Ebenezer Cooke
Ebenezer Cooke (c. 1665-1732) was a famous poet who was born in London, England. He wrote what many scholars consider to be the first American satire, “The Sot-Weed Factor,” in 1708. Very little is known about the life of Ebenezer Cooke, and the majority of our knowledge on the London-born poet was discovered by Lawrence C. Wroth and published in his facsimile, “The Maryland Muse,” in 1703. Wroth’s facsimile contains a revised version of The Sot-Weed Factor, and another poem by Ebenezer Cooke, called Bacon’s Rebellion. Wroth also documents a number of various occurrences in the names of Ebenezer Cooke, Andrew Cooke, Anna Cooke, and many others of relation to Cooke in both England and Maryland in the seventeenth and eighteenth century. From these occurrences, we are able to piece together bits of information about Ebenezer Cooke’s life and history.
Wroth theorized that Cooke’s grandfather, Andrew Cooke, came to Maryland in 1661 and bought several pieces of property in the Dorchester and Kent counties. One of these properties was called “the Malden estate,” which was located on Cooke’s Point near the Choptank River. Cooke’s father, who was also named Andrew, married a woman named Anne Bowyer in London, England in 1664. Ebenezer Cooke was born the next year, in 1665.
It is known that Cooke voyaged to Maryland from London as a young man and claimed the estate on Cooke Point. Based on the occurrences in his poem, he attended Cambridge University and came to Maryland in 1694.
He returned to London sometime before The Sot-Weed Factor was published in 1708. We know this because this poem was published in London. He returned to Maryland later after inheriting a half interest on his father’s estate at Malden, Maryland. In 1717, Cooke sold the portion of his Dorchester estate that he had inherited from his father. In 1720, he leased an area of land in Baltimore County on behalf of Lord Baltimore. In August 1728, he went to Prince George’s County, Maryland and practiced law as an attorney. This is why some of his writing contains references to court procedures and language used by lawyers. Cooke was a witness in May 1729 for a court case having to do with the Lowe family will. The relations between the Cooke and Lowe family have not been deeply investigated, but they were acquainted with each other through the lease of the Baltimore County land. Based on the court record of the aforementioned court case, it seems that Ebenezer Cooke and Nicholas Lowe were on unfriendly terms with each other. A man named “E. Cooke,” who was likely Ebenezer Cooke, authored an elegy in the Maryland Gazette for the death of Nicholas Lowe. Wroth theorizes that this elegy is actually a satire of Nicholas Lowe. It is rumored that another Ebenezer Cooke had relations with the young woman in the Lowe family who was involved in the court case, but the poet who wrote “The Sot-Weed Factor” has not been officially declared to be the same Ebenezer Cooke.
Little has been documented about this London-born poet, so much of his life is unknown to us. Ebenezer Cooke died in 1665 at the age of 67, but his writing lives on today and continues to interest many people around the world. His satire, “The Sot-Weed Factor,” is still considered an inspiring work of literature and continues to be read by people today, over three hundred years after it was first published.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Special thanks to the students in Professor Ontiveros' ENGL142 class (Worchester group).
Image source: Sot-Weed Factor Page.