Cooke, clergyman and eccentric, born in Hexham. He received his education as king's scholar at Durham School, and afterwards entered Queen's College, Oxford but did not take a degree. He obtained the curacy of Embleton, Northumberland, and soon became notorious for the oddity of his religious ideas. He insisted on the necessity of circumcision, supporting his doctrine by his own practice.
In London, he preached in the streets, and became an author; but as his unintelligible jargon did not sell he was reduced to poverty. He became notorious for soliciting subscriptions for works that were never published, and for helping himself to meals that had not been bought for him, contending that 'the goods of fortune should be held in common by all God's creatures' For two or three years he was confined in Bethlem Hospital (Bedlam).
Ultimately he returned to the north of England. His last undertaking involved a plan for the alteration of St Nicholas's Church in Newcastle. His death, which occurred in that city is said to have been occasioned by his copying the ascetic practices of Origen too closely i.e. he castrated himself.