Elisha Cooke Jr. (December 20, 1678 – August 24, 1737) was a physician and politician from the

Province of Massachusetts Bay The Province of Massachusetts Bay was a colony in New England which became one of the thirteen original states of the United States. It was chartered on October 7, 1691, by William III and Mary II, the joint monarchs of the kingdoms of Eng ...

. He was the son of Elisha Cooke Sr. (1637–1715), a wealthy Massachusetts physician and politician who was elected Speaker of the

Massachusetts House of Representatives The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the State legislature (United States), state legislature of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into ...

in 1683. He graduated from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 1697. Like his father, the junior Cooke was the leader of the "popular party", a faction in the Massachusetts House that resisted encroachment by royal officials on colonial rights embodied in the

Massachusetts Charter The Massachusetts Charter of 1691 was a charter that formally established the Province of Massachusetts Bay. Issued by the government of William III and Mary II, the corulers of the Kingdom of England, the charter defined the government of the co ...

. As such, he was involved in contentious disputes with several colonial governors. When the House selected Cooke as its Speaker in 1720, Governor

Samuel Shute Samuel Shute (January 12, 1662 – April 15, 1742) was an English military officer and royal governor of the provinces of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. After serving in the Nine Years' War and the War of the Spanish Succession, he was appo ...

dissolved the House and called for new elections. Cooke and the House insisted on the right to choose their own Speaker, to no avail. Cooke was one of the richest men in the province, with an estate valued at his death in 1737 at £63,000. He was a heavy drinker, and the owner of the Goat Tavern on King Street. There is strong evidence to suggest that the

Boston Caucus The Boston Caucus was an informal political organization that had considerable influence in Boston in the years before and after the American Revolution. This was perhaps the first use of the word ''caucus'' to mean a meeting of members of a move ...

was established around 1719 by Elisha Cooke Jr. According to Peter Oliver, the last chief justice of Massachusetts before the revolution, the caucus spent huge amounts of money on liquor to win elections in the 1720s. Cooke seems to also have had much influence in the marked relaxation in liquor licensing in the 1720s, which was popular with large numbers of voters. According to the historian G.B. Warden, Elisha Cooke Jr. "contributed more than anyone else to the public life of colonial Boston." Cooke worked closely with Samuel Adams Sr. (1689–1748), whose son

Samuel Adams Samuel Adams (, 1722 – October 2, 1803) was an American statesman, Political philosophy, political philosopher, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a politician in Province of Massachusetts Bay, colonial Massachusetts, a le ...

would continue the struggle to defend colonial rights, ultimately leading to the

American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...

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* * * 1678 births 1737 deaths Members of the colonial Massachusetts House of Representatives Members of the colonial Massachusetts Governor's Council People from colonial Boston 18th-century American physicians Harvard University alumni Speakers of the Massachusetts House of Representatives (colonial period) 18th-century Massachusetts politicians {{Massachusetts-stub