# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cooke, Edward (1755-1820)

​COOKE, EDWARD (1755–1820), under-secretary of state, born 1755, was the third son of Dr. William Cooke, provost of King's College, Cambridge [q. v.] He was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge; B.A. 1777, M.A. 1785. About 1778 he went to Ireland as private secretary to Sir Richard Heron, chief secretary to the lord-lieutenant; and in 1786 he was appointed second clerk to the Irish House of Commons. In 1789 he was nominated under-secretary to the military department, and was M.P. for Lifford 1789–90 and for old Leighlin borough from 1790 till the union in 1801. In 1795 he was removed from office by Lord Fitzwilliam, with whose policy he did not sympathise, and to whom, moreover, he proved personally objectionable. He was offered a pension, which, according to Fitzwilliam, he rejected, thinking ‘a retreat upon 1,200l. a year an inadequate recompense for the magnitude and importance of his services’ (A Letter from Earl Fitzwilliam to the Earl of Carlisle, 1795). There are conflicting statements as to the value of the compensation, which it appears took account of services only, and not of Cooke's losses in being ‘removed from a station of much advantage and opportunity’ (Observations on the Letters of Lord Fitz——m to Lord Carlisle, 1795; A Letter to a Venerated Nobleman lately retired from this Kingdom, Dublin, 1795; Memoirs of the Court and Cabinet of George III, 1853, ii. 331). This dismissal was among the causes that led to Fitzwilliam's recall. Cooke was reinstated by Lord Camden, and in 1796 he was appointed under-secretary in the civil department. He was ​thus brought into intimate relations with Lord Castlereagh, the chief secretary, an association which was maintained and strengthened in later years.
In 1798 he published, anonymously, ‘Arguments for and against an Union between Great Britain and Ireland considered.’ This pamphlet, which was taken to represent views held in higher quarters, called forth many replies. It is a temperate examination of the problem, resting the case for the union on grounds conciliatory to all classes of the Irish people. Large concessions to the Roman catholics are foreshadowed as the natural sequel to a measure which, in other ways, the writer did much to forward. He was the intermediary in most of the transactions, questionable and otherwise, by which legislative support was obtained for the Union Act. Sir Jonah Barrington describes a scene in which, aided by Castlereagh, he bought over in the face of the Irish House of Commons a member who had previously declared against the project, and who pronounced his retractation on the spot (Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation, p. 405). Cooke was sent to London to confer with Pitt and others on the question, and his reports to Castlereagh are important documents in the history of the negotiations. On the passing of the act he shared the disappointment of the statesmen responsible for the Irish government caused by the refusal of the concessions promised to the Roman catholics, and in spite of pressure he resigned his appointment. ‘I could not embark in an administration founded upon one principle alone, which principle, after mature consideration, I think dangerous and untenable’ (Castlereagh Correspondence, iv. 28–9). A letter addressed by him to the lord chancellor of Ireland in vindication of the Roman catholic claims is a noteworthy illustration of political sagacity and prevision (ib. iv. 41).
Cooke's administrative ability and great knowledge of Irish affairs are attested by many evidences. His influence was not that of a subordinate official, he was felt as a governing power. Fitzwilliam complained that while in Carlisle's time Cooke was a clerk he found him a minister. A later lord-lieutenant, Cornwallis, recognised that he was a man to be reckoned with, and described him as of an unaccommodating temper, and ‘much more partial to the old system of government than to the measures I have introduced’ (Cornwallis Correspondence, iii. 310). This opinion was subsequently modified, and it is clear that Cooke's views on Irish administration were marked by growing liberality (ib. iii. 315). Between Cooke and Castlereagh the understanding was complete, and for many years they exchanged views on public affairs on a footing of practical equality. Returning to England, Cooke served as under-secretary for war and the colonies 1804–06 under Lord Camden and 1807–09 under Lord Castlereagh, and under-secretary for foreign affairs 1812–17, again under Castlereagh. He retired from official service in 1817, and died in Park Lane, London, 19 March 1820.
[Gent. Mag. April 1820; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. ix. 630; Coote's History of the Union, 1802; Plowden's Historical Review of the State of Ireland; Sir Jonah Barrington's Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation, Paris, 1833; Brit. Mus. Cat.; authorities cited in text.]
J. M. S.