Anne Fitzwilliam, of Brittany

• Anne FitzWilliam1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9
• F, #90529, b. circa 1500
• Father Sir William FitzWilliam, Alderman & Sheriff of London1,10,5,6,11,8,9 b. c 1460, d. 9 Aug 1534
• Mother Anne Hawes1,12,10,5,6,11,9 b. c 1460, d. b 1514
• Anne FitzWilliam was born circa 1500 at of Gaynes Park, Theydon Gernon, Essex, England.1 She married Sir Anthony Cooke, Sheriff of Essex & Hertfordshire, Burgess of Lewes, son of John Cooke, Esq. and Alice Saunders, before 4 February 1523; They had 4 sons (Anthony; Sir Richard; Edward; & Sir William) and 5 daughters (Mildred, wife of Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley; Anne, wife of Sir Nicholas Bacon; Elizabeth, wife of Sir Thomas Hoby, & of John, Lord Russell; Margaret, wife of Sir Ralph Rowlett; & Katherine, wife of Sir Henry Killigrew).1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9
• Family Sir Anthony Cooke, Sheriff of Essex & Hertfordshire, Burgess of Lewes b. 1505, d. 11 Jun 1576
• Children
  • Mildred Cooke1 b. c 1525
  • Elizabeth Cooke+1,4,5,8,9 b. c 1545
• Citations
• [S5] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry, p. 91.
• [S15] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, p. 351.
• [S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. II, p. 219.
• [S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. III, p. 466-467.
• [S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. IV, p. 144-145.
• [S6] Douglas Richardson, Plantagenet Ancestry: 2nd Edition, Vol. I, p. 236.
• [S4] Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry, Vol. II, p. 678.
• [S4] Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry, Vol. IV, p. 508.
• [S4] Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry, Vol. V, p. 93.
• [S16] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, 2nd Edition, Vol. II, p. 218-219.
• [S4] Douglas Richardson, Royal Ancestry, Vol. II, p. 677.
• [S15] Douglas Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, p. 350-351.
• From: http://our-royal-titled-noble-and-commoner-ancestors.com/p3013.htm#... ______________
• Anne FitzWilliam1
• F, #189469
• Last Edited=6 May 2008
• Anne FitzWilliam was the daughter of Sir William FitzWilliam.1
• Child of Anne FitzWilliam and Sir Anthony Cooke
  • Mildred Cooke+1 b. 24 Aug 1524, d. 5 Apr 1589
• Citations
• [S6] G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume II, page 429. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Peerage.
• From: http://www.thepeerage.com/p18947.htm#i189469 ___________________
• Anne FITZWILLIAM
• Born: ABT 1504, Milton, Northamptonshire, England
• Died: 5 Jun 1588
• Father: William FITZWILLIAM of Milton (Sir Knight)
• Mother: Anne HAWES
• Married 1: Anthony COOKE of Gidea Hall (Sir) BEF 1523, Gidea Hall, Romford, Essex, England
• Children:
  • 1. Mildred COOKE (B. Burghley)
  • 2. Anne COOKE
  • 3. Elizabeth COOKE (B. Russell)
  • 4. Anthony COOKE (b. 1535)
  • 5. William COOKE (MP)
  • 6. Richard COOKE of Gidea Hall
  • 7. Edward COOKE
  • 8. Catherine COOKE
  • 9. Margaret COOKE
• Married 2: John HAWES
• From: http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/FITZWILLIAM.htm#Anne FITZWILLIAM2 ____________________
• Anne Fitzwilliam Cooke
• Birth: 1505 Milton Malsor, Northamptonshire, England
• Death: Jun. 5, 1588 Romford, Greater London, England
• Anne was married to Sir Anthony Cooke 12 years after their first child was born, and their children were not documented as legitimate until 1545, on the advent of their daughter Mildred's marriage to William Cecil, Lord Burghley.
• The decision regarding her burial could have gone two ways, as she outlived Sir Anthony by 12 years. Her offspring may have insisted on her burial at Gidea Hall, but the Fitzwilliam family had holdings of their own-- and a burial plot. It would depend on an imponderable now unknown, namely the kind of marital bond that developed over 12 years of "association," 12 years of legal marriage-- and 12 years of widowhood. An intriguing symmetry of statistic.
• Family links:
• Spouse:
• Anthony Cooke (1504 - 1576)*
• Children:
  • Richard Cooke (1521 - 1579)*
  • Mildred Cooke Cecil (1524 - 1589)*
  • Elizabeth Cooke Russell (1527 - 1609)*
  • Anne Cooke Bacon (1528 - 1610)*
• Burial: Gidea Hall, Romford, London Borough of Havering, Greater London, England
• Find A Grave Memorial# 71582589
• From: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=71582589 ____________________
• Sir William Fitzwilliam (c.1460 – 9 August 1534) was a Merchant Taylor, Sheriff of London, servant of Cardinal Wolsey, and a member of the council of Henry VII.
• William Fitzwilliam was the second son of John Fitzwilliam, esquire, of Greens Norton, Northamptonshire, and Helen Villiers, the daughter of William Villiers, esquire, of Brooksby, Leicestershire, by Joan Bellers, the daughter of John Bellers of Eye Kettleby in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire.[1][a][b]
• .... etc.
• Fitzwilliam married firstly Anne Hawes, the daughter of Sir John Hawes, alderman of London, by whom he had two sons and two daughters:[8]
  • Sir William Fitzwilliam.
  • Richard Fitzwilliam, esquire, who married Elizabeth Knyvet, the daughter of Charles Knyvet, esquire.
  • Anne Fitzwilliam, who married Sir Anthony Cooke.[9] Through his daughter Anne, Fitzwilliam was the great-grandfather of the philosopher and statesman, Sir Francis Bacon.
  • Elizabeth Fitzwilliam, who married Sir Thomas Brudenell.
