Washbourne Cooke (1744–1804)
Of Woodforde's Oxford friends one who did him a particular favour was Washbourne Cooke.
Cooke was born 16 April 1744 to the Revd Francis Cooke and Susanna (née Washbourne) and baptised on 2 May 1744 at the Church of All Saints', Edmonton, Middlesex, where his father was vicar. He was given his mother's maiden name, but was probably named, too, in honour of Revd William Washbourne, his maternal grandfather, who was his father's predecessor as vicar. He was admitted to Winchester College on 16 September 1757 aged 13, five years after Woodforde who was admitted 5 September 1752.
The Revd William Washbourne
The Revd William Washbourne died in 1737 and is buried in All Saints' churchyard. In such affection was he held by his granddaughter Margaret Cooke, the Revd Francis Cooke's daughter and Washbourne Cooke's sister and later the married Margaret Uvedale, that she left funds in her will of 1814 'to keep in good repair the Vault with the Tomb and Railing over it and the Flat Stone that covers part of the Vault in the Churchyard of this parish, belonging to the family of the Reverend William Washbourne, the late Vicar of it and to cause the Railing to be painted with two good coats of paint, once in every three years'.
Woodforde's friendship with Cooke
Although four years his senior in age, it was James Woodforde who on 7 July 1762 'met Cooke in Bagly Wood who was coming from Winton School, to be sped to our College'. There is no obvious connection between their families, but it is probable that Woodforde remembered Cooke from Winchester.
Woodforde rather took Cooke under his wing at New College and introduced him to the undergraduate pleasures of Oxford, including a taste for porter and oysters. When in October that year Woodforde had a 'Boyle' – presumably a stye - on his eye which broke and 'discharged but a small Quantity', it was Cooke who spent the evening with him when Woodforde determined that 'it would be improper' to go into the BCR [Bachelors' Common Room].
Their academic careers followed similar paths: B.A. (Woodforde, 1763 : Cooke, 1766), B.D. (Woodforde, 1765 : Cooke, 1781), M.A. (Woodforde, 1767 : Cooke, 1770).
High Street, Oxford, J.M.W. Turner, 1810 [J. M. W. Turner, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons],_by_Turner_(1810)_crop.jpg){kind=link}
Pro-Proctors
Disappointed in his hopes of at least one of the livings at Castle Cary or Ansford following his father's death in 1771, Woodforde returned to Oxford and New College in 1773. He was made sub-warden of New College for the following year, a largely honorific and ceremonial role which he seemed to enjoy. In 1774 both Woodforde and Cooke had the honour of pro-proctor conferred on them. On 1 May 1774 Woodforde records:
At half past 10. this morning I went with Webber & Cooke Senr to St Peters Church to receive the Holy Sacrament there as being lately made Pro Proctor –
They endeavoured to maintain some order among the undergraduates, although Woodforde appears more assiduous than Cooke. The diary entry for 1 December 1774 is the most detailed account of their nocturnal duties:
I went to Prayers this Evening at 5. o'clock – Cooke treated me with some Fish for Supper – Bingham had a good deal of Company at his Room this Evening and at 11. o'clock they being all merry made such Intolerable Noise by hallowing [hollering] that myself & Cooke went to Binghams Room, called him out & gave him a Lecture which made all quiet – Cooke & myself afterwards took a Walk over the University, and in our Walk we met with some of Mr Binghams Company, who are to wait on us to Morrow Morning, – Cooke took to two and I took to two more – Mr Hart of Christchurch Coll: & M. Lawrence of Corpus College – We returned home a little before 1. o'clock –
During the their pro-proctorial year, 1774–1775, Woodforde and Cooke (Cooke Senior as he became known to the diary to distinguish him from William Cooke (no relation) who is referred to as Cooke Junr) were much in each other's company; the diary entry 'Cooke Senr breakfasted with me' appears frequently, and sometimes that he 'took a walk with Cooke up the Hill'.
