Pilgrim Hall Museum - Beyond the Pilgrim Story

Francis Cooke was born in England, around 1583. By profession, he was a woolcomber. He was in Leiden as early as 1603 (before the Pilgrim Separatist community emigrated to Holland) when he married Hester Mayhieu. They were members of the Leiden Walloon Church, a congregation of French-speaking Belgian people whose beliefs were very similar to those of the English Separatists.

Francis arrived in Plymouth in 1620 on the Mayflower with his teenage son John. Hester Mayhieu Cooke and the couple’s two other children, Jane and Jacob, arrived on the Anne in 1623. Two more daughters, Hester and Mary, were born to Francis and Hester Cooke in Plymouth.

Francis Cooke died in 1663.