Ancestors

Mary Cooke

Mary Cooke was born at Plymouth about 1625, the youngest child of Francis Cooke and Hester Mahieu and the only one born in the colony. Her father had come on the Mayflower in 1620. Her mother followed on the Anne in 1623 with the younger children.

In 1627 the colony divided its cattle among its households. The first lot fell to "Francis Cooke & his Companie Joyned to his wife Hester Cooke", and Mary was named with her brothers John and Jacob and her sisters Jane and Hester.

On 26 December 1645 she married John Thompson at Plymouth. The court record reads "John Tompson & Mary Cooke marryed the xxvjth Decembr, 1645." In October 1646 her husband confessed to the court that they had slept together after their betrothal but before the wedding, and he was fined. Their daughter Mary married Thomas Taber of Dartmouth in 1672.

Her husband died on 16 June 1696. Mary died at Middleborough on 21 March 1714 and was buried beside him on Nemasket Hill. Her stone reads: "In Memory of Mary Cooke Tomson who Died 21 March 1714 in the 88th Year of her age Wife of Lt. John Tomson Dau. of Francis and Hester Cooke."

In August 1894 the family dug the foundation for a monument to her husband. The workmen uncovered both of them. A newspaper report said that "the remains of his wife, who was buried 18 years after her husband, were also unearthed, and the bones of the pioneer couple were placed in a copper box and inclosed in the foundation."

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Cite: Heirology, "Mary Cooke (1625-1714)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/mary-cooke-1625-1714-a7a6c9.