• Fitzwilliam married secondly, Mildred Sackville, sister of Sir John Sackville (died 1557), and daughter of Richard Sackville, esquire, of Withyham, Sussex, by Isabel Digges, the daughter of John Digges, esquire, by whom he had three sons: Christopher, Francis, Thomas; and two daughters:Eleanor who married Sir Nicholas Strange, and Mary who married John Shelley.[8]
• Fitzwilliam married thirdly Jane Ormond, daughter and coheiress of John Ormond, esquire, of Alfreton, Derbyshire, by Joan Chaworth, the daughter of Sir William Chaworth, by whom he had no issue. Jane Ormand had earlier been the wife of Sir Thomas Dynham (died c.1520), and Sir Edward Greville (d. 22 June 1528).[7]
• From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Fitzwilliam_(Sheriff_of_London) ___________________
• Sir Anthony Cooke [1] (1504 – 11 June 1576) was an eminent English humanist scholar. He was tutor to Edward VI.
• Anthony Cooke was the only son of John Cooke (died 10 October 1515), esquire, of Gidea Hall, Essex, and Alice Saunders (died 1510), daughter and coheiress of William Saunders of Banbury, Oxfordshire by Jane Spencer, daughter of John Spencer, esquire, of Hodnell, Warwickshire.[1][2] His paternal grandparents were Sir Philip Cooke (died 7 December 1503) and Elizabeth Belknap (died c. 6 March 1504).[3] His paternal great-grandparents were Sir Thomas Cooke, a wealthy member of the Worshipful Company of Drapers and Lord Mayor of London in 1462–3, and Elizabeth Malpas, daughter of Philip Malpas, Master of the Worshipful Company of Drapers and Sheriff of London.[1][3]
• Cooke served as High Sheriff of Essex in 1545.
• He was never officially described as tutor to Edward VI. It is now thought he may have been more a companion and guide than a formal teacher. At Edward's coronation Cooke was created a Knight of the Bath. On 8 November 1547 he was returned to Parliament for Lewes, and in the same year was one of the visitors commissioned by the crown to inspect the dioceses of London, Westminster, Norwich, and Ely; the injunctions drawn up by him and his companions are printed in John Foxe's Acts and Monuments. Two years later he served on two ecclesiastical commissions, of Protestant tendencies. In November and December 1551 he attended the discussion held between Roman Catholics and Protestants at the houses of Sir William Cecil and Sir Richard Moryson, and his public services were rewarded (27 October 1552) with a grant of land. On 27 July 1553 he was committed to the Tower of London on suspicion of complicity in Lady Jane Grey's movement.[4]
• After his release he went into self-imposed exile to avoid Mary's attempt to reintroduce Catholicism. He travelled widely, spending most time in Strasbourg where he was in contact with leaders of the Reformed faith, and returned following the death of Mary and the accession of Elizabeth I in 1558.[4]
• Cooke then served on several religious commissions, and sat as a knight of the shire for Essex in parliament in 1559 and again in 1563; but he took little or no further part in national affairs. He was appointed Custos Rotulorum for Essex in 1572, but the work resulting from this post was performed by his steward, Francis Ram.[5] He died on 11 June 1576, aged seventy-two, and was buried in St Andrew's, Romford. There is an elaborate memorial to him in Romford parish church. This notes his "exceptional learning, prudence and piety”.[6] However, a recent biographer (Marjorie McIntosh), describes him as “a strong protestant of a dark and unforgiving colour”.[7]
• He was one of the co-owners of Burton Dassett in Warwickshire and conducted a lengthy, but ultimately unsuccessful legal campaign to block the sale of part of the estate to Peter Temple.[8]
• Cooke is particularly remembered because he educated his daughters, who were taught both Latin and Greek. Anne published translations from Italian and Latin and Elizabeth a translation of a Latin treatise on the sacrament.[4]
• Cooke married Anne Fitzwilliam, the daughter of Sir William Fitzwilliam, Master of the Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors and Sheriff of London, by his first wife, Anne Hawes, daughter of Sir John Hawes, by whom he had four sons and five daughters:[3][9]
  • Anthony Cooke (c. 1535 – 1604).
  • Sir Richard Cooke, who married Anne Caunton.[10]
  • Edward Cooke (1557–1584), father of Francis Cooke, a Mayflower passenger and an original settler of Plymouth Colony.
  • William Cooke (died 14 May 1589), who married Frances Grey, daughter of Lord John Grey of Pirgo, by whom he had four sons, including William Cooke of Highnam, Gloucestershire, who married Joyce Lucy, granddaughter of Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecote, and three daughters.[11][1][12][13]
  • Mildred Cooke (1526–89), who in December 1545 married, as his second wife, William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, by whom she was the mother of Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury.
  • Anne Cooke (c. 1528 – 1610), who married, as his second wife, Sir Nicholas Bacon, by whom she was the mother of Sir Francis Bacon and Anthony Bacon.[14]
  • Catherine Cooke (c. 1530 – 1583), who married Sir Henry Killigrew.[15]
  • Elizabeth Cooke (1527–1609), who married firstly Sir Thomas Hoby and secondly John, Lord Russell (c. 1553 – 1584), second son of Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford.
  • Margaret Cooke (died 3 August 1558), who was a lady in waiting to Mary I, and in 1558 married, as his second wife, Sir Ralph Rowlett.[1][16][17]
• From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Cooke ___________________
• Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 12
• Cooke, Anthony by Sidney Lee
• COOKE, Sir ANTHONY (1504–1576), tutor to Edward VI and politician, born in 1504, was the son of John Cooke of Gidea Hall, Essex, by Alice Saunders, and great-grandson of Sir Thomas Cooke [q. v.], lord mayor of London in 1462. He was privately educated, and rapidly acquired, according to his panegyrist Lloyd, vast learning in Latin, Greek, poetry, history, and mathematics. He lived a retired and studious life in youth; married Anne, daughter of Sir William Fitzwilliam of Milton, Northamptonshire, and Gains Park, Essex, and was by her the father of a large family. To the education of his children he directed all his energies. His daughters Mildred, subsequently wife of Lord Burghley, and Ann, subsequently wife of Sir Nicholas Bacon [see Bacon, Ann, Lady], became, under his instruction, the most learned women in England. His success as a teacher in his own family, with whom the son of Lord Seymour was for a time educated, led to his appointment as tutor to Prince Edward (afterwards Edward VI). At his pupil's coronation Cooke was made knight of the Bath. On 8 Nov. 1547 he was returned to parliament for Lewes, and in the same year was one of the visitors commissioned by the crown to inspect the dioceses of London, Westminster, Norwich, and Ely; the injunctions drawn up by him and his companions are printed in Foxe's ‘Acts and Monuments.’ Two years later he served on two ecclesiastical commissions, of markedly protestant tendencies. In November and December 1551 he attended the discussion held between Roman catholics and protestants at the houses of Sir William Cecil and Sir Richard Moryson, and his public services were rewarded (27 Oct. 1552) with a grant of land. On 27 July 1553 he was committed to the Tower on suspicion of complicity in Lady Jane Grey's movement, but in May 1554 arrived in Strasburg and attended Peter Martyr's lectures there. He stayed at Strasburg, where he became intimate with the scholar Sturm, for the following four years, and regularly corresponded with his son-in-law Cecil (Hatfield Calendar, i. 140–146). On Elizabeth's accession he returned home; was elected M.P. for Essex (23 Jan. 1558–9, and 11 Jan. 1562–3), and carried the Act of Uniformity to the House of Lords. In the discussion of this bill Cooke differed from all his friends. He ‘defends,’ wrote Bishop Jewel to Peter Martyr, ‘a scheme of his own, and is very angry with all of us’ (Zurich Letters, Parker Soc. 32). Cooke was nominated a commissioner for visiting Cambridge University (20 June 1559), the dioceses of Norwich and Ely (21 Aug. 1559), and Eton College (September 1561), and for receiving the oaths of ecclesiastics (20 Oct. 1559). In 1565 he was steward of the liberty of Havering-atte-Bower, and three years later received Queen Elizabeth at Gidea Hall, the rebuilding of which, begun by his great-grandfather, he had then just completed. The house was pulled down early in the last century. In
• July 1572 he was associated with the lord mayor in the government of London in the temporary absence of Elizabeth, and was commissioner of oyer and terminer for Essex (20 Oct. 1573) and an ecclesiastical commissioner (23 April 1576). Cooke died 11 June 1576, and was buried in the church of Romford, Essex, where many other members of his family were buried. An elaborate monument, inscribed with Latin and English verse, was erected there to his memory. By his wife he had four sons, Anthony, Richard, Edward (M.A. Cambridge 1564), William (M.A. Cambridge 1564), and five daughters. The eldest daughter, Mildred, became second wife of William Cecil, lord Burghley; Ann was second wife of Sir Nicholas Bacon; Margaret was wife of Sir Ralph Rowlett, and was buried on 3 Aug. 1558 at St. Mary Staining, London; Elizabeth was wife first of Sir Thomas Hoby, and secondly of John, lord Russell, son of Francis, second earl of Bedford; and Katharine was wife of Sir Henry Killigrew. Cooke's executors under his will, dated 22 May 1576, and proved 5 March 1576–7, were his sons-in-law Bacon and Burghley and his two surviving sons Richard and William. The heir, Richard, steward of the liberty of Havering-atte-Bower, born in 1531, died 3 Oct. 1579, and was succeeded by his son Anthony (1559–1604), with the death of whose third son, William, in 1650, the male line of the family became extinct (Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. xii. 480).
• A Latin translation, dated 1560, of Gregory Nazianzen's ‘Theophania,’ attributed to Cooke, is in the British Museum (MS. Royal 5 E. xvii). He contributed Latin verses to the collections published on the deaths of Martin Bucer, Catherine and Margaret Neville, and to Carr's translation of ‘Demosthenes.’ The ‘Diallacticon de veritate natura atque substantia corporis et sanguinis Christi in Eucharistia,’ edited by Cooke and first published in 1557, is not by him, but by his friend John Ponet or Poynet, bishop successively of Rochester and Winchester, whose library came into Cooke's possession on the bishop's death in 1556. Peter Martyr's ‘Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans,’ 1558, was dedicated to Cooke. Five letters addressed by Sturm, Cooke's Strasburg friend, to Cooke between 1565 and 1567 are printed with ‘Roger Ascham's Letters’ (ed. 1864, ii. 93, 116, 121, 162, 164). They are chiefly requests for protection in behalf of foreign scholars visiting England.
