Two members of the Cook family, father Richard and son Albert Jesse, occupied Court Farm in succession over some 40 years (1881-1921). At one point the holding was considerable (507 acres) but there is no indication where the land was situated. They had taken over from the Price family at a time of reorganisation of farming in the village, but they did not inhabit the house near the farm; this would eventually be sold and become what is now Quenington Court. Instead they moved to or very near the Mawley Farm farmhouse in 1891 and 1901, and then, with changes relating to Mawley Farm including the installation of E Clifford, to an unidentified location in the village in 1911, probably near the Pig and Whistle public house.

There is also reference seen in a single document (directory) to a William Cook farming in Quenington in 1879. This might have been Richard's father, though nothing more has been seen of William's presence in Quenington.

Richard Cook

Richard was born in Gloucestershire in about 1826, son of William, a farmer. He was at a succession of farms, two in Oxfordshire and one in Berkshire before he arrived in Quenington. He was in Quenington for about a decade before moving to farm in Hatherop. At that point his son became a farmer in Quenington at the farm that his father had vacated. The son was only some 20 years old and the two had a joint tenancy there for a few years, the father having moved to a farm in Hatherop. Richard died, almost certainly in Hatherop, in 1910 at the age of 84.

c1826	cen	Aston Blank, Glos			birth
1841	cen	Crawley, Oxon			at home, father William farmer
1851	cen	Crawley, Oxon	25	farmer	at home, father William farmer of 208 acres
1861	cen	Eynsham, Oxon	35	farmer	410 acres, with wife and children
1871	cen	Padworth, Berks	45	farmer	at Old Farm, 348 acres
1881	cen	Quenington	55	farmer	507 acres, with wife and two children, next to Francis Reason of Mawley Farm
1885-89	dir	Quenington		farmer
1885-92	er	Quenington			land and tenement
1890-96	er	Hatherop			land and tenement
1894-97	er	Quenington			land and tenement jointly with son. Living in Hatherop
1891	cen	Hatherop	65	farmer	Dean Farm
1901	cen	Hatherop	75	farmer	Dean Farm
1910	gro	Cirencester	84		death registered 2nd quarter

Albert Jesse Cook

Albert, one son of Richard, was born in Padworth, Berkshire, in 1879. He was privately educated a pupil at a boarding school in Hampshire in 1881. He is next in Quenington in 1891, a farmer. He arrived at about the time that his father Richard left Quenington and he inherited his father's tenancy, living, like his father, at or next to the Mawley farmhouse. Initially he held a joint tenancy with his father for perhaps some five years before becoming 'independent', even though the latter had moved to a farm in Hatherop. In 1916 he was appointed a county magistrate.

He was still in Quenington after the first war but only briefly. In 1920 he gave up farming and the contents of Court Farm were sold. The following year he sailed from London to Colombo, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), but not as an emigrant (he declared his future country of residence as England). His return is undetected but the following year he appeared in his brother's probate as a retired farmer. He is next known in September 1939 when he was staying at a luxury hotel in Dorset, a retired farmer and presumably on holiday. He was unmarried. He had already retired in 1922, albeit aged only 51, as shown in the will of his brother Percy George Cook, who described him thus when appointing him executor.

He died in 1946 at the age of 74. At the time of death he was living in Parkstone, Dorset, and he left a considerable estate. Probate was given to Brian Cook, farmer, presumably a relative. He was wealthy. In 1921 he travelled to Colombo in a first-class cabin, in 1939 he was in a luxury hotel, presumably on holiday. He left an estate of some £155.000.

19th July 2021