James Cook's formative years in and around the port town of Whitby have been well documented. In his early childhood, he moved with his family from Marton-in-Cleveland to Great Ayton, near the Cleveland Hills, where he received a basic education at the village school. In 1745, he gained employment at William Sanderson's haberdashery and grocery shop at Staithes, a small fishing village near Whitby. The lure of the sea, however, had a stronger calling, and in July 1746 Cook, aged 17, entered into an apprenticeship with John Walker (1706–85), a prominent Quaker shipowner and coal merchant at Whitby. From the time that Cook became an apprentice, and throughout his career, Walker remained a close friend.

A great deal has been made of Cook's connection with the Quaker community both at Cleveland, North Yorkshire, and in London, and yet much of this has been written by historians and biographers who have only the most tenuous appreciation of the Quaker way of life. In her recent study, Julia Rae has attempted to throw more light on Cook's association with the Quaker community, but even this biography fails to establish why Cook did not embrace its religious ethos. This new analysis aims to address the lacunae in the literature and consider the deeper ambiguities of his relationship with Quakerism. It will draw upon the hitherto unexplored Quaker records of the Scarborough and Whitby Quaker meetings, trace the connection between the North Yorkshire Quakers, particularly the Walker family, and Cook, and provide a more textured reading of the North Yorkshire Society of Friends and their alternative way of life. In doing so it will question whether Quaker beliefs held any real currency for Cook as a young man and in his later life. Particular attention will be paid to the benefits of a solid and disciplined education, apprenticeship and training for life, the Quakers’ work ethic and their value system.

Tom and Cordelia Stamp note that ‘apart from the possibility of early Quaker influence at Ayton, there can be no doubt that Cook's coming to the Walker household at Whitby helped to shape his character along Quaker lines’. Certainly, Cook's relationship with the Walker family lasted throughout his lifetime, and it may have left a marked impression on his later career.