Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cooke, William (d.1553)
COOKE, WILLIAM (d. 1553), judge, was born at Chesterton, Cambridgeshire, and educated in the university of Cambridge. He studied law first at Barnard's Inn and subsequently at Gray's Inn, of which he was admitted a member in 1528. He was called to the bar in 1530. In Lent 1544 he was elected reader at Gray's Inn, but in consequence of an outbreak of the plague did not read. On 2 Dec. 1545 he was elected recorder of Cambridge. He was also counsel to King's Hall, and steward of Corpus Christi College, Christ's College, Trinity Hall, and Gonville Hall. In autumn 1546 he was again elected reader at Gray's Inn, having received in the previous Trinity term a writ of summons to take the degree of serjeant. The ceremony took place on 3 Feb. 1545–6, Cooke receiving from Gray's Inn a present of 8l. towards the expenses connected therewith. The usual feast was held at the invitation of Lord-chancellor Wriothesley in Lincoln's Inn Hall. He was appointed king's serjeant on 22 Oct. 1550, and on 15 Nov. 1552 received a puisne judgeship in the common pleas. He died on 24 Aug. 1553. He was buried in the church of Milton, Cambridgeshire, where a brass with two Latin inscriptions still preserves his memory.
[Cooper's Annals of Cambridge, i. 429, 435, 452, v. 265; Dugdale's Orig. 117, 137, 293; Chron. Ser. 88, 89; Foss's Lives of the Judges; Cooper's Athenæ Cantab.]