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405:', claiming to be a minister of 'a branch of the church of Scotland'. But he was anxious to support the establishment of Protestant Christianity as 'the law of the empire'. When, in 1843, the general assembly of his church passed a resolution recommending its members to secure the return of Presbyterian representatives to parliament, Cooke formally withdrew from the assembly, and did not return to it until 1847, when the resolution was rescinded. In the non-intrusion controversy which divided the church of Scotland Cooke used all his influence with the government to obtain concessions satisfactory to the liberties of the church, and on the day of the disruption (18 May 1843) gave the encouragement of his presence and voice to the founders of the Free church.
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373:, that 'his people once memorialled their presbytery for an occasional hearing of their own minister'. Established in Belfast, he became not merely the presiding spirit of Irish Presbyterianism (he was elected moderator of assembly in 1841 and 1862), but the leader and framer of a Protestant party in the politics of Ulster. To this consummation his wishes tended, when he purged the synod. The political principles of the Arian chiefs were as dangerous in his estimation as their lax theological notions. Till the election of 1832 Belfast had been a stronghold of liberalism. Cooke turned the tide. So completely did his work transform the relations of parties that even Montgomery, in later life, dropped his political liberalism.
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education board. Cooke explained the views of the synod to the parliamentary committees of inquiry in 1837. In 1839 the synod, under Cooke's guidance, organised an education scheme of its own, and applied to the government for pecuniary aid. The result was that the synod's schools were recognised by the board in 1840 on Cooke's own terms. In
September 1844 the general assembly made application to the government for the erection of a college which should provide a full course of education for students for the ministry under the assembly's superintendence and control. The government, however, established the
29:
429:, a post worth £320 per annum, and on the opening of the Queen's College in 1849 he was appointed Presbyterian dean of residence. Cooke, who from 1835 had been lecturer on ethics to the students of his church, was offered by the assembly (14 September 1847) his choice of the newly endowed chairs of ethics and sacred rhetoric; he chose the latter, and was shortly afterwards made president of the faculty. The assembly's college buildings were opened in 1853.
759:
79:—influenced his political principles. After struggling for an education in rude country schools, he matriculated at Glasgow College in November 1802. Owing to illness he did not graduate, but he completed the arts and divinity courses, not shining as a student, but taking immense pains to qualify himself as a public speaker. Fresh from Glasgow, he appeared before the
106:, where he was ordained on 10 November 1808, though only twenty years of age, as assistant to Robert Scott, with a salary of £25 Irish. Here his evangelical fervour met with no sympathy. On 13 November 1810, he resigned from the post, and became tutor in the family of Alexander Brown of Kells, near Ballymena. He speedily received a call from
369:. But his place was in Belfast, and to there he moved, to a church specially built for him in May Street, and opened 18 October 1829. From this time to the close of his active pastorate in 1867 his fame as a preacher drew crowds to May Street. The calls upon his pulpit services elsewhere were not infrequent; hence the story, told by
445:
and thrilling voice; he was a master of the art of stating a case, had an unexpected reply to every argument of an opponent, seldom failed to make an adversary ridiculous, and when he rose to vehemence the strokes of his genius were overwhelming. In the reports of his speeches there is nothing so fine as his elegy on
177:. Rowan's younger son, Captain Rowan, an elder of Killyleagh, was attached to the older theology, and secured the election of Cooke, who was allowed to be 'by no means bigoted in his opinions'. While at Donegore he had been 'led to join in Arian ordinations', a laxity which at a later period he sincerely lamented.