• [Cooper's Athenæ Cantab. i. 351–3, 563; Morant's Essex; Froude's Hist. ch. xxxvi.; Biog. Brit. (Kippis), 94–100; Ballard's Memoirs of Learned Ladies; Strype's Cranmer (1845), ii. 856; Strype's Cheke, 22, 47, 155; Strype's Memorials, II. i. 74, 385, III. i. vi. 24, 232; Strype's Annals I. i. 151, II. ii. 86; Burnet's Reformation; Fuller's Church Hist. ed. Brewer; Camden's Annals; Lloyd's Worthies; Fuller's Worthies. A pedigree of the family has been compiled from original sources by Mr. E. J. Sage of Stoke Newington.]
• From: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Cooke,_Anthony_(DNB00)
• https://archive.org/stream/dictionaryofnati12stepuoft#page/76/mode/1up to https://archive.org/stream/dictionaryofnati12stepuoft#page/77/mode/1up ________________
• COOKE, Sir Anthony (1505/6-76), of Gidea Hall, Essex.
• b. 1505/6, 1st s. of John Cooke of Gidea Hall by Alice, da. and h. of William Saunders of Banbury, Oxon. educ. I. Temple, adm. 4 Feb. 1523. m. by 1523, Anne, da. of Sir William Fitzwilliam of Gains Park, Essex and Milton, Northants., 4s. inc. Richard and William† 5da. suc. fa. 1517. KB 20 Feb. 1547.1
• Offices Held
  • J.p. Essex 1537-54, q. 1558/59-d., Warws. 1564-d.; sheriff, Essex and Herts. 1544-5; gent. privy chamber by 1546-53; commr. heresies, Essex 1549, 1550, eccles. laws 1552; poss. tutor to Edw. VI in 1550; custos rot. Essex 1572-d.2
• Anthony Cooke was an adolescent when his father died leaving him a mansion and a sizeable estate within the liberty of Havering-atte-Bower near Romford, Essex: the house had been built and the lands acquired by Cooke’s great-grandfather, the wealthy draper and lord mayor of London Sir Thomas Cooke. It is not known who obtained his wardship: both his stepmother and his uncle Richard were well-placed to do so, as was Sir William Fitzwilliam, whose daughter Cooke was to marry when he was still only about 17. It was as Fitzwilliam’s son-in-law that Cooke was admitted to the Inner Temple on 4 Feb. 1523. Fitzwilliam himself was admitted at the same time, as was his son William, but whereas the elder Fitzwilliam was charged no admission fee, and the younger one was to pay 20s. only when he came into residence, Cooke had to pay the standard fee of 40s.: all three, however, were given the same privileges, to be in or out of commons at their pleasure and to be excused all offices and vacations. One of the pledges on this occasion was Cooke’s brother-in-law Richard Ogle, and it was with Ogle that five months later he was given the use for life of the chamber in the inn known as Essex chamber.3
• Of Cooke’s life during the next dozen years there is scarcely a trace. The lack of any further reference to him at the Inner Temple suggests that he did not long pursue his studies there. More surprising is his apparent absence from court, where both his stepmother, who waited in turn on Catherine of Aragon and Princess Mary, and his father-in-law, Wolsey’s household treasurer, might be expected to have brought him forward. He may have travelled on the Continent, where his uncle Richard spent many years as a diplomatic courier and go-between, chiefly in the service of the Emperor, but the birth of six or seven of his children between 1525 and 1535 shows that he could not have been away for long. He was perhaps preoccupied with his landed inheritance, which had been augmented in 1521 by a fourth share of the estate of his maternal great-grandfather Henry Belknap, and he may have already embarked upon his programme of self-education. Yet he was no recluse. From 1531 he was regularly chosen as a justice within the liberty of Havering, and in 1536 he was one of the Essex gentlemen put on alert at the time of the northern rebellion.4
• From the semi-obscurity of these years Cooke emerges during the last decade of Henry VIII’s reign. In 1539 he received his first appointment at court when he was named one of the newly formed corps of ‘spears’ or royal bodyguard. The martial experience which his selection implies Cooke may have gained in Ireland, where he is reported to have served in 1536-7, but although he was to be called upon to supply men for the campaigns of 1543 and 1544 against France it is not known whether he saw service in them. He was also present on such ceremonial occasions as the reception of Anne of Cleves in 1540 and of the Admiral of France in 1546. Concurrent with his progress at court was Cooke’s advance in his county: from 1537 he sat on the bench and served on other commissions, and in 1544 he was pricked sheriff of Essex and Hertfordshire. The rising courtier and administrator was also emerging as a patristic scholar. It was during a royal progress, perhaps the last of Henry VIII’s in the summer of 1541, that Cooke made the translation of St. Cyprian’s sermon on prayer which he dedicated to the King. In the dedication Cooke expressed views akin to those of the christian humanists of his day, but without sharing their perception of the depth of God’s love for man. Fulsome in his praise of the King for delivering his subjects from bondage to Rome, Cooke is vague as to the theological basis of the new order, perhaps out of a prudent hesitation to become controversial.5
