The
granite vase marks the location
of Captain Cook's cottage, Stewart
Park, Marton, Middlesbrough, Cleveland,
United Kingdom. Henry William Ferdinand
Bolkow arranged its installation
in 1858. Henry Bolkow's residence
(Marton Hall) was built near by
in 1853. He was Middlesbrough's
first Mayor and first MP, and co-founder
of Bolkow and Vaughan iron and steel
works (now part of British Steel).
Colonade,
Stewart Park, Marton.
Stewart
Park, the site of the original Marton
village was opened in 1928 by Councillor
T D Stewart, Mayor of Middlesbrough
in 1920.
Captain
James Cook was born on 27th October.
1728, at the village of Marton,
near Middlesbrough, Yorkshire, in
a thatched cottage built by Cooks
father James who was born in Ednam,
Roxburghshire, Scotland. Church
records in Ednam show that James
Cook, Captain Cook's father, was
born in 1694 and raised in Ednam,
the son of John Cook, a tailor.
Captain
Cook Birthplace Museum, Marton,
Middlesbrough The
site of Marton Hall is now occupied
by the museum.
Captain
Cook's father was a day labourer
who eventually worked his way up
to become an overseer at Aireyholme
Farm on the slopes of Roseberry
Topping, near Great Ayton .
(Note:
to visit Great Ayton, travel from
Whitby on
the A171 then the A173 highways)
Aireyholme
Farm
Aireyholme
Farm is still a working farm and
can be viewed from a nearby footpath.
Great
Ayton village with Roseberry Topping
in the background
Church
records from Stainton-in-Cleveland
Parish Church show that James
Cook senior married Grace Pace,
of Thornaby, on the 10th October
1725, the groom was 31 and the
bride was 23. They had eight children,
four died in childhood only their
second son James and his sisters
Margaret and Christiana survived.
Margaret married a man named Fleck
of Redcar, where in 1771 her father
James went to live with them until
his death in 1779. Christiana
married a fisherman named Cocker
of Staithes.
Baptismal
record of James Cook
In
the church of St.Cuthbert's, Marton,
Middlesbrough the register for
1728 shows the entry - "James
the son of James Cook day labourer
baptized"
Memorial
window, St-Cuthbert's Church
On
Marton village green there is a
stone memorial from Point Hicks
in Australia,
the first Australian land sighted
by Captain Cook in April 1770.
The
cottage was purchased in 1934 by
Sir Russell Grimwade, it was dismantled
and moved stone by stone to Australia
and re-constructed in the Fitzroy
Gardens, Melbourne as a gift to
celebrate the State of Victoria's
Centenary Year.
After
the family removed to Great Ayton,
Thomas Skottowe, the Lord of the
Manor of Ayton, who owned the
lands on which the Cook family
farmed, and who was a benevolent
and kindly master, always caring
for his tenants, had noticed that
the second son of the Cook family,
was a bright boy and arranged
for him to attend the local village
school.
Great
Ayton village schoolhouse.
Young
James Cook attended this school
in 1736 and lived in the village
until 1745. A plaque situated on
the rear wall of the schoolhouse
reads:
"In
this building, James Cook the
son of a day labourer attended
school in 1736. He became a Captain
in the Navy, a fellow of the Royal
Society and won worldwide renown
as one of the greatest explorers.
Born
1728 - Died 1779
This
tablet was erected AD 1914 by the
Captain Cook Memorial Committee
formed under the auspices of the
British Empire League."
Sculpture
of young Cook, Great Ayton village
green
The
sculpture is the work of the internationally
renowned sculptor, Nicholas Dimbleby,
and shows James at the age of 16,
looking towards Staithes.
It
was unveiled on 12th May 1997 by
Captain Chris Blake, Master of the
replica of Cook's ship HM Bark Endeavour,
during the ship's visit to Whitby.
Nothing
special characterised his school-days,
except that under his Great Ayton
schoolmaster, Mr Pullen, he showed
a special aptitude for mathematics
and also a resolute adherence
to his own plans in preference
to those of his schoolfellows.
Coat
of arms of Captain James Cook R.N.
The
coat of arms was awarded to Captain
Cook posthumously by the King of
England and is the only one ever
to include a globe
(centered on the Pacific Ocean)
and Polar stars.
The
motto reads:
"He
left nothing unattempted"
Before
he left school, he assisted his
father in his agricultural labours
and, at the age of sixteen, was
placed with Mr. William Sanderson,
a haberdasher, at Staithes, with
a view to learning his general
business. At this fishing place
he mixed with seafaring folk which
created in him a great desire
to go to sea. After a year and
a half with Mr. Sanderson, he
was bound apprentice for three
years to Mr. John Walker, a Quaker
shipowner and master mariner at
Whitby.
