Given that many of Cooke’s greatest successes were achieved under the auspices of the Academy of Ancient Music it comes as little surprise to find that much of what is known of him relates to that society, its members, and their activities. The ‘filial Regard’ Cooke professed for the Academy is reflected in the apparent importance he attached to his work as Academy ‘Conductor’ compared to his treatment of his other main career position as organist of Westminster Abbey. Despite its undoubted prestige and the fact that predecessors included Orlando Gibbons, Henry Purcell and John Blow, the latter post appears to have consumed less of Cooke’s creative and professional energies than the former. This bias is evident, not least, in the Cooke Collection manuscripts, which include numerous references to the Academy, its intellectual agenda, and fellow academicians, and little mention of the Abbey. In this chapter we will briefly examine Cooke’s upbringing, education, and his overall development as a musician who played a critical role in shaping the Academy’s important but now largely forgotten contribution to English musical history.

Apart from snippets of information to be gleaned from inscriptions on his music manuscripts Cooke bequeathed little in the way of written documentation from which to form a biographical account of his life. Sporadic Cooke references can be found in contemporary diaries such as those of R. J. S. Stevens and John Marsh, as well as in newspaper reports of the 1770s and 80s. The most complete account of Cooke’s life and career is the brief fourteen-page published biography by his son Henry, entitled Some Account of Doctor Cooke, Organist of Westminster Abbey, &c. (1837). Although replete with key facts and anecdotal information, this account was written decades after Cooke’s death and is beset with distortions, some of which will become apparent on closer examination. It is therefore through careful consideration of the widest possible combination of sources that a picture of Cooke and his musical interests and career must be formed.

Cooke’s early introduction to the musical environment of the Academy was made almost inevitable through the career activities of his father, also Benjamin Cooke (1695/1705–1743).