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  John Cooke (1765-1791)

We now know that there were indeed two men of the same name working as engravers in London about the same time. The lesser-known John Cooke was the son of Ann and John Cooke of Fetter Lane, a shagreen-case-maker[1]. He was baptised 1st August 1765 in the nearby church of St Andrew in Holborn, London, three years before a brother, Stephen William, who also became an engraver, and another brother James William, born 1773; the family living in Church Yard Alley at this time. He may well have been the grandson of William Cooke who was bookbinder to the House of Commons working from Fetter Lane[2].

John was apprenticed to the bookbinder Mary Cooke, also of Fetter Lane on 7th September 1779 at the age of fourteen (normal practice in those days). Eight years later he was turned over to William Wells, an engraver, of Fleet Street on 6th November 1787 “and to John Russell, by whom he was freed the same day.” Laurence Worms believes this points to some kind of special arrangement and if, in fact, Mary and John were related, this could well be the case. Russell himself was a well-known engraver and it may be that his influence led Cooke in that direction. Between 1787 and 1812 John Cooke worked as an engraver from a number of different London addresses. He had a number of apprentices himself during this period, his brother Stephen[3] being taken on in the same year as his own apprenticeship finished.

Although his output of signed work seems to have been relatively modest it includes some sophisticated maps for some of the leading publishers of the day. John Cooke not only executed work for a variety of influential publishers such as David Steel, Robert Bowyer, John Boydell, W Walker, Joseph Mawman, Aaron Arrowsmith and also the very successful and well-respected William Faden, but he also found time to publish some of his own work and produced one atlas and a guide to drawing maps.

John Cooke moved to Plymouth some time before 1813, but he seems to have moved regularly during his time in London. From the apprenticeship records we know Cooke was released at the end of 1787. At this time, he was at Tooks Court in Cursitor Street, London but a year later he was in New Road, St Georges, also a district in London. A considerable amount of Cooke´s early work appears to have been for David Steel, probably the most influential maritime expert of the day.

Steel published a number of maps expressly for mariners at the end of the eighteenth century and Cooke´s signature is first found on a large sailing map of the route between England and Greenland of 1789 (1A and Fig. 3)[4]. Temporarily at New Road, St Georges (Whitehall), he must have moved in autumn 1789 to Clare Court, Drury Lane, as this is the address given on his set of charts of Ireland, A New Mercators Chart of the Coast of Ireland, published by David Steel in London circa January 1790 (1B). The seven charts imply a fairly substantial order as each chart measures approximately 70 x 130 cm. The Reference panel to each has seventeen entries not including a note on depths. There are many inset maps of special features and narrow strip coastal views to guide sailors along the coastline, or to put in to a safe harbour.

Besides these charts, Cooke produced a large number of engraved plates for Steel´s, The Elements And Practice Of Rigging And Seamanship (Figs. 1, 2 & 43) [5]. This manual, published by David Steel in 1794, has over forty plates on sail-making, block-making, rigging etc. signed by Cooke. Interestingly, the address in the signatures changes, possibly indicating that Cooke was earning well at this time: from J Cooke sc Clare Court, D(rur)y Lane, the address becomes Mill Hill Middx from Clare Ct. before it stays as J Cooke sct Mill Hill, Middx. Not only does this manual instruct how to build and sail any naval ship, but there are complete lists of every single piece of equipment and materials to build each type of vessel.

The vast majority of the nearly 50 Plates executed by John Cooke show tools and techniques associated with all aspects of sailing tackle. Most are descriptions of sails (32 plates), others are made up of multiple small images which, for example, show up to 40 types of knots, or an equal number of tools necessary for working on wood in the shipyard. Only two Plates signed by Cooke show scenes of activity: in two panels there are illustrations of people actually making ropes and in a third, lower panel, we see examples of the equipment needed (Fig. 1); or a panel depicting a worker sewing sails (Fig. 2) with the tools necessary.

While a number of illustrations by other engravers were unsigned, some plates, including those showing full views of sailing ships, were engraved by Sparrow or by Vincent Woodthorpe of 27 Fetter Lane off Fleet Street.


Links to sections of I - London

 John Cooke (1765-1791)

John Cooke of Hendon and Mill Hill (1792-1796)

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)

Synopsis of Geography

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.

 Notes to  John Cooke (1765-1791)

[1] I am indebted to Laurence Worms who provided the details here about John Cooke´s birth and apprenticeship.

[2] Death announcement in the Middlesex Journal for April 1775.

[3] The more complete listing of John Cooke can now be found in British Map Engravers by Laurence Worms and Ashley-Baynton-Williams; Rare Book Society; London; 2011. Stephen Cooke engraved Wallis´s complete voyage around the world. This was a game with counters which was extremely popular (1796) and also a new plan of London etc. for Laurie & Whittle (1801).

[4] Numbers in parentheses and bold type indicate the number given to that map. See the Part Three - Cartobibliography.

[5] British Library 1609/4613 and 1651/802. There was a second edition in 1806 published by P Mason of London (British Library 8805.ee.28.). A copy is available on-line at https://www.rct.uk/collection/1059212/the-elements-and-practice-of-rigging-and-seamanship-v-1. See also San Francisco Maritime National Park Association which has an excellent site and fully illustrates this work: https://maritime.org/doc/steel/. Images are from this site or from author´s facsimile copy.

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