Isaac Cookson

Isaac Thomas Cookson (1817–1870) was a 19th-century Member of Parliament in Canterbury, New Zealand. He was a prominent merchant in early Canterbury. Family Cookson was born in England in 1817 and he lived in Newcastle upon Tyne. His father, Thomas Cookson (1779–1863), was from Hermitage in County Durham. His mother was Elizabeth, Earle. On 23 February 1843, he married Janetta Maria Ridley, a daughter of Sir Matthew White Ridley, 3rd Baronet. Isaac Cookson (1679–1743) was his entrepreneurial great-great-grandfather who came to prominence in Newcastle upon Tyne. When they arrived in New Zealand, the Cooksons had two children, a boy aged seven and a daughter aged five. Sources differ whether a further child and a newborn both died on the journey or whether one of them died just before they left England. Colonial life