Richard Cooke (MP for Lymington)

Sir Richard Cooke (born Great Linford, Buckinghamshire, 1561-1616), was a Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland, Secretary of State for Ireland, Privy Councillor and Member of Parliament. He was the son of William Cooke, and grandson of Sir Anthony Cooke, of Gidea Hall. Educated at Oxford University, his rise in politics was mainly due to William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, who had married his aunt, Mildred Cooke.^[1] He was granted 2,000 acres of escheated lands in County Wexford and the Manor of Dunshaughlin in County Meath.^[2]

He married Anne, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Christopher Peyton (d.1612), Auditor-General of Ireland, after his death Anne remarried Sir Henry Colley (d.1637), of Castle Carbury, grandson of Sir Henry Colley. Among others, Cooke was the father of Sir Walsingham Cooke, of Tomduffe, High Sheriff of Wexford.

His widow and her second husband were ancestors of the Duke of Wellington.

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