If it is true that he was the son of an Elder of the Scottish Church, it is extremely improbable that he was entirely uneducated, and the position he held as hind to Mr. Skottowe would necessitate at any rate some knowledge of keeping farming accounts.  More convincing information still is to be found in the Leeds Mercury of 27th October 1883, where Mr. George Markham Tweddell, of Stokesley, writes: 

“I may mention that Captain Cook’s father was not the illiterate man he has been represented; and I have, lying on my study table as I write, a deed bearing his signature, dated 1755; and the father’s signature bears a resemblance to that of his distinguished son.”

Reading is invariably learnt before writing, and as in 1755 the old man was sixty-one, it is evident he did not wait till he was eighty to learn to read.

Father’s grave.

He claimed to have carved the inscription on the family tombstone in Great Ayton churchyard, and after spending the last years of his life under the roof of his son-in-law, James Fleck of Redcar, he died on 1st April 1778, aged eighty-four years.  He was buried in Marske churchyard, but there was nothing to mark his grave, and its place has long been forgotten.  His death is registered as that of a “day labourer.”

CHAPTER 2. 1755 TO 1757.  H.M.S.  EAGLE.

Notwithstanding the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1748, troubles were constantly arising between the French and English in which the American Colonies of both nations took a conspicuous part, and ultimately led to open war.  The first shot was fired on 10th June 1755, although war was not formally declared till May 1756.  In June 1755 the Friendship was in the Thames, and it is said that to avoid the hot press which had been ordered Cook first went into hiding for some time and then decided to volunteer.  This is untrue, for, as has been shown, he had already made up his mind and had refused Messrs. Walker’s offer of the command of one of their ships, the acceptance of which would have saved him from the press as Masters were exempt.  He now saw his opportunity had come.  He knew that experienced men were difficult to obtain, that men of a certain amount of nautical knowledge and of good character could soon raise themselves above the rank of ordinary seamen, and had doubtless in his mind many cases of those who entering as seamen found their way to the quarterdeck, and knowing he had only to ask the Walkers for letters of recommendation for them to be at his service, he determined to take the important step and volunteer into the Royal Navy.  It must be remembered that this act of leaving employment which, to most men of his position, would have seemed most satisfactory, was not the act of hot-headed youth, no step taken in mere spirit of adventure, but the calmly reasoned act of a man of twenty-seven years and some eight or nine years experience of both the rough and smooth sides of maritime life.