• Cooke’s interest in the welfare and education of his children was acclaimed during his lifetime. A rebuke to one of his sons in the presence of either Protector Somerset or of Thomas Seymour, Baron Seymour of Sudeley, is supposed to have prompted the observation, ‘Some men govern families with more skill than others do kingdoms’, and to have led to Cooke’s appointment as tutor to Edward VI. Whether Cooke ever held this post, the traditional high point of his career, is not certain. In March 1550 Bishop Hooper linked him with (Sir) John Cheke in the tutorship, and in the following May he was given an annuity of £100 for providing ‘training in good letters and manners’ to the King, but he is never officially styled tutor and he is nowhere mentioned in the King’s journal. The most likely explanation is that Cooke was brought into the royal household after the retirement of Richard Coxe, Cheke’s fellow-tutor, in February 1550 and that he gave the King the same sort of intellectual guidance as he had given his own children, but as a companion rather than as a teacher.6
• The new reign had certainly begun auspiciously for Cooke: in February 1547 he was made a knight of the Bath and in the following November he took his seat in Parliament. This was probably, but not certainly, his first appearance in the Commons, for although in 1545 his shrievalty had barred him from election in Essex and Hertfordshire, he might have been returned for a borough elsewhere. The circumstances of his return for Lewes are of some interest. He was evidently not the choice of the electors, his name appearing on the indenture over an erasure. It is possible that his election was engineered by the Council, either because the original name was unacceptable or because he had failed to find a seat elsewhere, but the influence at work could have been of a more personal kind, the sheriff being his wife’s step-uncle John Sackville I and his fellow-Member (Sir) Walter Mildmay a neighbour from Essex. Although the Journal throws no light on Cooke’s part in this Parliament, he is unlikely to have been prominent there, for he was a man who ‘took more pleasure to breed up statesmen than to be one. Contemplation was his soul, privacy his life, and discourse his element. Business was his purgatory, and publicness his torment’. This hatred of the limelight may help to explain the episode of his election to the Parliament of March 1553. His son-in-law Sir William Cecil nominated him for Stamford and on 31 Jan. 1553 the townsmen chose Cooke and their clerk of the peace Robert Lacy, but by the time the sheriff made the return more than two weeks later Cooke had been replaced by his son Richard. His withdrawal is more likely to have been prompted by paternal solicitude than by political misgivings, for on the King’s death in the following summer he gave his support to Lady Jane Grey and thus incurred a spell in the Tower after the failure to alter the succession.7
• Cooke had not moved quickly towards Protestantism. When in 1546 he served on the commission to enforce the Six Articles in Essex, he signed the report recommending severe punishment for those who denied transubstantiation. He may not by then have reached his own final convictions, but by 1550 Hooper could say that he had ‘a pious understanding of the doctrine of the eucharist’. In 1551 he attended the discussions on the subject at the houses of Cecil and of (Sir) Richard Morison, and a year later he served on the commission to reform the ecclesiastical law. With Mary’s restoration of Catholicism Cooke was torn between discharging his duty to the Queen and following the commands of his conscience; it was a cruel dilemma for one who, according to Lloyd, was wont to say, ‘Three things there are before whom I cannot do amiss: 1. my prince; 2. my conscience; 3. my children’, and his only hope of resolving it was by going into exile. On 14 Apr. 1554 he and Cheke arrived at Strasbourg; Cheke went on to Italy, but Cooke remained at Strasbourg for several months, hearing Peter Martyr lecture and perhaps helping in the parliamentary petition, entitled ‘The confession of the banished ministers’, from the English émigrés living there. In the following autumn he followed Cheke across the Alps and spent the winter with Thomas Hoby at Padua, but by June 1555 he was back at Strasbourg, where in that month he was granted a licence to reside. He stayed there for the next three years, corresponding with the leading Protestants on the Continent and writing pamphlets for circulation in England. On Mary’s death he returned home with the twin expectations of seeing a thoroughgoing Reformation and of receiving high office: neither prospect had been fulfilled by the time of his death on 11 June 1576.8
• From: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1509-1558/member/co... ____________________
• COOKE, Sir Anthony (c.1505-76), of Gidea Hall, Essex and Abergenny Place, Warwick Lane, London.
• b. c.1505, 1st s. of John Cooke of Gidea Hall by Alice, da. and coh. of William Saunders of Banbury, Oxon. educ. I. Temple 1523. m. Anne, da. of Sir William Fitzwilliam of Gains Park, wid. of Sir John Hawes of London, 4s. inc. Richard Cooke I and William Cooke I 5da. suc. fa. 1517. KB 1547.
• Offices Held
  • Gent. of privy chamber by 1546-53; j.p. Essex by 1537-54, from 1559, Warws. from c.1564; sheriff, Essex and Herts. 1544-5; steward, manor of Havering, Essex from 1559; commr. to enforce Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity 1559, 1562, to take oaths of ecclesiastical persons 1559, to visit dioceses of Norwich and Ely 1559, to visit Camb. Univ. 1559, to visit Eton Coll. 1561; custos rot. Essex from 1572.