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On becoming professor Cooke was compelled by the law of the assembly to resign the pastoral office; but at the urgent desire of his congregation he continued to discharge all its duties, being appointed by his presbytery 'constant supplier' until the election of a successor, John S. M'Intosh, who was
465:
Cooke's habits of work would have been impossible without the aid of an iron constitution: he rose at four, needed little sleep, and traveled, spoke, and wrote with incessant energy. In public a dangerous and unsparing (some said an unscrupulous) foe, his private disposition was that of warm-hearted
444:
from
Trinity College, Dublin. On various occasions, especially in 1841 and 1865, public presentations were made to him in recognition of his labours. The sums continually raised by his preaching on special occasions were remarkable tributes to the persuasion of his eloquence. He had a noble presence
413:
The question of education, especially in its religious bearings, engaged Cooke at an early period. When the scheme for Irish national education was started in
October 1831, Cooke at once scented danger to the Protestant interest. After many negotiations the synod in 1834 broke off relations with the
380:
meeting (30 October 1834) Cooke, in the presence of forty thousand people, published the banns of a marriage between the established and
Presbyterian churches of Ireland. The alliance was to be politico-religious, not ecclesiastical, a union for conserving the interests of Protestantism against the
397:
Almost his last platform appearance was at
Hillsborough on 30 October 1867, when, in his eightieth year, Cooke spoke against the threatened disestablishment of Protestantism in Ireland. On 5 March 1868 he attended the inaugural meeting of an Ulster Protestant defence association. In the same sense
520:
Cooke's first publication was a charity sermon preached at
Belfast 18 December 1814, which went through three editions in 1815; of this discourse Reid says 'it is remarkable for the absence of evangelical sentiment'. Remarkable also is Cooke's collection of hymns under the title,
525:, (1821), with a closely reasoned preface, in which he condemns restriction to the psalms of David in Christian worship; in later life he had the strongest antipathy to the public use of any hymnal but the metrical psalms. In 1839 he undertook a new edition of Brown's
75:, by his second wife, Jane Howie or Howe, of Scottish descent, and was born on 11 May 1788. From his mother, he derived his force of character, his remarkable memory, and his powers of sarcasm. A vivid impression, retained through life, of the events of 1798—the
529:, (1855). The manuscript of an analytical concordance, begun in 1834 and finished in 1841, which he had taken to London for publication, perished in a fire at his hotel. Sermons, pamphlets, and magazine articles in great abundance flowed from his pen.
240:
in June 1824. This choice began a period of divisive moves. The resolution of the synod (June 1825) in his favour, though cautiously worded, was a straw in the wind. At the outset, Cooke fought against the odds, if with allies in Robert
Stewart of
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in April on the religious bearings of the Irish education question. He described the
Belfast Academical Institution as "a seminary of Arianism". He claimed that among the Protestants of the north of Ireland, there was increased opposition to
306:, dominated popular feeling on the personal level, as well as the synod debate. After presenting a "remonstrance", the Arians seceded. The split meant that 17 ministers with their congregations left the synod, in 1830, led by Montgomery and
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of the
Institution, himself orthodox, had been close to Young, and a critic of Cooke's line on the Institution. Montgomery picked up on inconsistency in Cooke's view of Ferrie's religious tenets; Cooke dramatised the issue as one of
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in the ethics chair. It meant that Cooke had failed to see his own candidate, Carlile, elected; but the rejection of
Carlile as candidate for the moral philosophy chair also alienated the moderate party from the Arians.
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visit to Belfast in January 1841. Cooke's challenge to a public discussion of facts and principles was evaded by O'Connell. The anti-repeal meeting which followed O'Connell's abortive demonstration was famed in Ulster.
188:. Favoured by Rowan (the father) he came to Killyleagh, where Cooke and the younger Rowan confronted him at his lecture in a schoolroom. Wherever Smethurst went Cooke was at hand with a reply, inflicting upon the
449:(in the debate on voluntaryism with Dr. Ritchie of Edinburgh, March 1836), a passage imperfectly reported, because it is said the pressmen 'dropped their pencils and sat with eyes riveted on the speaker'.
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kindness. Relations of personal friendliness between him and his old antagonist, Montgomery, sprang up in their later years. Stern Protestant as he was, none was more prompt to render assistance to a
173:, county Down, and resigning Donegore on 6 July 1818, he was installed at Killyleagh, at Dromore presbytery on 8 September. The lord of the manor, and the leading Presbyterian at Killyleagh, was
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expulsion of the Arian leaders was followed up by the enactment of unqualified subscription to the Westminster Confession (9 August 1836), extended to elders 8 April 1840. A union of the
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carry his likeness on their banners (though he was not an orangeman), and his statue in Belfast (erected in September 1875) is still a symbol of the Protestantism of Northern Ireland.
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63:. His family was described as "narrow minded Calvinistic conservatives, well noted for their anti-Catholic prejudices." He was the youngest son of John Cooke, tenant farmer of
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233:; he warned against undue concessions to Catholics. The publication of his evidence produced a furore, and he reacted by rallying Protestant sentiment in Ulster to his call.
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on 30 December 1846, but endowed four chairs in a theological college at Belfast under the assembly (and two chairs in connection with the non-subscribing Presbyterians).
