George Cooke (died 1768)

George Cooke (c.1705–1768) was an English barrister and politician.

Life

He was the son of Sir George Cooke, a barrister who became chief prothonotary in the Court of Common Pleas, and his wife Anne, daughter of Edward Jennings, Member of Parliament for East Looe.^[1][2][3] He entered the Inner Temple in 1717, and was called to the bar in 1728.^[1]

Cooke was in practice as a barrister until his father died, in 1740. He had the life appointment as chief prothonotary, from 1732, and also inherited the family estate, Harefield in Middlesex.^[1][2]

In 1742 Cooke entered parliament, as member for Tregony, supported by Hugh Boscawen, 2nd Viscount Falmouth.^[4] At this stage, Horace Walpole called him "a pompous Jacobite". Leaving parliament in 1747, he was returned for Middlesex in 1750. Initially a Tory, he became a follower of William Pitt the elder in the later 1750s. In the 1760s he opposed the Stamp Act 1765. He was still the member for Middlesex when he died on 5 June 1768.^[1]

Family

Cooke married Catherine, daughter of Sir Thomas Twisden, 4th Baronet, in 1735; they had seven sons. The heir was George John Cooke, who became a Lieutenant-General in the Army.^[2]