• Of a family established at Gidea Hall by a London draper about 1460, Cooke inherited considerable estates in Essex, and subsequently came into Warwickshire lands of at least equal value derived from his grandfather’s marriage to Elizabeth Belknap. In addition Cooke and the Belknaps were successful speculators in monastic lands. At the end of Henry VIII’s reign Cooke obtained his only court office, which he retained until the end of the reign of Edward VI, whom he taught ‘good letters and manners’, whether or not he received a formal appointment as the young king’s ‘tutor’. The reign of Queen Mary Cooke spent in voluntary—and easy—exile, supported by funds remitted to him by his son-in-law William Cecil, with whom he corresponded regularly, and it was at this time that he earned a reputation among leaders of the reformed religion as ‘a man of intellectual substance and deep religious commitment’. To one of these, Bullinger, he wrote, on learning of the accession of Elizabeth:
  • If the Queen, mindful of the great mercy she has received, will but place her confidence in God; if she will daily say unto the Lord, ‘Thou art my fortress, my rock, and my refuge’, there will neither be wanting to herself the spirit of a Judith or a Deborah, nor wisdom to her counsellors, nor strength to her army.
• Cooke was elected knight of the shire for Essex while still abroad, and he took an active part in Elizabeth’s first Parliament. On 9 and 15 Feb. 1559 the supremacy bill was committed to him, but he was evidently disappointed at the slow progress of the reform of the church, writing to Peter Martyr on 12 Feb.:
  • We are now busy in Parliament about expelling the tyranny of the pope, and restoring the royal authority, and re-establishing true religion. But we are moving far too slowly: nor are there wanting at this time Sanballats and Tobiases to hinder and obstruct the building of our walls ... The zeal of the Queen is very great, the activity of the nobility and people is also great, but still the work is hitherto too much at a stand.
• But John Jewel, writing to Martyr (28 Apr.) said that Cook ‘defends some scheme of his own, I know not what, most obstinately, and is mightily angry with us all’. His other activity in this Parliament concerned bills on regrators and forestallers (20 Feb.), and menservants (7 Apr.). No speech or committee work is recorded for him in the defective journals of the 1563 Parliament.
• Whether because of his religious intransigence or his ‘melancholy temperament’ (as Jewel put it to Martyr, 5 Nov. 1559), Cooke received no major office under Elizabeth. He was one of those recommended by Sir Nicholas Throckmorton for the chancellorship or keepership of the great seal, but, as usual the Queen ignored Throckmorton’s advice. Jewel thought him ‘a worthy and pious man, but I think hardly qualified for that office’. Cooke did, however, carry out a number of tasks for the government (mostly concerned with establishing the religious settlement) in the early days of the new régime. Probably he did not want high office. His health was poor and his epitaph, referring to the earlier period, included the lines:
  • And he therefore to courtly life was called Who more desired in study to be stalled.
• His seventeenth-century biographer wrote:
  • Sir Anthony took more pleasure to breed up statesmen than to be one. Contemplation was his soul, privacy his life, and discourse his element. Business was his purgatory, and publicness his torment.
• He was, of course, on the Essex commission of the peace, and, from 1572, custos rotulorum, but his record of attendance was poor, and his duties as steward of Havering were performed by a deputy. The last decade of Cooke’s life was spent in consolidating his estates and in improving Gidea Hall. His total income has been estimated at £2,500 and he was one of the half dozen wealthiest Essex gentry. He added a wing and a gallery to Gidea Hall, the refurbishment of which was completed in time for the Queen’s visit in the summer of 1568.
• Interestingly enough, by the end of his life Cooke’s religious standpoint is quite obscure. Though in an extreme puritan environment while at Strasbourg, and obviously disappointed at the moderation of the Elizabethan church settlement, Cooke took no part in the subsequent puritan agitation. Instead, he loosened his ties with his foreign colleagues, appointed a slack minister to the church of which he held the advowson, and made not a single charitable bequest in the will (PCC 10 Daughtry) he drew up on 22 May 1576, some three weeks before his death. Even the preamble to the will is conventional, where, from one of his kind, an explicit statement of religious views might be expected. He divided a cash sum of £1,400 among family, friends and servants. Cooke died at Gidea Hall 11 June 1576, and was buried in St. Edward’s church, Romford, on the 21st, beneath an elaborate monument, on which he is described as ‘Sir Anthony Cooke, knight, named tutor to King Edward VI because of his exceptional learning, prudence and piety’. His five learned daughters on whose education he lavished so much care were Mildred, who married Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley; Anne, who married Sir Nicholas Bacon† and was the mother of Anthony and Francis; Elizabeth, who married Sir Thomas Hoby, ambassador to France, and was the mother of Edward Hoby and Thomas Posthumous Hoby; Catherine, who married the diplomat Henry Killigrew; and Margaret, who married Sir Ralph Rowlett†.
• This biography is based upon M. K. McIntosh ‘Sir Anthony Cooke’, Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. cix. 233-50, the author of which had access to an earlier version of this biography.
• From: http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1558-1603/member/co... _____________________

