Henry Wilkinson Cookson (10 April 1810 – 30 September 1876) was an English clergyman and academic, who served as Master of

Peterhouse, Cambridge Peterhouse is the oldest constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Today, Peterhouse has 254 undergraduates, 116 full-time graduate students and 54 fellows. It is quite ...

from 1847 until his death. He was born on 10 April 1810 at

Kendal Kendal, once Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish in the South Lakeland district of Cumbria, England, south-east of Windermere and north of Lancaster. Historically in Westmorland, it lies within the dale of th ...

, the sixth son of Thomas and Elizabeth Cookson. William Wordsworth, whose poetry he always admired, was one of his godfathers. He was educated at Kendal Grammar School and at Sedbergh School, then at

, matriculating in October 1828, graduating B.A. (7th wrangler) 1832, M.A. 1835, B.D. and

D.D. A Doctor of Divinity (D.D. or DDiv; la, Doctor Divinitatis) is the holder of an advanced academic degree in divinity. In the United Kingdom, it is considered an advanced doctoral degree. At the University of Oxford, doctors of divinity are ra ...

('' per lit. reg.'') 1848. His private tutors were Henry Philpott and William Hopkins. He was appointed a Fellow in 1836 and a Tutor in 1839. His pupils included Sir William Thomson (Lord Kelvin). He was Proctor in 1842. In 1847 he succeeded William Hodgson as Master of Peterhouse, and as Rector of Glaston, Rutland, until 1867, when this rectory was by the new college statutes detached from the headship with which it had hitherto been combined. He was elected Vice-Chancellor on five occasions (1848, 1863, 1864, 1872, 1873), and was President of the Cambridge Philosophical Society 1865–66. In 1867 he was offered the bishopric of Lichfield by Lord Derby, but declined it. In 1855 he married Emily Valence, elder daughter of

Gilbert Ainslie Gilbert Ainslie (2 June 1793 – 9 January 1870) was an English academic and clergyman. Life The fourth son of Henry Ainslie MD FRCP (1760–1834), Ainslie was born at Kendal and educated at Charterhouse. His name was entered at Trinity Colle ...

, Master of Pembroke College, by whom he had one daughter. He died, after an illness of a few days, on 30 September 1876, in Peterhouse Lodge; and was buried in the churchyard of the college benefice of St Andrew's Church, Cherry Hinton.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cookson, Henry Wilkinson 1810 births 1876 deaths People from Kendal People educated at Sedbergh School Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge Fellows of Peterhouse, Cambridge Masters of Peterhouse, Cambridge Vice-Chancellors of the University of Cambridge 19th-century English Anglican priests