Cooke, Rev. Samuel

Find a GRAVE and Monmouth History. See more detail at: https://www.monmouthhistory.org/250/reverend-samuel-cooke-flees-shrewsbury
- The Reverend Samuel Cooke was the son of Thomas Cooke, collector of Revenue at Yarmouth, England. He studied at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge University and came to America as a missionary for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts in 1751. He received the honorary degree of M.A. from the College of Philadelphia in 1760. Reverend Cooke was in charge of Monmouth County, New Jersey, Episcopal parishes including Shrewsbury, Middletown, Freehold and other places from 1765 to the Revolution.
- He travelled to England on private business in 1775 and returned to America in 1776 as deputy chaplain to the Brigade of Guards. During the war he was Chaplain to the Brigade of Guards and the Garrison at New York. His property in Shrewsbury was confiscated in 1779.
- At the end of the war, he went into exile in New Brunswick and was appointed Chaplain to the garrison at Saint John. In 1786 he became the first rector of the Episcopal Church at Fredericton, and in 1791 he was Commissary to the Bishop of Nova Scotia.
- Reverend Cooke was drowned crossing the River St. John in a birch bark canoe, May 23, 1795. His son Michael, who attempted to save his life, perished with him. His wife Graham Kearny, the daughter of Michael Kearny, of Perth Amboy, New Jersey was born in 1736 and died in 1771.
- At the start of Revolutionary agitation, Reverend Samuel Cooke was arguably the most influential man in Shrewsbury Township. For a decade, he led the county’s Anglican congregation at Shrewsbury and smaller congregations at Middletown and Freehold. He lived in a comfortable home in Shrewsbury immodestly named “the Glebe.” As anti-British agitation swept the colonies, Cooke led the resistance. He wrote that, for a half year, “he prevented any committee from being chosen in Shrewsbury.” But the winds were blowing against Cooke’s public support of the British government.
- Cooke returned to America in June 1776. He wrote that “he came home in 1776, hoping that the confusion in the colonies would subside.” Cooke soon learned that returning to Shrewsbury would be dangerous. Instead, he joined the British Army as deputy chaplain to the Brigade of Guards, a British Army unit.
- Cooke stayed in the Army until the end of the war. In May 1780, he from New York wrote about the “great numbers of the inhabitants of Shrewsbury, both church people and Quakers, here within the King’s lines.” He also remained in contact with at least some former congregants in Shrewsbury. Of them, he wrote: “Those who remain conform no farther to the present tyranny than is absolutely necessary for their safety, and to exempt themselves from confiscation and jail.” His Loyalist compensation application to the British Government was supported by William Franklin (the last Royal Governor of New Jersey) and Courtland Skinner (the commander of the Loyalist New Jersey Volunteers). This proves that Cooke was on good terms with the most important Loyalists at war’s end.
Proven Loyalist in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=1763
Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/60948619/samuel-cooke