COOKE, Catherine
Catherine Cooke was born at Nettlebed, Oxfordshire in 1843, eldest child of Revd Thomas Alexander Cooke (1814-25 May 1895), and his wife Harriet née Jones (1824-January 1894). In 1851, Catherine was a 7-year-old, living at Wargrave, Wokingham, Berkshire with her parents, 36-year-old William, a clergyman of the church of England without care of souls, and 28-year-old Harriet, two siblings Jane 3 and Edward Buckley 2. They were still living at Wargrave in 1871 but by 1881, were living at Polstead Hall, Suffolk with Thomas now ‘a landowner and clergyman without care of souls’, with his wife Harriet and children, Catherine 37, Jane 33, Edward 31 and Ruth 21, keeping five indoor servants. Catherine was a member of the Ipswich Fine Art Club 1883-1885 and exhibited from Polstead Hall in 1883, a watercolour 'An Ayrshire Burn' and in 1884 'The Home Bridge, Polstead' and as Miss K. Cooke in 1885 'A Suffolk Stream'. Catherine Cooke died on 2 December and was buried at Polstead St Mary Church on 7 December 1895, aged 52, she was unmarried.