1360 &1361 JOHN COOK,
(The Lord Earl's Receiver of the Honour of Leicester).
(44)
Son and heir of "Magister John Cook" the keeper of a fashionable tavern near the South gate, and born about 1319 He was party to a lease in 1343 as John Cook, son of Magister John Cook, and his name also occurs as the first witness to a wrongly dated conveyance, a few days after he became mayor. He succeeded John Hayward, the earl's receiver of Leic., upon the death of the latter about 1357, a position which he held under two dukes of Lancaster for some years. Like Hayward he was mayor two years in succession, was bailiff of the borough 1366, 1375, and one of the burgesses in Parliament in 1388. As John Cook the elder, he, with Margaret his wife, conveyed lands in Lubenham, co. Leic., in 1386 to William de Humberstone, rector of Belgrave (Hastings M.S.S.). He appears to have been living in 1398.
John Cook or Cuc, the younger, his son, was a benefactor to the gild of Corpus Christi in 1392.
Miss Bateson's confusion of mayor Cook with John del Waynhouse and John Hayward has already been fully explained and corrected (see Nos. 38 and 39).
During the first year of John Cook's mayoralty, early in 1361, Henry, duke of Lancaster and earl of Leic., died at Leic. castle and was buried in the Collegiate church of the Newarke a few days later.
1369 JOHN COOK. (3)