Parents: Anne Hawes & Sir William FitzWilliam. Children: Mildred Cooke+ b. 24 Aug 1524, d. 5 Apr 1589, Richard Cooke: Birth: 1531 in Gidea Hall, Essex, UK Death: Oct. 3, 1579 in Gobrons, UK. Citations From the National Archives Prob 11/59, f72 The testator’s wife, Anne Fitzwilliam (d.1553) was a descendant of Geoffrey Plantagenet (1113-1151), Count of Anjou by a mistress (see Richardson, Douglas, Plantagenet Ancestry (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing, 2004), pp. 330-3). The DNB is in error in stating that she was the widow of Sir John Hawes. The will of John Hawe, dated 28 August 1516, states that his daughter, Anne, now deceased, was the wife of Sir William Fitzwilliam (d.1534), and had four children by him, William, Richard, Elizabeth and Anne (d.1553). The testator’s wife, Anne Fitzwilliam (d.1553) was thus the granddaughter of John Hawe, as indicated by these bequests in his will (see TNA PROB 11/18, ff. 240-1):

[S6] G.E. Cokayne; with Vicary Gibbs, H.A. Doubleday, Geoffrey H. White, Duncan Warrand and Lord Howard de Walden, editors, The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant, new ed., 13 volumes in 14 (1910-1959; reprint in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.: Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000), volume II, page 429. Hereinafter cited as The Complete Peerage.

