Tag Archives: John Cook

“There is Cooke’s head set up for a traitor” (Samuel Pepys, 1660)

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Cook - Copy

Harrison - Copy

On this day in 1660, Samuel Pepys wrote in his diary:

“George Vines carried me up to the top of his  turret, where there is Cooke’s head set up for a traitor, and Harrison’s set up on the other side of Westminster Hall.  Here I could see them plainly, and also a very fair prospect about London”.

John Cook(e) was the chief prosecutor at Charles I’s trial at the end of the Civil War, and Thomas Harrison one of the  signatories  to his death warrant,  both hunted down and executed by Charles II after the Restoration of the Monarchy.

 

“Iniquities at Charing Cross” (John Evelyn, 1660)

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Cook

On this day in 1660, John Evelyn  wrote in his diary:

“Scot, Scroop, Cook and Jones suffered for reward of their iniquities at Charing Cross, in sight of the place where they put to death their natural prince, and in the presence of the King his son … .  I saw not the execution, but met their quarters, mangled, and cut, and reeking, as they were brought from the gallows in baskets on the hurdle.  Oh, the miraculous providence of God!”.

Thomas Scot, Adrian Scroop and John Jones were signatories to the death warrant of Charles I hunted down and executed by Charles II.   John Cook (pictured) was the chief prosecutor at Charles I’s trial.  Shortly before his execution, he wrote: “We fought for the public good and would have enfranchised the people and secured the welfare of the whole groaning creation if the nation had not more delighted in servitude than in freedom”.