Freemasons
Both Woodforde and Cooke were members of the Alfred Lodge and were often at the same lodge meetings. The diary records that on 24 November 1774:
I dined & spent the Afternoon at the Lodge at the New Inn. Dr Wall, Master, Cooke Senr Warden. Velley Junr Warden, Wood, Hinton, Ballanche, Birt, Gilbert, Salisbury, Huddesford, Rawbone, Cox, Henniston, Modd, Walond, Dan: Williams, & Lates Senr present – Brother Wood gave a Lecture on Masonry –
Woodforde was admitted to the Lodge by Dr Robert Holmes, a Fellow of New College. It was in the entry for 21 April 1774 that Woodforde first mentions the lodge and his membership:
I went with Holmes to the Free-Masons Lodge held this Day at the New Inn, was there admitted a Member of the same and dined & spent the Afternoon with them – The Form & Ceremony on the Occasion I must beg leave to omit putting down
Woodforde and Cooke would have been early members, since the Lodge of Alfred in the University of Oxford was founded only a few years earlier in 1769.
The Weston living
A pressing motive for Woodforde's return to New College was to secure one of the livings in the gift of the college. Having failed to secure the Headmastership of Bedford School, 'the third best thing in the gift of the College', he was elected to the rectory of Weston Longville in Norfolk on 15 December 1774.
His fellow proctor and mason Washbourne Cooke voted in his favour, and given their friendship over many years it is hardly surprising that it was Cooke whom Woodforde chose to journey with him on his first visit to his new parish in 1775. Cooke reciprocated the compliment, and following their visit to Yarmouth Cooke went to the home of his sister Margaret Uvedale near Ipswich in Suffolk and invited Woodforde to join his family there.
A visit to Suffolk and London
On 9 May 1775 Woodforde arrived at Bosmeer (Bosmere, need Needham Market, Suffolk) and 'met Cooke in the fields walking'.
Cooke conducted me to Bosmeer House to his Brother in Laws Captain Sam. Uvedale, who has a most noble House & a very fine Estate all round the same. I dined, supped & slept at Captain Uvedales with him his Wife & Mr Cooke – Every thing very elegant – Captain Uvedale & Lady behaved exceeding civil & polite to me indeed – very agreeable People
Woodforde remained at Bosmere until 16 May when he and Cooke 'went in the Captains Chariot for Ipswich to go in the Ipswich Post Coach for London'.
They spent four nights at the Turk's Head Coffee House in The Strand. They attended a play at Drury Lane Theatre, and on 18 May:
after breakfast we took a Walk in S. James's Park and whilst we were there the King & Queen with their Guards went by us in Sedan Chairs from the Queens Palace to St James's Palace, there being a Levee at St James's to day at 2. o'clock – The King did not look pleasant but the Queen did –
Having 'lost my Companion Cooke', presumably in the crowds of St James's, Woodforde walked to Westminster 'where I saw the Lord Chancellor presiding in the Court of Chancery & Lord Mansfield in the Kings Bench'. Cooke, having procured tickets for the Prince of Wales's box, they spent the evening at Covent Garden Theatre where they saw a play, The Merchant of Venice, and for the entertainment, Love Alamode.
The following day they set off for Oxford where they returned to old habits, not least the drinking of porter. However, having been given a year's grace, it was was time for Woodforde's removal to Norfolk, but nor before visiting his family in Somerset. Sub-warden Cooke breakfasted with him on 14 February 1776 and the following day Woodforde left Oxford for Ansford, remaining there until a brief return to Oxford with William Woodforde, 'Nephew Bill', on 11 May 1776 and his final departure from New College on 20 May:
We breakfasted at College and about 10. took my final Leave of my Rooms at College and we set forth for Norfolk, myself, Bill Woodforde and my Serv: Will: Coleman –
The diary does not mention whether Woodforde met Cooke on that final visit, but had he done so it is likely that he would have recorded it. The next we hear of Cooke is in reference to a letter received by Woodforde at Weston on 1 November 1777:
Had a Letter this Evening from Mr Crowe of N: Coll: and upon it, a droll one from Cooke being drunk
Cooke's early parishes: Whaddon and Hardwick-cum-Weedon
Church of St Mary, Whaddon [Mertbiol, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons]In 1778 Cooke was elected to the living of Whaddon in Buckinghamshire. The church, dedicated to St Mary, was granted by the Domesday landholder to the Priory of St Faith at Longueville in Normandy, but in 1441 the priory and all its possessions passed to New College, Oxford.
