John Cooke of Thorne - St Mary - Ottery St Mary, Devon - Stone Church Artefacts on Waymarking.com

Memorial memorial to John Cooke (d.1632) in St Mary's church, Ottery St Mary.

The figure of Cooke is dressed in armour, a helmet resting on the ground, and he holds in his left hand the handle of his sheathed sword and in his right hand the baton of a military commander.

"The great-grandson of William Cooke and Mary Kelloway was John Cooke (d.1632) of Thorne, whose mural monument with effigy survives in St Mary's Church, Ottery St Mary. He married Margaret Sherman, a daughter of Richard Sherman of Ottery St Mary, whose arms (Or, a lion rampant sable between three holly leaves vert) appear on the monument. He is said by Stabb to have been murdered by a younger brother, and "the story goes that at midnight the statue steps down from its niche and walks about the church". The monument was restored by his grandson in 1726.

The second son and eventual heir (his elder brother Richard Cooke having died without progeny) of John Cooke (d. 1632) was William Cooke, who in October 1639 brought a lawsuit before the judge Henry Howard, Lord Maltravers, against John Bagg of Ottery St Mary, a miller, for having insulted him in a manner likely to provoke a duel. The case (visit link) is recorded as follows:

"About the 25th day of June last, your petitioner being at Awtry, in the county aforesaid, in the company of divers gent(lemen) and others at a publique meeting, was there assaulted by one John Bagg of Awtry, yeoman, who (without any provocation given him) told your petitioner that "he was a base knave and a base gent"; and being reproved for such his speeches by some gent(lemen) then present Bagg replyed that "he could not make your petitioner baser then he was".

Cooke stated that he was a captain of a trained band and that his family had been gentry for 300 years, whereas Bagg was merely a yeoman. No further proceedings survive."

SOURCE - (visit link)

The faded inscription on the monument has been transcribed and framed below the memorial. It reads -
The Monument of John Coke of Thorne Esq:
the Sone of Christopher Coke
and of Joan
the Daughter of Richard Coplestone Esq.
He marryed Margaret
the Daughter of Richard Sherman Gent
and has Issue Richard John William Jane & Joan
He was of the Age of 42 Yeares and 7 months
and dyed the 28th daye of March 1632.

Approximate Age of Artefact: 1632 Relevant Website: Not listed

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