Birth: 1505 Milton Northamptonshire, England Death: Jun. 5, 1588 Romford Greater London, England

Anne was married to Sir Anthony Cooke 12 years after their first child was born, and their children were not documented as legitimate until 1545, on the advent of their daughter Mildred's marriage to William Cecil, Lord Burghley. The decision regarding her burial could have gone two ways, as she outlived Sir Anthony by 12 years. Her offspring may have insisted on her burial at Gidea Hall, but the Fitzwilliam family had holdings of their own-- and a burial plot. It would depend on an imponderable now unknown, namely the kind of marital bond that developed over 12 years of "association," 12 years of legal marriage-- and 12 years of widowhood. An intriguing symmetry of statistic.

Family links:

Children:

 Richard Cooke (1521 - 1579)*

*Point here for explanation

Burial: Gidea Hall Romford Greater London, England

Created by: Bill Velde Record added: Jun 18, 2011 Find A Grave Memorial# 71582589

Who's who of Tudor women:

Anne Fitzwilliam or Fitzwilliams was the daughter of Sir William Fitzwilliam of Milton, Northamptonshire and Gains Park, Essex (1460-August 9, 1534) and his first wife, Anne Hawes (d. before August 28, 1516). There is some debate as to whether Anne was first married first Sir John Hawes of London. The Sir John Hawes who died c.1517, mercer and sheriff of London in 1500-1, was her grandfather. He left Anne, who was not yet twenty-one on August 28, 1516 (when Hawes’s will was written), one of his best cups of silver gilt. Anne married Sir Anthony Cooke of Gidea Hall, Essex (1505-June 11, 1576) in around 1523, shortly before Cooke entered the Inns of Court. She was the mother of all of his children: Mildred (August 24, 1524-April 4, 1589), Anne (c.1528-August 27, 1610), Elizabeth (c.1528-May 1609), Katherine (c.1530-1583), Richard (1531-October 3, 1579), Anthony (b.1535), Edward (d.1576), William (1537-May 4, 1589), and Margaret (1541-December 8, 1558). Very little is known about Anne Fitzwilliam and what is known is often contradictory. The Oxford DNB entries for Sir Anthony and for some of her daughters gives her date of death as 1553, but this is too early. Marjorie Keniston McIntosh, who has written many articles about the Cooke family of Gidea Hall and about the area of Essex where Gidea Hall is located, clearly indicates that she was still alive to be left behind in England when her husband went into voluntary exile on the Continent in 1554. The generally reliable genealogy site at www.tudorplace.com.ar gives her date of death as June 5, 1588, but this is too late. Anne definitely predeceased her husband, since she is not mentioned in his will. Portrait: effigy on the Cooke monument in Romford, Essex.

From the book: The birth of feminism: woman as in intellect in Renaissance Italy and England Anne Fitzwilliam, Anthony Cooke's wife and the mother of all seven of his children, was the daughter of William Fitzwilliam, a London merchant who settled in Essex. Her children do not comment upon her, and the epitaph that Anthony Cooke wrote in her honor praises her only for having been attractive-but not so stunning that her beauty interfered with his studies. He also mentions her in a brief poem, commending her skills as a mother and housekeeper. She is not mentioned in his will but may have died before he wrote it.

From The Home Counties Magazine: devoted to the topography of London Vol 1, section titled A Riot At Hoddesden, 1535... regarding Sir William Fitzwilliams last wishes '....it was arranged that two ladies... and Ann Cooke his daughter, and wife of one of his executors, should travel down to Marholm, a day in advance of the main party. They accordingly set out from the city on the 16th of August, accompanied by four ladies, and seven servants, to ride, by way of Ware, Royston, and Huntingdon, into Northamptonshire. {at this point on the road, they run into a butcher sitting on a bunch of sheepskins on a horse. the servants ask the butcher to ride along the side of the road so that the ladies may pass and a disagreement ensues and harsh words are spoken, the butcher not wanting to let them pass declaring its a free road. they then come into a town and people came out to support the butcher and started beating the company} Ann Cooke "perceiving the unhappy demeanour of the foresaid furious people, did light off her hourse, being in the uttermost despair of her life that any creature might be, and as she was lighting off her horse one of the said riotous persons struck at her with a bill, and missed her arm, and struck the rein of her bridle clean asunder, and the siad ungracious riotous persons not being thus contented, but of their further mischievous mind, after that they had thus troubled the said company, and sore beaten and greviously wounded them, carried them like thieves and murderers, and put three of them into the cage, there to remain in prison as they so did by the space of three hours and more. {So they stay in the cage until the body of Fitzwilliam comes thru the town It is found that the relatives are locked up so the King's Herald at Arms is called to get them out and they set out to their final destination. A complaint is made against the butcher, Richard Michell of Hoddysdon.

From Notes and Queries by Oxford Journals... Lady F., 1550 (6th S. ix. 83). -Sir Anthony Cooke, of Gidea Hall, Essex, married Anne, daughter of Sir William Fitzwilliam, of Milton, Northamptonshire, who was five times chosen by Queen Elizabeth Lord Deputy of Ireland, and who, deeming it a work of labour worthy of reward, asked for "something," and was told that the Lord Deputyship was preferment, not service; after which, as Cox tells us, he endeavoured to make profit of it, and he succeeded. It is probable that Lady Fitzwilliam was a dame of considerable dignity, and that her daughter Anne wa more apt to call her Lady F. that "My mother." -Edward Solly

Sir Anthony Cooke married Anne, daughter of Sir William Fitzwilliam, of Gains Park, Meydon Gernon, in Essex. This is stated in George Perry's Memorials of Old Romford. -M.A. Oxon.

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• Links
• https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Fitzwilliam,_William_(1460%3F-1534)_(DNB00)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Cooke_(died_1589)
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mildred_Cooke

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