Sir Richard Cooke (1561 in

Great Linford Great Linford is a historic village, district and wider civil parish in the northern part of Milton Keynes, England, between Wolverton and Newport Pagnell. Great Linford village Great Linford was one of the North Buckinghamshire villages inc ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-eas ...

– 1616), was an English-born politician who spent most of his career in Ireland. He was

Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland The Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland was the head of the Exchequer of Ireland and a member of the Dublin Castle administration under the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the Kingdom of Ireland. In early times the title was sometimes given as Ch ...

Secretary of State for Ireland The Principal Secretary of State, or Principal Secretary of the Council, was a government office in the Kingdom of Ireland. It was abolished in 1801 when Ireland became part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland under the Acts of Un ...

, a

Privy Councillor A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

and a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

. He was the son of William Cooke and Frances Grey, daughter of Lord John Grey and Mary Browne, and grandson of Sir Anthony Cooke, of Gidea Hall and Anne Fitzwilliam. Educated at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. His rise in politics was mainly due to his family connection to

William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley (13 September 15204 August 1598) was an English statesman, the chief adviser of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign, twice Secretary of State (1550–1553 and 1558–1572) and Lord High Treasurer from ...

, who had married his aunt,

Mildred Cooke Mildred Cecil, Baroness Burghley (née Cooke; 1526 – 4 April 1589) was an English noblewoman and translator in the sixteenth century. She was the wife of William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, the most trusted adviser of Elizabeth I, and the mother ...

. He sat in the Parliament of 1584 as member for

Lymington Lymington is a port town on the west bank of the Lymington River on the Solent, in the New Forest district of Hampshire, England. It faces Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, to which there is a car ferry service operated by Wightlink. It is within the ...

. As an MP he was embarrassed by a lawsuit brought against him in the

Court of Chancery The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid a slow pace of change and possible harshness (or "inequity") of the Common law#History, common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over ...

by Margery Dyke, but he was able to plead

Parliamentary privilege Parliamentary privilege is a legal immunity enjoyed by members of certain legislatures, in which legislators are granted protection against civil or criminal liability for actions done or statements made in the course of their legislative duties ...

to defeat her claim. Margery later apologised to Cooke for making an unfounded claim. He was granted 2,000

acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial and US customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet), which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, of a square mile, 4,840 square ...

s of

escheat Escheat is a common law doctrine that transfers the real property of a person who has died without heirs to the crown or state. It serves to ensure that property is not left in "limbo" without recognized ownership. It originally applied to a ...

ed lands in County Wexford and the Manor of Dunshaughlin in

County Meath County Meath (; gle, Contae na Mí or simply ) is a county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. It is bordered by Dublin to the southeast, Louth to the northeast, Kildare to the south, Offaly to the ...

. His descendants lived mainly at Sleanagrane, County Wexford, which they renamed Cookestown. He first came to Ireland in about 1595, and became Chancellor of the Exchequer the following year. In 1602 he complained that Patrick Segrave, a Baron of the Court of Exchequer (Ireland), had tried to bribe him: Segrave was found guilty of corruption and removed from office. Cooke became Secretary of State the following year. By 1608 Cooke was considered to be a leading figure in the Irish administration. Notwithstanding his important role in Government, he preferred to live in England, where he spent most of the years 1612–1614. He only returned to Ireland under threat of removal from office. In 1615 he was writing to the London government complaining about the maladministration of Ireland, and urging that the Irish Parliament be dissolved. He died a year later. His will has not survived. He married Anne, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Christopher Peyton (d. 1612), Auditor-General of Ireland, and his first wife Anne Palmer. After his death Anne remarried Sir Henry Colley (d. 1637), of Castle

Carbury Carbery or Carbury may refer to: ;People: * Brian Carbury (1918–1961), New Zealand fighter ace * Douglas Carbery (1894–1959), British soldier and airman * Ethna Carbery (1864–1902), Irish writer * James Joseph Carbery (1823–1887), Irish Dom ...

, grandson of Sir Henry Colley. Cooke was the father of Sir Walsingham Cooke, of Tomduffe,

High Sheriff of Wexford The High Sheriff of Wexford was the British Crown's judicial representative in County Wexford, Ireland from the 16th century until 1922, when the office was abolished in the new Irish Free State and replaced by the office of Wexford County Sherif ...

, and a younger son William. His descendants included the writer and businessman John Walsingham Cooke Meredith (1809-1881). His widow and her second husband were ancestors of the

Duke of Wellington Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish soldier and Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of 19th-century Britain, serving twice as prime minister o ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooke, Richard 16th-century English MPs Members of the Privy Council of England Alumni of the University of Oxford Members of the Parliament of England (pre-1707) for Lymington 1561 births 1616 deaths 16th-century Anglo-Irish people 17th-century Anglo-Irish people Chief Secretaries for Ireland Chancellors of the Exchequer of Ireland Kingdom of England people in the Kingdom of Ireland