It lies below the open country of Whaddon Chase, but close to the western perimeter of Milton Keynes. The 1801 Census counted a population of 545 with an additional 265 persons in the hamlet of Nash with its Church of All Saints one mile to the west. It was a rural parish and similar to Woodforde's at Weston, which had a population of 365 in 1801. However, Cooke resigned the living in 1793 having become rector of St Mary's Church, Hardwick-cum-Weedon, in Buckinghamshire, lying just north of Aylesbury.
The advowson of the Hardwick living has an intriguing history and connection with New College, Oxford:
The manor passed through many hands until the middle of the thirteenth century when the then Lord split the manor into two parts leaving it to 2 daughters, with each daughter holding parts of both villages. In 1385 William of Wykeham, Bishop of Winchester, purchased from a descendant of one of the 2 daughters one half of the original manor and presented it to New College, Oxford for the building and upkeep of Winchester School. This eventually gave New College the right to appoint the rectors of the parish which they retained until 1968. The last New College lands in Hardwick were sold in the mid 1990s.
Weedon's history is no less interesting.
The Hatford living
Church of St George, Hatford [ Motacilla, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons]
Cooke died in 1804 and was buried at the Church of St George, Hatford, Berkshire on 2 March. The parish register describes him as B.D. and Rector of the parish of Hatford and also Hardwick (Bucks). This entry indicates that he held two livings but was probably an absentee cleric at Hardwick after he succeeded to the incumbency of Hatford in 1795, having been his uncle's curate there since 1790. The Hardwicke living was valued at about £400 a year, while Hatford provided an additional £120 a year of income.
The advowson of Hatford was not held by New College but was in private hands, as it remains today, administered by Simeon's Trustees. His predecessor there from 1761 was Revd Richard Washbourne, his uncle, whose will specified, 'I give to my nephew Washbourne Cooke all my printed books & manuscripts'. Cooke was certainly favoured by his uncle having briefly served as his curate at Great Harrowden, Northamptonshire, of which parish he was also rector, and where he is buried.
St George's is a tiny 12th Century church comprising a nave extended in the 13th Century when a chancel was added, notable for its Norman south doorway.
Oxford again
Following Woodforde's departure for Norfolk in 1776 there is no evidence from the diary of his having met Cooke again until 1793. Woodforde had been at Bath with his niece Anna Maria ('Nancy') Woodforde and broke his return journey at Oxford, as the entry for 18 October 1793 records:
Mr Sissmore one of the Senr Fellows of New-Coll: and a Contemporary of mine there, shewed us the College and went with us over the University, as did my old Friend Washbourne Cooke, presented last Year to the Living of Hardwicke –
Later that same day:
I went to New College and there dined in the Hall & spent the Afternoon in the Senior Common Room with Cooke who acted as Sub-Warden, Mr Sissmore, Mr Caldecot, Mr Charles Bathurst, Mr Cummins, Mr Hamley &c. 16. in all – We had for dinner a Rump of Beef boiled, a Jigget of Mutton alias Haunch rosted with sweet Sauce &c. &c. – About 6. o'clock took my leave of the Gentlemen of New Coll: as we go for London to Morrow –
It was, apparently, their final meeting. Their lives had run in parallel to the extent that they were Church of England clergymen in rural parishes, neither married, and both achieved six decades of life and little more. Woodforde's hopes of following his father in one his Somerset parishes were stymied by his family; Cooke's family were perhaps more kindly and generous.
There is no information about Cooke's health as he aged, but the diary is clear that from his mid-fifties Woodforde's deteriorated. Many readers of the diary have wondered whether their undergraduate indulgences, 'I had a bottle of my wine' and:
Went to Chapel this Evening at 5. o'clock and after Prayers Cooke Senr & self took a long walk – For Porter after our Walk this Evening – Pd. 0 : 0 : 6
undermined their health in youth, or whether habits were established then that persisted through life.