ROBERT COOK - WRENTHAM LOYALIST

Robert Cook was born in Westboro, married Sarah Crosby, impressed or enlisted under Lieutenant Colonel Twing, but was reported as not having joined the regiment. He served as a Private in 1745 and served the King as a soldier, as a private in 1755 and in Governor Shirley’s Provisional Regiment. From 1755 until 1761 he served the king, the latter part as a Lieutenant in the regiment of Governor Richard Saltonstall. In 1755 he collected 25 Loyalists to suppress the mobs and riots, served as a Private in Colonel Slocumb’s company, in Colonel William’s regiment, April 14 to November 21 1758; as Sergeant in this company, April 2 to December 21 1759; and as Lieutenant in Captain John Nixon’s company from April 17 to December 7 1761. For his loyalty to the king he was imprisoned and persecuted until June 1775, by the residents, when he escaped to the British troops in Boston leaving a wife and thirteen children in Wrentham. From August 14 1776 until March 1777 he was in charge of a company of the Queen’s American Rangers, commanded by Colonel Robert Rogers. He claimed no service after 1777. In these different stations he did all he could to serve His Majesty and asked for a pension. Sgt Nathan Blake was paid by Wrentham in April for supplying Cook’s family and the following month Blake was paid for inventorying Cook’s goods and selling them. In 1779 Timothy Guild and Jeremiah Day were paid for providing the necessities for Cook’s family. Cornelius Cook is shown as having paid his share of Robert’s “pool rate” in 1761. In 1779 David Fisher and Captain Lewis Whiting were paid for sundry services involving Cook, John Hall was paid for taking Cook and Ebenezer Blake evidence. Cook returned to New Brunswick where he lived for a few years, after the Revolutionary War and settled at Auburn, Massachusetts, where he died in 1797.    JJM