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).
Collonade, 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 James Cook
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 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 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, his studies showed special
aptitudes to mathematics and also
his 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
mottos 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, of about 450 tons, 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
owner 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 severalvoyages'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 up until the early
part of the 20th century.
Elizabeth
Cook (nee Batts) 1740-1835
In
1762 he married Elizabeth Batts
at St-Margarets 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,Elizabethborn 1767,Joseph,
born 26 August 1768,George, born
8 July 1772,Hughborn 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 knew 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. Andrew's, 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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