John Cooke

BAPTISM:  January-March 1607 at Leiden, Holland.
MARRIAGE:  Sarah Warren, daughter of Richard and Elizabeth (Walker) Warren, on 28 March 1634 at Plymouth.
CHILDREN: Sarah, Elizabeth, Hester, Mary, and Mercy.
DEATH: 23 November 1695, Dartmouth.

John Cooke was born in late 1606 or early 1607, and was baptized at the French Walloon church in Leiden, Holland between January and March, 1607.

John spent his early years in Leiden, Holland, and came with his father on the Mayflower in 1620 at the age of about 13 or 14. John was then raised in Plymouth; his mother and sisters came over on the ship Anne in 1623, along with his future wife Sarah Warren. He would marry Sarah, the daughter of Mayflower passenger Richard Warren, in 1634 at Plymouth. They would go on to have five daughters all born in Plymouth over the next twenty years. John would become a deacon in the Plymouth Church, and in 1636, Samuel Eaton (who was still breast-feeding when he came on the Mayflower) was apprenticed to him.

At some point during the late 1640s, John Cooke "fell into the error of Anabaptistry," and was cast out of the Plymouth Church. The Church record states: "This John Cooke although a shallow man became a cause of trouble and dissension in our Church and gave just occasion of their casting him out; so that Solomon's words proved true in him that one sinner destroyeth much good."

John Cooke removed from Plymouth and took up residence in Dartmouth, where he died in 1695. His wife Sarah was still alive in 1696, called "a very ancient woman"; her exact death date was not recorded but it was probably not long after.