William Godwin's Diary

Cooke, T P

  • Name: Cooke, T P
  • Gender: Male
  • Birth Date:
  • Death Date:
  • Occupation: Godwin's pupil

St Clair describes Cooke as a late pupil of Godwin and the name only occurs multiple times from 1829 on. So, earlier Cookes have not been coded thus. Cooke's father is William Cooke (Lisson Grove, London) with whom Godwin corresponded after his son's death in late 1834.

The letters between Godwin and WIlliam Cooke suggest a degree of intimacy between Godwin and Cooke Jnr. The letters do not, however, mention his first name. There may be further evidence to suggest that Godwin took Cooke Jnr under his wing but to date the only reference is in St Clair, . However, it seems reasonable to assume that the Cooke mentioned is a sort of pupil of Godwin's from the father's letter.

The first three times Cooke is mentioned, he is referred to as 'TP Cooke', Cooke, NC, n [n in superscript]' and 'Cooke, NCt [t in superscript]'. As it is extremely unusual for Godiwn to insert initials after a surname and also that there is an 'extra' t in the third mention, it has been assumed that TP refer to Cooke's initials and NC/NCt constitute an as yet unidentified acronymn referring possibly, for example, to a place where Cooke lived, a state of mind he was in, or an activity the pair carried out.

  • St Clair, p. 486.

This table lists the people this person is most frequently noted with in the diary.

Name Number of Meetings
Godwin, Mary Jane (Clairmont) (née de Vial) 6
Gent, Thomas 1
Smith, 1
Jerningham, 1
Marshall, James 1