Aaron COOKE, Jr

   Ancestral File Number: C5FG-L3.

   General Notes:

ANCESTRY.COM 3 Aug 2000
Database: Massachusetts Applications of Freemen, 1630-91
Date, Name, Residence, Original Source, Comment
06 May 1635, Aron Cooke, C. R., Vol. I. p. 153.

ANCESTRY.COM 12 Aug 2000
Database: The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-33
AARON COOKE
ORIGIN: Dorchester, Dorsetshire
MIGRATION: 1630 on Mary & John
FIRST RESIDENCE: Dorchester
REMOVES: Windsor 1637, Northampton 1661, Westfield 1668, Northampton 1678
CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: Admission to Dorchester church prior to 6 May 1635 implied by freemanship.
FREEMAN: 6 May 1635 [MBCR 1:371].
EDUCATION: Although his inventory does not include them, Aaron Cooke bequeathed several bibles and military books to various of his heirs.
OFFICES: Connecticut jury, 1 June 1643, December 1644, 9 October 1645, 29 October 1646, 24 May 1647, 2 September 1647, 7 March 1649/50, 15 May 1650 [CCCR 1:87; RPCC 20, 30, 37, 44, 47, 48, 52, 77, 82]. Called the court of Magistrates as "Capt: Aron Cooke," 11 October 1655 [RPCC 153].
Hampshire jury, 24 September 1661, 25 March 1662 [Pynchon Court 253, 259]. Commissioner to end small causes at Westfield, 27 July 1672, 13 October 1673, 10 April 1675 [Pynchon Court 276, 277].
"Lieutenant Cooke is to be Commander in Chief" of a company of men to be prepared to go against the Dutch, 21 May 1653 [CCCR 1:242]. On 11 March 1657/8 "Capt. Aron Cooke" is in the Windsor section of a list of troopers [CCCR 1:309]. Confirmed as captain of the military company at Northampton, 5 July 1686 [Pynchon Court 313].
ESTATE: On 1 September 1634 granted three acres in Dorchester "up Naponset" [DTR 7]; on 22 November 1634 granted six acres for his "small and great lots at Naponset betwixt the Indian Field and the mill" [DTR 8]. Granted sixteen acres for a Great Lot, 4 January 1635/6 [DTR 14]. Granted "half an acre of ground over against his lot by the brook near the dead swamp to build his house upon," 5 July 1636 [DTR 18]. On 2 January 1637/8 the town of Dorchester ordered that "Jo: Kingsley is limited for his marsh in the neck next Good: Gaylor's which was sold him by Aron Cooke to have only 4 acres" [DTR 26].
On 8 September 1653 "Lieutenant Cooke is allowed fifty acres of meadow in Massacoe [Simsbury]," and in May 1661 "Lt. Cooke owns [this land] to be in his father Ford's improvement" [CCCR 1:246-47]. On 14 March 1660/1 "Capt. Cook is required to desist in any further labor on the lower farm at Mussaco, until the matter be issued at General Court, in May next" [CCCR 1:364], and on 16 May 1661 the court ordered respecting "Capt. Aaron Cook's grant at Mussaco" that the grant is still in force [CCCR 1:367].
In his will, dated [illegible] August 1690 and proved 24 October 1690, "Aaron Cooke Sen[io]r of Northampton" bequeathed that as "my loving son Noah hath on his marriage my inheritance at Westfield given him, as my loving son Aaron had my inheritance at Windsor given him at his marriage, and as much as my son Noah hath left his dwelling at Hartford to come to look to my [decline?] & nurse me in my age at Northampton, I do will & bequeath my house & barn ... to my loving son Noah ... I mean my house in Northampton, likewise all my meadow ... with my pasture land next my brother John Strong's ... my son Noah paying my debts and giving such legacies as I shall after express as soon as he can do it without selling off the land, namely unto his brother my loving son" £40 if he releases the estate from any claims from him; to "my daughter Miriam Laids" £20 at her own dispose as an addition to her portion; to "my loving daughter Elizabeth Parsons" £20 in addition to her portion formerly, also "the great brass [tight binding] that was her own mother's"; to "Moses Cooke my grandson, of my son Moses deceased, born of his wife Elizabeth [tight binding] Clark's daughter" a parcel of land of one hundred fifty acres, also a Bible; to "Elizabeth Cooke my granddaughter my son Moses' daughter" one cow more, also a bible; to "my grandson Aaron Cooke son of my son Aaron" three hundred acres; to "my son Aaron my leadering staff, sword, and best belt & the military book entitled [tight binding] and the cane leadering staff that my son Aaron Cooke hath the use of I give to the use of Northampton Foot Company"; to "my son Noah Cooke" clothing and a military book; to the Church of Christ at Northampton a silver bowl of £6 price; to "each of my grandchildren" a Bible; "my sons Aaron and Noah Cooke" executors [HamLR A:1 (court)].
The inventory of the estate of Major Cook was taken 26 December 1690 and totalled £526 1s., including real estate valued at £410: "a house & homestead" and "land in the meadow, thirty-six acres," £330; "a parcel of land within the common fence by Elder Strong's," £30; "in Hartford Colony about three hundred acres," £30 10s.; and "one parcel of land in Windsor bounds," £20 [HamPR 1:274].
BIRTH: Baptized Bridport, Dorsetshire, 20 March 1613/4, son of Aaron and Elizabeth (Chard) Cooke [TAG 11:179-80].
DEATH: Northampton 5 September 1690.
MARRIAGE: (1) By 1638 Mary Cooke, daughter of William and Martha (White) Cooke (and first cousin of STEPHEN TERRY) [DSGRM 25:54-55]; she died by 1650.
(2) By 1650 Joan Denslow, daughter of NICHOLAS DENSLOW; she died Westfield in April 1676.
(3) New Haven 2 December 1676 Elizabeth Nash [NHVR 1:43]; she died by 1688.
(4) Hadley 2 October 1688 Rebecca (Foote) Smith [Pynchon VR 224], widow of Philip Smith, daughter of Nathaniel Foote [Wethersfield Hist 2:328]; although not mentioned in the will of her second husband, she survived him and died 6 April 1701...
...ASSOCIATIONS: Aaron Cooke's mother was widowed the year after his birth, and she soon married THOMAS FORD, in whose family Cooke came to New England [TAG 11:179-80].
COMMENTS: In his accounting of "what children has been born in Windsor from our beginning hither," compiled on 17 August 1677, Matthew Grant reported for "C[aptain] Aron Cook" seven children [Grant 91]. (Pope also gives Aaron Cooke an eldest child Nathaniel, but Nathaniel Cooke of Windsor married in 1649, which would make him too old to be a son of Aaron.)
Aaron Cooke had relatively few debt suits at court in the 1640s and 1650s [RPCC 46, 90, 102, 115, 119]. At court in May 1656, Janne Maton of London successfully sued "Capt. Aron Cooke" for a debt of £26 [RPCC 162]. On 4 December 1656 "Nicholas Maber servant to Capt. Cooke" was ordered to pay his master for corn he "feloniously took from him an paid to the Irishmen" [RPCC 171]. On 4 March 1657[/8] Edward Messenger sued Capt. "Aron Cooke" for detaining a sow [RPCC 186]. On 15 May 1650 and 7 June 1660, Timothy Trall sued "Capt. Aaron Cooke" for "defaming him in open Court" and won a small judgment [RPCC 212, 214, 215].
Trumbull provides a concise but excellent summary of the life of Aaron Cooke [Northampton Hist 415-18].

