Family and Early life

He was born at Denham, Buckinghamshire

Denham, Buckinghamshire

Denham is a village and civil parish in the South Buckinghamshire district of Buckinghamshire, England. It is north west of Uxbridge and north of junction 1 of the M40 motorway. Denham contains the Buckinghamshire Golf Club.-Origin:...

, the third but only surviving son of William Cooke (1711–1797), provost of King's College, Cambridge

King's College, Cambridge

King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college's full name is "The King's College of our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge", but it is usually referred to simply as "King's" within the University....

 and his wife, Catherine, the daughter of Richard Sleech, a canon of St George's Chapel, Windsor. He was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, graduating with a BA in 1777 and MA in 1785, being a fellow of the college from 1776 to 1786.

Ireland

Cooke entered government service in 1778, as private secretary to Sir Richard Heron

Sir Richard Heron, 1st Baronet

Sir Richard Heron, 1st Baronet was a politician in the Kingdom of Ireland.He was the youngest son of Robert Heron of Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire...

, the Chief Secretary for Ireland

Chief Secretary for Ireland

The Chief Secretary for Ireland was a key political office in the British administration in Ireland. Nominally subordinate to the Lord Lieutenant, from the late 18th century until the end of British rule he was effectively the government minister with responsibility for governing Ireland; usually...

 while John Hobart, 2nd Earl of Buckinghamshire

John Hobart, 2nd Earl of Buckinghamshire

John Hobart, 2nd Earl of Buckinghamshire was an English nobleman and politician.The son of John Hobart, 1st Earl of Buckinghamshire by his first marriage, he was educated at Westminster School and Christ's College, Cambridge. He was Member of Parliament for Norwich from 1747–56, having also been...

 was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland

Lord Lieutenant of Ireland

The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland was the British King's representative and head of the Irish executive during the Lordship of Ireland , the Kingdom of Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...

. He served in a series of posts in the Irish administration and parliament, becoming under-secretary for the military department in 1789-1796 and for the civil department 1796-1801. In this period, he was also Member of Parliament (MP) for the boroughs of Lifford

Lifford (Parliament of Ireland constituency)

Lifford was a constituency represented in the Irish House of Commons until 1800.-1692–1801:...

 (1789–90) and Old Leighlin

Old Leighlin (Parliament of Ireland constituency)

Old Leighlin was a constituency represented in the Irish House of Commons to 1800.Following the Act of Union 1800 the borough was disfranchised.-Boundaries and Boundary Changes:...

 (1789–1801). He prospered because he was clever and ready to support British policy.
He had an extremely poor opinion of the Irish judiciary, and sent jaundiced letters to London describing nearly all of them as insolent, ignorant or biased.

He published several political pamphlets during the 1790s. However, his position became difficult during the passage of the Irish Act of Union

Act of Union 1800

The Acts of Union 1800 describe two complementary Acts, namely:* the Union with Ireland Act 1800 , an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain, and...

, because he favoured relief to Catholics

Catholic Emancipation

Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in Great Britain and Ireland in the late 18th century and early 19th century which involved reducing and removing many of the restrictions on Roman Catholics which had been introduced by the Act of Uniformity, the Test Acts and the penal laws...

. This determined him to return to England. While in London in 1801, negotiating the augmentation of the Irish Secret Service Fund, he was in negotiation with Lord Pelham over his future employment and Pelham's under-secretary, but a row broke out over the respective role of the Home Secretary and the Lord Lieutenant. The Lord Lieutenant consented to his retirement, and he received sinecure posts worth £2000 per year, including Keeper of the records of the Irish parliament.

Politics in Britain

Following his return to England. Cooke remained unemployed until 1804, when he was appointed Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies

Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies

The Under-Secretary of State for War and the Colonies was a junior Ministerial post in the United Kingdom government, subordinate to the Secretary of State for War and the Colonies....

 under Lord Camden

John Pratt, 1st Marquess Camden

John Jeffreys Pratt, 1st Marquess Camden KG, PC , styled Viscount Bayham from 1786 to 1794 and known as The Earl Camden from 1794 to 1812, was a British politician...

 and then Viscount Castlereagh. His career then followed Castlereagh's to the Foreign Office. He went with him to Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 and to Italy in winter 1814-15 to support Castlereagh in peace negotiations

Congress of Vienna

The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...

 and partly to negotiate with the Vatican

Holy See

The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...

over the Catholic Question. In 1817, he retired, much to his chief's regret.

Private life

Cooke married, on 10 August 1791, Isabella, the daughter of Hamilton Gorges of Kilbrew, Co. Meath, an Irish MP. There were no children. He died in 1820.