Francis Cooke, "Mayflower" Passenger - Birth and baptism of Francis Cook

Many have looked, none have found, the parents of Francis Cooke.

“There is no evidence to support Edward Cooke and Alice Canton as his parents.”

It’s not even certain he was English.

Melissa, I think you are not going in the right direction for a “woolcomber.” The members of the Leiden congregation were not of a knightly class. There are interesting studies and analysis to look into on the Separatists.

A quick start:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Puritans_in_North_America

In 1620, a group of Separatists known as the Pilgrims settled in New England and established the Plymouth Colony. The Pilgrims originated as a dissenting congregation in Scrooby led by Richard Clyfton, John Robinson and William Brewster. This congregation was subject to persecution with members being imprisoned or having property seized. Fearing greater persecution, the group left England and settled in the Dutch city of Leiden.

https://www.tribstar.com/news/lifestyles/genealogy-pilgrims-were-se...

The Pilgrims were separatist Puritans who believed that reform within the Church of England was not enough and couldn’t be accomplished. They broke away entirely from the Church to follow their own beliefs. Doing this was illegal in England, where church and state were the same. Their religious movement was mostly comprised of commoners who were uneducated and lacking in wealth. The center of their separatist movement was in the town of Scrooby in Nottinghamshire. This group was led by William Brewster, an educated man of means. …

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But we don’t know if Cooke was with them in England or joined them separately / later in Leiden.

The Walloon church was prominent in Leiden and shared many theological views with the English Separatists. And, English - Dutch intermarriage was not unusual ; and some of the Scrooby congregation in fact stayed in Netherlands.

I think you can edit the profile. His occupation in Leiden was “woolcomber.”

PS please keep the same formatting. I put many, many hours into that “about.” Thank you.

Take a look at the documents previously uploaded.

https://media.geni.com/p13/b7/3a/a2/a6/5344485ebe0bb00a/francis_cooke_marriage_mayflower_descendants_vol_8_p_49__original.pdf?hash=a1706c938b28875a010581704f014c096c655c39961a785cc537a8a29ea0eb25.1762243199

https://media.geni.com/p13/d1/6f/0a/1f/5344485ebe03bc84/francis_cooke_and_his_descendants_mayflower_descendants_vol_3_p_95__original.pdf?hash=e999b3401e52ed5493b3cd460e3a9fec46e3963c6e418d2ba6325bfba571261a.1762243199

Link didn’t work.

https://www.tribstar.com/news/lifestyles/genealogy-settlers-with-ne...

http://www.histarch.illinois.edu/plymouth/GLOSSARY.htm

Freeman

A term which designated citizenship of the Colony, which was restricted to adult males. A freeman possessed the right to vote for the Governor and Assistants and the right to hold office. The laws did not provide any statutory requirement for freemanship, although the oath of allegiance to the Colony required indicated what was expected of those admitted (PCR 11: 156). To be admitted as a freeman appeared only to require approval by the freemen of the town where the person lived before their name could be presented to the General Court of Freemen for approval (PCR 11: 65; 236). Initially all stockholders in the joint-stock company that financed the Colony were freemen, but not all freemen were stockholders. (Fennell 1998: 7). Land ownership did not appear to be a requirement, although freemen may have been granted more land than non-freemen (Langdon 1966: 39n). Legislation could only be approved by the freemen who constituted the General Court, and consequently there were heavy fines imposed on freemen who did not attend the General Court sessions on a regular basis, and towns also imposed fines on freemen who did not attend town meetings. By 1638 the freemen, through the General Court, had passed legislation which allowed them to elect "deputies", representatives who could attend the sessions of the General Court for each town. Only freemen could hold the office of deputies, but the 1638 legislation allowed non-freemen who paid taxes to vote for candidates for deputy. Despite this, all freemen had to attend the election court held in June unless prevented by reason of age or any urgent business when they could vote by proxy; in any other case of default a fine of 10s was imposed (PCR 11: 157).

What was the pound value? Who was admin?

This paragraph is part of the speculated descent from Sir Edward Cooke, which is not accepted by The Mayflower Society.

”The history of the parish of Blyth, York, England, shows that Francis Cook came from that parish adjoining Austerfield, in the vicinity of Scrooby, whence came Brewster, Bradford and Robinson. Cook is supposed to have been allied with Edward Cook, a descendant of Sir Edward Coke, knight, lord chief justice of England, and member of the privy council. The father and grandfather of Francis Cook were silk mercers. Francis Cook appears in the list of those designated as "exiles from Scrooby." …

Caleb Johnson is the current historian / genealogist for The Mayflower Society, and I believe is the lead investigator into English origins of the passengers.

And perhaps some of your questions can be asked of https://www.pilgrimfranciscookesociety.org/about.php

A caution:

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Cooke-36

Joseph St. Dennis explained: Both Richard Cooke and Anne Caulton; and Edward Cooke and Alice Caunton have been cited as parents of Francis Cooke. But his ancestry remains unknown. Several fictitious ancestries have been presented, some of which are clearly hoaxes. One hoax can be found in chapter 6 of ‘New Light on the Pilgrim Story.' (For a discussion of why this is a hoax, see 'English Ancestry and Homes of the Pilgrim Fathers' by Charles Banks.) Tudor Place, archived at WayBack Machine

The Y DNA Haplogroup is already mentioned on the Geni profile.

I2- Lineage 3a Cooke of MAYFLOWER in the FamilyTree DNA project. I’ll add that link to profile.

https://www.familytreedna.com/public/cook?iframe=yresults

Melissa, forgive me, but I have some 50,000 curated profiles to attend to on Geni. I’d like to make this my last edit for Francis. There are many documents uploaded, I hope you find them useful, and also hope you consider contacting some of the organizations mentioned to assist your queries. Another contact suggestion is Lester Bangs at the Leiden Archives, who has been instrumental in bringing to light evidence about the Pilgrims living there, as Francis and Hester did.