ANCESTRY.COM 13 Aug 2000
THE PIONEERS OF MASSACHUSETTS
Aaron, Dorchester, 1634; frm. May 6, 1635. Rem. to Windsor, Conn.; rem. before 1663 to Northampton; rem. to Westfield; keeper of the ordinary there in 1673. Major. Mary, [his wife?] memb. chh. of Dorch. about 1636. He m. 2, Joanna Denslow, who d. April, 1676; m. 3, Elizabeth Nash, who d. Sept. 1687; he m. 4, Rebecca Smith, who d. 6 April, 1701. Ch. Nathaniel, Joanna b. 5 Aug. 1638, Aaron bapt. 21 Feb. 1640-1, Miriam bapt. 12 March, 1642, Moses bapt. 16 Nov. 1645, Samuel bapt. 2 Nov. 1650, Elizabeth bapt. 7 Aug. 1653, Noah bapt. 14 June, 1657. He d. 5 Sept. 1690.

ANCESTRAL FILE
Family Search Ancestral File v4.19 C5FG-L3.

   Events:

1. Immigration; 1630, Dorchester, Suffolk, Massachusetts, USA. "Mary & John", from Dorchester Dorsetshire England.

2. Freeman; 6 May 1635, Dorchester, Suffolk, Massachusetts, USA. Admission to Dorchester church prior to 6 May 1635 implied by freemanship.

3. Removed; 1637, Windsor, Hartford, Connecticut, USA. Northampton 1661, Westfield 1668, Northampton 1678