Cookley Parish

Cookley or Cokelei

Mr. Kirby says, the same patrons presented to this church who presented to Huntingfield; and among the inquisitions of the 50th of King Edward III., the jury find that William Lord Huntingfield, long before his death, was seized of this advowson, and Pettistree, in Willford hundred; and he probably held the lordship of Cookley, late the property of Sir Joshua Vanneck, now of Baron Huntingfield.

In 1546, Sir Anthony Heveningham settled, by fine on himself, and Mary his second wife, daughter of Sir John Shelton, senior, of Shelton, Knt., a lordship in this parish. Sir Anthony died in 1558, and Mary his widow, remarried to Philip Appleyard, Esq., but died soon after, leaving Sir Arthur Heveningham, Knt., her son and heir; who, about 1570, appears to have been owner of this manor.

Mem. John and Elizabeth Smith, of this parish, were tried and convicted at the assizes holden at Bury St. Edmund's, March 21, 1812, for the willful murder of Mary Smith, an infant, aged eight years, the daughter of the said John Smith, by a former wife, in consequence of a series of starvation and cruelty. They were both executed at Ipswich, on Monday, the 23rd. John Smith was 39, and his wife 27 years of age: they had been married only four months. The trial at large was published by Gedge and Barker, Bury St. Edmund's; also "A Sermon preached at the dying request of John Smith, by J. Dennant," 8vo.

CHARITIES. The town estate, as belonging to this parish church, consists of two houses, a home stall, and about four acres of land, which are let at £19 a year; and the rents are applied about the repairs and ornaments of the church, the surplus being given to the poor in occasional relief. Thomas Neale, in 1701, gave by will the yearly sum of £3, to be employed towards teaching six poor children, of the poorest parents of the parish, to read the Bible; and the further yearly sum of 10s. to buy Bibles, or other religious books: and the yearly sum of £3 10s. is paid out of an estate charged therewith, in this parish, belonging to Mr. Saunders.

County of Suffolk

Topographical and Genealogical, The County of Suffolk, 1844, Augustine Page

British Isles Genealogy

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