Nielsen Hayden genealogy

Francis Cooke

Male Abt 1583 - 1663  (~ 80 years)


Personal Information    |    Notes    |    Sources    |    All

  • Name Francis Cooke  [1, 2, 3
    Alternate birth Aft Aug 1582  [4, 5
    Birth Abt 1583  [6, 7
    Gender Male 
    Alternate birth Aft 1582  [8
    Alternate birth Aft Aug 1583  [9
    Death 7 Apr 1663  Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location  [4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10
    Person ID I1523  Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others | Ancestor of DGH, Ancestor of LD, Ancestor of TNH
    Last Modified 15 Aug 2021 

    Family Hester Mahieu,   b. Between 1582 and 1588, Canterbury, Kent, England Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Between 8 Jun 1666 and 18 Dec 1675, Plymouth, Plymouth, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location (Age ~ 84 years) 
    Marriage 30 Jul 1603  Leiden, Netherlands Find all individuals with events at this location  [5, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16
    Children 
    +1. Jane Cooke,   b. Abt 1604, Leiden, Netherlands Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Between 1631 and 1640, Plymouth Colony Find all individuals with events at this location (Age ~ 27 years)
    +2. John Cooke,   b. Abt 1607   d. 23 Nov 1695, Dartmouth, Bristol, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location (Age ~ 88 years)
    +3. Mary Cooke,   b. Abt 1626, Plymouth, Plymouth Colony Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 21 Mar 1715, Middleborough, Plymouth, Massachusetts Find all individuals with events at this location (Age ~ 89 years)
    Family ID F1329  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 4 Jan 2024 

  • Notes 
    • Emigrated 1620 on the Mayflower, along with his son John. Signer of the Mayflower Compact.

      His marriage intention records him as a "woolcomber" and a bachelor from England. But Jeremy Dupertuis Bangs ("Leiden Records," The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 143:195, 1989) argues that just as that same record calls his wife "from Canterbury" when she was certainly a member of an extensive French family, there is no reason to automatically assume that Francis Cooke was English at all. Certainly Leiden records refer to him by a variety of French and Low Countries versions of his name -- Franchoys Cooke, François Coek, Franchoijs Couck.

      Ancestor of FDR, as was his nephew by marriage, Philippe Delano, who arrived at Plymouth in 1621.

      From Wikipedia:

      He is first noted in historical records on April 25, 1603 in Leiden, Holland as a witness at Raphael Roelandt's betrothal. For purposes unknown, Francis Cooke resided in Leiden for about six years before the arrival of the congregation of English Separatist pastor John Robinson in 1609.

      Francis Cooke was betrothed to Hester Mahieu at the French Walloon Church (Vrouwekerk) in Leiden on June 30, 1603, with she joining the church one month prior to her betrothal. Her family were Protestant (Walloon) refugees from Lille, France to England. She was probably born in the late 1580s with her family coming to Leiden about 1590. Mary Mahieu, a possible sister of Hester, married Jan de Lannoy in Leiden and their child Philip de Lannoy had Francis Cooke as a witness to his baptism in the Vrouwekerk on November 6, 1603. Cooke's nephew Philip 'Delanoy' would later join the Separatist Church in England and arrived in Plymouth in November 1621 on the ship Fortune.

      He held various offices, all well-documented in easily-located sources. In 1651 William Bradford wrote "Francis Cooke is still living, a very olde man, and hath seen his children's children have children; after his wife came over, (with other of his children,) he hath 3 still living by her, all married, and have 5 children; so their increase is 8. And his sone John, which came over with him, is maried, and hath 4 children living."

      Francis Cooke = Hester Mahieu
      Jane Cooke = Experience Mitchell
      Elizabeth Mitchell = John Washburn
      Joseph Washburn = Hannah Latham
      Rebecca Washburn = David Johnson
      Rebecca Johnson = Ezra Edson
      Ezra Edson = Asenath Perkins
      Ophir Edson = Soviah Williams
      Cyrus Edson = Martha Davidson Nelson
      John Tracey Nelson = Winona de Clyver Charlier
      Constance de Clyver Edson = Charles Louis Seeger
      Pete Seeger (1919-2014)

  • Sources 
    1. [S584] History of Weymouth, Massachusetts, volumes 3 and 4, by George Walter Chamberlain. Weymouth, Massachusetts: Weymouth Historical Society, 1923.

    2. [S5444] George Ernest Bowman, "The Will of Samuel Harlow4 of Plymouth, Mass." The Mayflower Descendant 20:163, 1918.

    3. [S635] Mayflower Families Through Five Generations: Volume 6, Third Edition, Family — Stephen Hopkins by John D. Austin. Plymouth, Massachusetts: General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 2001.

    4. [S636] Mayflower Families Through Five Generations: Volume 12, Francis Cooke of the Mayflower by Ralph V. Wood, Jr. Camden, Maine: Picton Press, 1996; revised edition, 2014.

    5. [S5881] Ancestral Lines, Fourth Edition: 232 Families in England, Wales, the Netherlands, Germany, New England, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania by Carl Boyer III. Santa Clarita, California, 2015.

    6. [S4249] The Mayflower Migration: Immigrants to Plymouth, 1620 by Robert Charles Anderson. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2020.

    7. [S101] The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633, Volumes 1-3 and The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volumes 1-7, by Robert Charles Anderson. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1996-2011.

    8. [S1647] The Pilgrim Migration: Immigrants to Plymouth Colony 1620-1633, by Robert Charles Anderson. Boston: New York Historic Genealogical Society, 2004., "In or shortly after 1583".

    9. [S1739] Mayflower Increasings: From the Files of George Ernest Bowman at the Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants by Susan E. Roser. 2nd edition. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1995.

    10. [S1647] The Pilgrim Migration: Immigrants to Plymouth Colony 1620-1633, by Robert Charles Anderson. Boston: New York Historic Genealogical Society, 2004.

    11. [S101] The Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to New England, 1620-1633, Volumes 1-3 and The Great Migration: Immigrants to New England, 1634-1635, Volumes 1-7, by Robert Charles Anderson. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1996-2011., says 20 Jun 1603.

    12. [S603] Walter James Harrison, "New Light on Francis Cooke, His Wife Hester Mahieu, and Their Son John." The Mayflower Descendant 27:145, Oct 1925., says 20 Jun 1603.

    13. [S636] Mayflower Families Through Five Generations: Volume 12, Francis Cooke of the Mayflower by Ralph V. Wood, Jr. Camden, Maine: Picton Press, 1996; revised edition, 2014., says after 30 Jun 1603, date of intention.

    14. [S1647] The Pilgrim Migration: Immigrants to Plymouth Colony 1620-1633, by Robert Charles Anderson. Boston: New York Historic Genealogical Society, 2004., says 20 Jun 1603.

    15. [S3710] Jeremy Dupertuis Bangs, "Leiden Records." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register 143:195, 1989.

    16. [S4249] The Mayflower Migration: Immigrants to Plymouth, 1620 by Robert Charles Anderson. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 2020., says "20 July 1603 or shortly thereafter".