s Croft. It is not known how much of this was rented by Cooke, but with outhouses to run an engraving business it would have been ideal.
While living in Mill Hill, Cooke may have overstretched his resources. Although the work he completed was impressive, and his contribution to Steel´s Rigging substantial, there is not a lot of other work at this stage. We know that he would go on to produce an atlas (1802) and a work on geography (his Synopsis, 1812) but that would be in years to come. Perhaps he was already preparing plates for the atlas, but be that as it may, we learn from the London Gazette of August 5th 1797 that John Cooke, late of Mill-hill and Hendon, Engraver is in Fleet Prison for bankruptcy and serving the Third Notice of debt (Fig. 7).[15] Although not the same as a prison sentence today, and a common occurrence for 18th century engravers and others in the printing trades, this would have hampered his career. He was in good company with two others on the listing as “Gentlemen” and one an “Attorney-at-Law”. This would not be his last sojourn in jail.
Fig. 7. Excerpt from London Gazette of August 1797.
At this time we have more non-cartographic material by Cooke than maps and charts if we consider the various illustrative plates for David Steel already mentioned. One further engraving, where Cooke played a minor role, has a view of St Saviours Church in Southwark[16]. Known today as The Cathedral and Collegiate Church of St Saviour and St Mary Overie, it was the church of an Augustinian priory from 1106 to 1538. Dedicated to the Virgin Mary it became known as St Mary Overie (or over the water, i.e. south of the Thames). It underwent rebuilding a number of times throughout its history and became a cathedral only in 1905 with the creation of Southwark Diocese.
The attractive illustration showing the South View of the church drawn up in 1800 is signed J Morton del. / W Hawkins Sc. However, under the picture is a ground plan of the church and this is signed J Cooke Sc. Mill Hill. The signature is written rather clumsily, crossing the inner border line. The two drawings were executed for St Saviours after being repaired and beautified and the new opening is dated 11th day of May, 1800 (Fig. 8). However, the church would see extensive restoration again between 1818 and 1839.
The engraver of the church view, William Hawkins, executed a large number of book illustrations for Charles Cooke, the publisher (son of John Cooke of Paternoster Row). Charles issued a number of “Pocket Library” series between 1792 and 1805, e.g. Select British Novels and Select British Poets, which were extremely popular.
Fig. 8. Plan of St Saviours after refurbishment, 1800.
Links to sections of I - London
John Cooke of Howland Street (1799-1805)
The Ladies Circular Atlas and “Mr Barrow”
The Rev. Thomas Smith & The Universal Atlas
John Cooke and the Admiralty (1802-1805)
Between the Admiralty and Plymouth (1805-1812)
Links to section II - Plymouth.
Stonehouse (1813-1845)
Napoleon and Cooke´s first Plymouth engravings
The Copper-Plate Engraving, and Printing Office (1815-21)
John Cooke of Union Street, Stonehouse (1823-1845)
Summary
Return to Introduction
Link to IV: Short List of John Cooke's works.
[1] Dr Amir´s article is on-line at: http://samilitaryhistory.org/vol154sa.
[2] Wikipedia.
[3] Cooke´s map was first issued in 1794 without his signature, this being added in 1796.
[4] See, for example, the copy at Library of Congress which is illustrated with text online.
[5] See https://www.copyrightcartography.org/cases/faden-v-stockdale/.
[6] Dates are taken from holdings of the British Museum. The Library of Congress has his dates as 1756-1846. The British Museum has an address for Harris in St Paul´s Church Yard 1805-1811, but this may be a different John Harris (see Universal Atlas).
[7] Also reported in Illustrations of the Literary History of the Eighteenth Century. Published by John Bowyer Nichols; London; 1858; Vol. 8, P.477. 1811, Dec. 22. At Hendon, Mr John Harris, printseller, of Sweeting´s Alley, Royal Exchange.
[8] Many of the Boydell´s early works use the spelling Shakspeare, I have chosen to use this for works c. 1800.
[9] Wikipedia and the Encyclopaedia Britannica of 1911.
[10] Available on flickr from British Library copy: 192.f.8 volume 1, facing 264.
[11] Most online references simply quote the entry in Wikipedia Commons.
[12] The following is taken from the internet and is the work of Jefferson M. Moak Archivist, NARA - Mid-Atlantic Region, in letter to MapHist at http://www.maphist.nl.
[13] Note: the street grid actually changed between 1683 and 1685 with the addition of 12th & 13th Streets on the east side of Center Square and the removal of several streets on the west of the city.
[14] The map has fine grid lines to form 16 sections and each panel is numbered 1-16. The map was to be folded along these lines to form the “page”. His premises are shown in section, i.e. Plate, 11. The Index had different pagination.
[15] I am grateful to Dr Shirley Atkinson who brought this to my attention and provided the edition of the London Gazette. Online at https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/14034/page/1- see 756.
[16] The small plan is held at the British Library: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1880-1113-5273.
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