| James Cook was born on 27th October 1728
in Marton, now part of Middlesbrough. His father, James, was
originally from Scotland, and had married Grace Pace from
Thornaby on Tees. He was an agricultural labourer and moved
about the area to find work on local estate farms.
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Baptism Record
of James Cook
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Within a week of his birth James was baptised in the parish
church of St. Cuthbert, Marton, on 3rd November 1728.
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Captain Cook’s
Birthplace Cottage
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Early 19th century artists’ reconstructions
of the birthplace cottage show it as a stone-built single-storey
thatched building, typical of the small labourers’ cottages
of the 18th century.
According to his early biographers James Cook was born in
a mud house. It has been described as:
“…a low cottage, of two rooms, one within
the other the walls of mud and covered with thatch.”
(Hutton, W. 1810. A Trip to Coatham in Yorkshire)
The cottage stood in East Marton, close to the site of the
later Marton Lodge and Hall. By the second half of the 1780s
it had fallen into disrepair and was dismantled.
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A Plan of Marton
Estate
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The birthplace cottage was probably too
temporary and insignificant a building to have been marked
on any maps of the area. James Cook senior worked for a farmer
Mr. George Mewburn who owned the land and properties marked
G on the 1764 Marton Estate Map.
This map does not show the cottage as it was probably located
outside the main area of survey on land belonging to a Mr.
Munday. This was on the other side of Marton Back Lane, the
main route through the village, opposite Mr. Mewburn’s
garth and orchard, and to the south of the later Marton Lodge
(1786).
The Cook family moved between Marton and neighbouring Ormesby
more than once, no doubt in attempts to find better work and
housing. During this time the young Cook would have helped
with the work and even received some basic schooling.
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View of Teesmouth
from Marton
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This detail from an engraving of about 1700
showing an aerial view of Acklam in Cleveland, the neighbouring
settlement to Marton, gives a glimpse eastwards down the River
Tees valley towards the mouth of the River between Hartlepool
and Coatham/Redcar and out into the North Sea. This view,
just yards away from his birthplace, would have been familiar
to Cook and was described as:
“…an open situation, on the summit of a gentle
slope; from whence the sea, generally crowded with ships employed
in the coal-trade, presents an interesting object to the east...”
(Graves, Rev. J. 1808 The History of Cleveland)
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Aireyholme Farm,
Great Ayton
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By 1736, when James was eight years old,
his father had got the job of hind or foreman at Aireyholme
Farm near Great Ayton, about six miles away. The farm stood
on the lower slopes of Roseberry Topping and was owned by
Mr. Thomas Scottowe, Lord of the Manor of Great Ayton.
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