by Marele Day
On 27 February 1971 the Elizabeth Cook Memorial Fountain was switched on in the EG Waterhouse Gardens, Sutherland Shire, Sydney. It is believed to be the only memorial dedicated solely to Elizabeth Cook. The fountain feeds a waterfall edged with tree ferns, ivy growing up the trunks of some. Near the memorial plaque itself grows a strelitzia—bird of paradise.
Elizabeth Cook’s image also graces a matchbox label, one of a set of forty-two issued by the Federal Match Company, Australia, in 1970 to mark the bicentenary of Cook’s landing at Botany Bay.
OBITUARY: MRS COOK —FROM GENTLEMAN’S MAGAZINE, JULY 1835
May 13. At Clapham, in her 94th year, Elizabeth, widow of Capt. James Cook, RN, the celebrated navigator.
This venerable lady, remarkable alike from the eminence of her husband, and for the length of time she had survived him, as well as estimable for her private virtues, was married in the year 1762. She was a Miss Batts, of Barking in Essex; and Cook was then a Master in the Navy, thirty-four years of age. To the last she was generally accustomed to speak of him as ‘Mr Cook’, which was the style by which he had been chiefly known to her during his residence at home, as he was not appointed to the rank of Commander until 1771, nor to that of Post Captain till 1776. His death at Owhyhee took place on the 14th of Feb. 1779, having then been absent from England for more than two years and a half. Mrs Cook had, after his departure, received from the Royal Society, the Copley gold medal, which had been voted to him for a paper explaining the means he had employed for preserving his crew in his previous voyages, and this, with many other interesting memorials, she treasured with faithful care.
When the tidings of Captain Cook’s death were communicated to King George the Third, his Majesty immediately directed pensions to be settled on the widow and three remaining sons. But Mrs Cook had the grievous misfortune to lose them all within a few years after. Nathaniel, the second, who had embraced the naval profession from hereditary emulation of his father’s name, not without affectionate apprehensions on the part of his mother, was lost in 1780, at the age of sixteen, with Commodore Walsing-ham, in the Thunderer, which foundered at sea.
Hugh, who was considerably the youngest, died in 1793, at the age of seventeen, whilst a student in Christ’s College, Cambridge. His mother had purchased the advowson of a living, with a view to his preferment; but he died unacquainted with a circumstance which might, if prematurely announced, have damped his personal exertions. James, the eldest, at the age of thirty-one, was drowned with his boat’s crew, while Commander of the Spitfire sloop of war, off the Isle of Wight, in 1794. A daughter had previously died of dropsy, when about twelve year of age. The memory of these lamentable bereavements were never effaced from her mind, and there were some melancholy anniversaries which to the end of her days she devoted to seclusion and pious observance.
Mrs Cook selected Clapham as her place of residence, many years since, on account of its convenience for her eldest when coming to town by the Portsmouth coach. There her latter days were spent in intercourse with her friends and in the conscientious discharge of those duties which her benevolent and kindly feelings dictated to her. Her amiable conduct in all social occasions, her pious acquiescence and resignation under extraordinary family trials and deprivations, and her consistent demeanour throughout a long life, secured her universal esteem and respect.
The body of Mrs Cook was buried on 22nd May, in a vault in the church of St Andrew the Great, in Cambridge, near those of her children, to whose memory there is already a monument. Mrs Cook has munificently left £1000 three per cents, to that parish, under the following conditions:—The monument is to be maintained in perfect repair out of the interest, the Minister for the time being to receive £2 per ann. for his trouble in attending the execution of this trust; and the remainder is to be equally divided, every year on St. Thomas’s Day, between five aged women belonging to and residing in the parish of Great St Andrew’s, who do not receive parochial relief. The appointment is to be made each year by the Minister, Churchwardens, and Overseers. She has also bequeathed £750 to the poor of Clapham; and has left many handsome legacies to her friends; to her three servants, besides legacies, she has bestowed all the furniture in their respective rooms. She has bequeathed the Copley gold medal, before mentioned, and the medal struck in honour of her husband by order of George III (of which there were but five) to the British Museum. The Schools for the Indigent Blind and the Royal Maternity Charity, are benefited to the amount of nearly £1000 consols, besides various other public and private charities. Her will has been proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury by her relation, J.L. Bennett, esq. of Merton, and J.D. Blake, esq., the executors, and her property sworn under £60,000.