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Cooke (Cooksborough)
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By the end of the 17th century this family was established in county Westmeath following a grant of 1,152 acres in the barony of Moycashell in 1669. John Cooke, born 1656, in his will dated 5 May 1730, mentions his wife Elizabeth (Foster), his three sons and ten daughters, some of whom were married to members of the Reynell, Rotton, Daniel, Nugent and Hudson families. In 1745 his eldest son Robert married Mary Sandford of county Roscommon and they had two children Elizabeth who married Thomas Purdon of Huntington, county Westmeath and Robert (1752-1835) who married Maria Saunders of Castle Saunders, county Wicklow. Both Robert and Maria’s sons died unmarried in their father’s lifetime and the estate was left to Robert’s illegitimate son Adolphus Cooke. A soldier and eccentric Adolphus Cooke’s estate was mainly in the parish of Rathconnell but also in Killucan and Killulagh. In the mid-1870s he owned 4,557 acres in the county. He left his estate to Edward Michael Pakenham, a younger son of the 4th Earl of Longford. Following his death in 1876 there were legal disputes about his will with his cousin Dr Wellington Purdon and the estate was sold to pay the debts.
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