The problem is to ascertain whether the Cookes I have found in Manchester are the same family as the ones who later appear in Birmingham. The following BDM records from Birmingham are relevant:
At St. Martin’s:
Baptism of Edward Cooke, 27.10.1800, mother Mary Cooke
Marriage of William Cooke, bachelor and Mary Cook, widow 24.1.1809, witnesses Eliz. Bromley & Thos. Packwood.
Marriage of Thomas Cooke, bachelor, button maker and Mary Sanders, spinster 1810
Baptism of their son, Mark Thomas Cooke 17.9.1814
Burial of Samuel Cooke of Shutt Lane, 13.12.1830, 86 years old (b.1744).
And at St.Phillip’s:
Baptism of William Cook, 2.1.1810, born 15 October 1809 to William and Mary Cook
(I believe the child was Wm. Bromley Cooke)
We know that William Bromley Cooke’s father’s name was William. The time of the marriage of
William and Mary fits in with the birth of Wm Bromley. The marriage entry is from St. Martin’s parish, and William’s baptism was at St. Phillip’s. This is consistent with the usual practice of marrying in the bride’s parish, and returning to live in the husband’s parish, where he had his livelihood.
The name of one witness was Bromley, which indicates that our Birmingham Cookes were most
likely the same as the ones from Manchester, offspring of Samuel Cooke and Ann Bromley.
I would guess that Elizabeth Bromley was a cousin of the groom, William Cooke.
On the baptism entry for Edward Cooke, his mother’s status is not given. When William and Mary married in 1809, Mary was a widow. One of the witnesses at William jnr’s marriage in 1830 was an Edward Cooke. I believe that he was the same Edward, baptised in 1800, and that his mother had remarried, to William Cooke. (She could have been the widow of William’s brother John, who has not been accounted for, so far.) So Edward, the witness in 1830, would have been William Bromley’s half-brother.
There was a Samuel, who was buried at St. Martin’s in 1830, 86 years old (b.1744), who would fit in as the father of Thomas, John and William. He would be our earliest known Cooke ancestor.