Thomas Cooke

Sir Thomas Cooke (-1478) was an English merchant and Lord Mayor of London. Biography He was born the son of Robert Cooke of Lavenham in Suffolk around 1410 and moved to London to become a draper. He was made Sheriff of London for 1453–54, an alderman from 1456 and Member of Parliament for the City of London in 1460 and 1470. He was elected Lord Mayor of London for 1462–63 and knighted in 1465. In 1467 he began to build a mansion called Gidea Hall, near Romford in Essex, which was only completed by his descendant, Sir Anthony Cooke. In 1467, he was charged with high treason for lending money to Margaret, the queen of the deposed Lancastrian King Henry VI, on the strength of a confession of a statement obtained under torture from one Hawkins. Chief Justice Markham directed the jury to find it only misprision of treason, whereby Cooke's lands and life were saved, though he was heavily fined and long imprisoned.