It
is not known in which ships he sailed
during his first year but in 1747
a new Act of Parliament was passed
that decreed that all ships must
keep Muster Rolls. From that time,
therefore, there is a near complete
record of the Whitby (and other)
vessels on which Cook sailed.
Cook
is known to have sailed on the
"Freelove" (1748-1751) in which
he made three voyages, and the
"Friendship" (1751-1755) all owned
by the Walkers employed in the
coal trade. The North Sea Coal
Trade had developed to meet the
ever-expanding need London had
for coal and it was this that
introduced Cook to London as the
colliers sailed up the Thames
to discharge the coal at the wharves
along the north bank of the river,
east of Tower Bridge.
Cook
possibly stayed at the Bell Alehouse
near Execution Dock in Wapping,
which was owned and run by the Batts
family.
In
1762 the Batts' daughter Elizabeth
married James Cook.
In
the course of his apprenticeship,
Cook spent several intervals at
Whitby, chiefly in the winter when
the vessels were usually laid up.
According to custom, he lodged in
his master's house in Grape Lane
where the housekeeper allowed him
a candle to read by himself while
the other apprentices were spending
their time in amusement.
Captain
Cook Memorial Museum, Grape Lane,
Whitby.
There
is a tablet in the front wall
of this house facing the street;
the initials are those of the
probable owners of the house at
the inscribed date - Moses and
Susannah Dring. That eagerness
for knowledge which grew so rapidly
in his future life then began
to take deep root and after several
voyages'before the mast'
his studious habits were recognised.
During the war with the French
in 1755, he enlisted as an Able
Seaman on the Eagle. Within a
month he was promoted, because
of outstanding ability, to Master's
Mate.
Four
years later he was promoted to Master.
St.Lawrence
River, Canada
In
command of his own ship, James
Cook performed a crucial charting
of the St. Lawrence River in Canada,
which made possible the great
amphibious assault upon Quebec
City in 1759. In 1763 he was given
command of the schooner Grenville
to survey the eastern coast of
Canada over a four year period.
These excellent charts were used
until the early part of the 20th
century.
Elizabeth
Cook (nee Batts) 1740-1835
In
1762 he married Elizabeth Batts
at St.Margaret's Church Barking,
Essex. The couple made their first
home at 126 Upper Shadwell and
their first child was baptised
in St. Paul's Church, Shadwell.
When James Cook returned from
a voyage to Newfoundland the next
year in 1763, the family moved
one kilometre north to a new home
at 7 Assembly Row on Mile End,
between the London Hospital and
Stepney Green. Assembly Row remained
the Cook home until Elizabeth
Cook moved to Clapham in 1788.
The houses occupied by Cook have
disappeared but plaques mark their
locations. They had six children,
James, born 13 October 1763, Nathaniel,
born 14 December 1764, Elizabeth
born 1767, Joseph, born 26 August
1768, George, born 8 July 1772,
Hugh born 23 May 1776.
Captain
James Cook and four of his marines
were killed by the natives of Owhyee,
one of the Sandwich Islands, on
14th February, 1779.
His
remains, which the Hawaiian Islanders
were compelled to deliver
up, were committed to the deep
in Kealakekue Bay a week later.
Elizabeth,
survived her famous husband by
56 years, outlived her children
and was alone for the last 40
years of her life. She last saw
Captain Cook as he set off on
his third and fatal voyage. It
was 20 months after he was killed
by natives in Hawaii in 1779 before
she new of his death.
Great
St. Andrews Church, Cambridge.
Elizabeth
died at the age of 94 on the 13th
May 1835 at her residence in Clapham,
Surrey. Her remains and those
of her sons James and Hugh are
buried in the middle aisle of
the church of Great St. Andrews,
Cambridge.
Photographs
used with the kind permission of
Richard B. Mann
At
Marske-by-the-sea, the tower of
St. Germain's Church overlooks the
grave of James Cook senior, who
died six weeks after his son was
killed,
without ever knowing the tragic
news.
The
gravestone pictured above marks
the resting place of John James
Robinson and also the resting place
of James Cook, the father of Captain
James Cook.
The
inscription reads as follows:
John
James Robinson of Blenavon House
who was lost at sea
Sept. 9th 1904 age 22 years.
This
stone is erected by his Father and
Mother and to mark the spot where
James Cook Father of Capt James
Cook R.N. the circumnavigator was
buried Apl 1st 1779.
Photograph
courtesy of Don Burluraux
Cook
Monument, Easby Moor, Cleveland,
U.K.
A
monument was erected to the memory
of the gallant explorer at Easby
in Cleveland in 1827 by Mr. Robert
Campion of Whitby.
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