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162:, and walked the hospitals. He was a hard student, but with his studies, he combined missionary labours, which resulted in the formation of a congregation at
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260:; his proposal that an abridgement of its doctrines should be drawn up as a standard of orthodoxy was turned down. Then in the three succeeding synods, at
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neighbour in time of need. A strict disciplinarian, he leaned always to the side of mercy when the courts of his church had to deal with delinquents.
110:, County Antrim, and was installed there at Temple-Patrick presbytery, on 22 January 1811. This congregation, vacant since 1808, had chafed under an
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in the somewhat unclerical attire of blue coat, drab vest, white cord breeches and tops, proved his orthodoxy on trial, and was licensed to preach.
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The infighting continued in a complex fashion in 1829 and 1830, around the Academical Institution. There Cooke criticised the appointment of
477:, quotes from Lord Cairns the saying that for half a century his life "was a large portion of the religious and public history of Ireland".
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installed 4 March 1868. His resignation of congregational emolument was absolute; for twenty years he served his congregation gratuitously.
118:. Cooke began at Donegore a systematic course of theological study; and by leave of his presbytery he returned, soon after his marriage, to
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Cooke died at his residence in Ormeau Road, Belfast, on Sunday, 13 December 1868. A public funeral was voted to him on the motion of
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It was expected that Cooke would be the first president of the Queen's College; this office was conferred instead on the Rev.
249:, looked without favour upon Cooke's policy. The leader of the Arian opposition to Cooke in the synod was Henry Montgomery.
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mission a series of defeats from which it never recovered. In opposing, later in the same year, the election of the Arian
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208:, Cooke was unsuccessful, and he was discouraged by the result of his appeal on the subject to the following synod (at
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310:. Cairns worked to get round a boycott set up by Cooke of Ferrie's teaching, but the effect was to undermine Ferrie.
276:, and appointing a select committee for the examination of all candidates for the ministry, he cornered the Arians.
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on 18 December. In 1813 he married Ellen Mann of Toome, who died on 30 June 1868; by her he had thirteen children.
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333:, formerly nonsubscribing, was incorporated with the assembly in 1854. Cooke was then a strong opponent of the
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272:(1829), Cooke carried all before him. By exacting from all members of synod a declaration of belief in the
20:
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256:, 1826) were not favourable to Cooke, who did not see his way to support a motion for subscription to the
245:, and most of the laity was with him. Among the orthodox ministers an important moderate section, led by
115:
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was the address (24 October 1868) to the Protestant electors of Ireland, penned almost on his deathbed.
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On 12 October 1828 a unanimous call had been forwarded to Cooke from the congregation of Mary's Abbey,
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389:, and the infidel'. Still more thoroughly did he succeed in his political mission by his dealing with
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ministry and had shown its determination to return to the old paths by rejecting the candidature of
174:
150:. He had been in the habit of giving medical aid to his flock. In 1817-18 he attended classes at
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212:, 1822). He preached in the spring of 1824 as a candidate for First Armagh, but was not chosen.
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Translations and Paraphrases in Verse ... for the use of the Presbyterian Church, Killileagh
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Cooke's Presbyterianism was of the most robust type; he would not rank himself as a '
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on education in Ireland in January 1824; and before committees of both
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669:(2002), Thoemmes Press (two volumes), article Cairns, William, p. 198.
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In 1829 Cooke received the degree of D.D. from Jefferson College (now
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762: This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
682:(2002), Thoemmes Press (two volumes), article Ferrie, John, p. 378.
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Cooke was then elected moderator of the General Synod of Ulster at
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The first edition of this text is available at Wikisource:
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President of the Presbyterian Theological Faculty of Ireland
590:"Cooke, Henry, D.D. (1788–1868), Irish Presbyterian leader"
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Shortly after his return from Dublin, Cooke was called to
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The Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century British Philosophers
667:
The Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century British Philosophers
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on oath. He lashed out oratorically, and, as reported by
425:; to Cooke was given the agency for the distribution of
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of Moreton Hampstead, Devon, on a preaching mission in
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General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland
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Henry Cooke came from a family of Puritan settlers in
720:"Great Ulster Scots: Henry Cooke, an Introduction"
938:Moderators of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland
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337:(1844), which secured them in the possession of
829:Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland
803:Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland
461:Relief bust of Cooke, on the Omagh Orange Hall
855:Professor of Sacred Rhetoric and Catechetics
707:. Vol. 5. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
639:(online ed.). Oxford University Press.
778:. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
622:. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
473:Cooke's biographer, who was his son-in-law
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345:Belfast ministry and Irish Presbyterianism
923:19th-century Irish Presbyterian ministers
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19:For other people named Henry Cooke, see
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636:Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
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252:The proceedings of the next synod (at
928:Burials at Balmoral Cemetery, Belfast
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47:, an advocate of "Protestant unity".
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206:Royal Belfast Academical Institution
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506:Bishop of Down, Connor and Dromore
438:Washington & Jefferson College
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933:Christian clergy from County Down
775:Dictionary of National Biography
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718:Ulster-Scots Community Network.
704:Dictionary of National Biography
633:Holmes, Finlay. "Cooke, Henry".
619:Dictionary of National Biography
613:"Cooke, Henry (1788-1868)"
595:Dictionary of National Biography
549:, Anvil Books Ltd, Tralee, Pg 5.
329:, occurred on 10 July 1840; the
180:In 1821 English Unitarians sent
94:Cooke's first settlement was at
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220:Cooke gave evidence before the
142:studies, and taking lessons in
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859:Presbyterian Church in Ireland
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678:Gavin Budge et al. (editors),
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665:Gavin Budge et al. (editors),
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440:), U.S., and in 1837 that of
381:political combination of the
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653:UK public library membership
21:Henry Cooke (disambiguation)
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16:Irish Presbyterian minister
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588:Gordon, Alexander (1887).
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361:Cooke's statue in Belfast
353:Cooke's statue in Belfast
39:(1788–1868) was an Irish
770:Cooke, Henry (1788-1868)
698:"Fletcher Blakely"
409:Irish national education
175:Archibald Hamilton Rowan
823:John Macnaughton (1861)
599:. Smith, Elder & Co
527:Self-interpreting Bible
508:. He was buried in the
335:Dissenters' Chapels Act
319:General Synod of Ulster
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258:Westminster Confession
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231:Catholic emancipation
41:Presbyterian minister
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475:Josias Leslie Porter
226:houses of parliament
895:William Dool Killen
547:Holy War In Belfast
304:William Dool Killen
280:Split and aftermath
156:College of Surgeons
884:Assembly's College
838:John Rogers (1863)
736:on 1 December 2020
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485:Marriage and death
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453:Character of Cooke
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331:Munster presbytery
148:John M. Vandenhoff
73:County Londonderry
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892:Succeeded by
866:Succeeded by
844:Academic offices
836:Succeeded by
810:Succeeded by
651:(Subscription or
510:Balmoral Cemetery
495:Balmoral Cemetery
493:Cooke's grave in
325:, under the name
216:Division in synod
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738:. Retrieved
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601:. Retrieved
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140:metaphysical
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90:Early career
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918:1868 deaths
913:1788 births
886:, Belfast)
882:(from 1853
868:John Rogers
753:Attribution
502:Robert Knox
447:Castlereagh
391:O'Connell's
286:John Ferrie
243:Broughshane
100:Randalstown
57:County Down
37:Henry Cooke
32:Henry Cooke
907:Categories
813:John Edgar
655:required.)
603:23 October
533:References
290:John Young
254:Ballymoney
171:Killyleagh
84:presbytery
61:Devonshire
51:Upbringing
875:New title
850:New title
479:Orangemen
403:dissenter
321:with the
266:Cookstown
238:Moneymore
190:Unitarian
144:elocution
124:chemistry
81:Ballymena
889:1847-68
863:1847-68
597:Vol. XII
387:Socinian
315:de facto
313:Cooke's
264:(1827),
262:Strabane
202:classics
154:and the
136:medicine
108:Donegore
65:Grillagh
857:of the
766::
740:3 March
385:, 'the
376:At the
300:perjury
274:Trinity
204:in the
138:to his
132:anatomy
128:geology
120:Glasgow
98:, near
96:Duneane
69:Maghera
67:, near
815:(1842)
797:(1840)
649:
367:Dublin
270:Lurgan
198:Hebrew
186:Ulster
164:Carlow
160:Dublin
134:, and
833:1862
807:1841
734:(PDF)
723:(PDF)
442:LL.D.
210:Newry
146:from
112:Arian
59:from
742:2020
605:2007
200:and
772:".
641:doi
909::
725:.
701:.
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