George Grimston Cookman (October 21, 1801 - March 12, 1841) was a Methodist clergyman who served as Chaplain of the Senate.
George Grimston Cookman was born in Kingston-on-Hull, Yorkshire, England, on October 21, 1801, to George and Mary Cookman. He joined a Methodist society in 1820 and in 1821 he visited the United States for the first time, on business for his father. Later, upon the advice of minister friends, he determined to go to the United States to minster, a step he took in 1825.[1]
His first year in the United States, he served St. George’s Church in Philadelphia. In 1826 he was appointed to the Kensingtion and St. John churches in Philadelphia. At this point in his life, he hoped to go as a missionary to Africa, but this did not happen. Following his marriage in the spring of 1827, he was appointed to the Lancaster, Pennsylvania, circuit (comprising Lancaster, Columbia and Reading), the Cookmans lived in Columbia, Pennsylvania, along the Susquehanna River, during this time. In 1828 he was stationed at New Brunswick, New Jersey, where his preaching drew much public acclaim.
In 1829 he was sent to the circuit in Talbot County, Maryland, where a long-held dream of preaching to the black population was first realized. His ministry and avocaty of emancipation garnered the praises of Frederick Douglass. His next appointments were to St. George’s in Philadelphia, for two years and then to Newark, New Jersey for a year. Cookman was then transferred to the Baltimore conference where he served all of the congregations in that city except Fells Point. Then he was called to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, just as the Methodists were revitalizing Dickinson College.
In 1838 he was sent to Wesley Chapel in Washington, D.C. His preaching there led to his being proposed as Chaplain of the Senate (1839). While serving there, he was able to bring about a renewed commitment to Christian faith in former President Franklin Pierce. In 1840 he took charge of the Alexandria, Virginia, church.
Rev. Cookman was lost at sea when the steamship SS President (then the largest passenger ship afloat) departed on her third and final westward crossing on March 11, 1841, to England, never to be heard from again. The liner was last seen from the Packet Ship ‘’Orpheus’’ in a terrific gale on March 12th; all 136 of the crew and passengers perished.[2][3]
On April 2, 1827, Cookman, who had returned to England, married Mary Barton at Doncaster, Yorkshire; their six children included sons Alfred, George, and John Emory.