A few months ago, I wrote about the process of creating brief catalog records for the Folger’s playbill collection. Since then, I’ve completed records for playbills from London and all of Scotland, and have begun working my way through playbills from the rest of England.
Recently, I came across a playbill for a performance by Cooke’s Royal Circus in Birmingham. I thought the name sounded familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it until I checked our catalog and remembered that I had cataloged another playbill for Cooke’s Royal Circus over the summer. This other Cooke’s Royal Circus was located in Edinburgh, though. Was this a simple authority control problem, or something more?
Playbill from Cooke’s Royal Circus, Edinburgh, 1846 (BILL Box G4 C77 1846)
It turns out that Cooke’s Royal Circus was a prominent traveling show, operated by a family often described as a “dynasty.” The Cooke family, guided by patriarch Thomas Cooke, started their first circus in Scotland, probably in the 1780s. Robert Burns described seeing their fiddle player perform during a 1784 visit to Mauchline, Scotland.1 By the turn of the century, the performing family was traveling regularly throughout Scotland and England, stopping in cities large and small. They were particularly known for their equestrian acts, although many members of the circus (both of the Cooke family, and additional hired performers) could also perform as acrobats, strongmen, or contortionists as well. However, the horses were the stars of the show: at least half of the acts featured on the playbill for a performance by James Cooke’s Royal Circus in Edinburgh in 1846, at left, are equestrian performances.
In 1830, the circus became Cooke’s Royal Circus following a well-received performance before King William IV and Queen Adelaide.2 The Cooke dynasty continued to grow, and by the mid-1830s nearly forty members of the family were participants in the circus. Thomas Cooke was succeeded by his son Thomas Taplin Cooke, who took the show to America in 1836. They played for a season each in New York and Boston and were received enthusiastically in both cities. In 1837, the family opened “Cooke’s Extensive Equestrian Establishment and New Arena” in Philadelphia, where they played for another season before traveling down the East Coast to open another establishment in Baltimore in 1838. Their Baltimore theater met with misfortune, however—on the night of February 3, 1838, the entire building went up in flames, and the Cookes lost not only the building but all their wardrobe and props inside it, as well as fifty horses. After returning to Philadelphia for a brief attempt at repairing the family’s American fortunes, Thomas Taplin Cooke took his circus back to England after “an unfortunate year in America.”3
Playbill from Cooke’s Royal Circus, Birmingham, 1843 (BILL Box B53cc 1843)
Both of the Folger playbills pictured here are from the decade following the circus’s mixed fortunes on their American tour. The Birmingham playbill is from 1843, and features a large illustration of a scene from their popular equestrian production based on Lord Byron’s poem Mazeppa, about the journey of a Hungarian cossack forced to wander while tied to his horse, which they had first performed in Philadelphia shortly before returning to England. The Edinburgh playbill, three years later, advertises a performance about another legendary historical figure and his horse—in this case, the highwayman Dick Turpin. The accompanying illustrations seem to feature the non-equestrian performers in the circus, however.
Cooke’s Royal Circus continued operating into the 20th century, at times as a touring company and at times leasing permanent theater buildings. Early circuses such as Cooke’s were prominent examples of family firms. Younger family members would go through apprenticeships in the various parts of the circus, eventually working their way up to managing the show once they had mastered each of its components. Thomas Taplin Cooke had five sons who all followed him into the circus world, and at least eight of the sons’ offspring did so as well. The circus encompassed other branches of the family tree as well: after Thomas Taplin Cooke, management of the circus was assumed by James Cooke (probably his son), and from the 1880s through the turn of the century it was led by John Henry Cooke, nephew of Thomas Taplin Cooke.4
As I continue working my way through playbills from provincial England and beyond, I’ll certainly be keeping my eyes open for other performances by scions of the Cooke family!
- Scottish notes and queries, ed. John Bulloch. (Aberdeen: D. Brown & Co., 1901), p. 107
- Webster, David P. “Too many Cookes?” in Iron game history v. 4: no. 5-6 (August 1997), p. 14
- The Circus Scrapbook, number 9 (January 31), pp. 37-42
- More information about figures of the Cooke family is available in Olympians of the Sawdust Circle: A Biographical Dictionary of the Nineteenth Century American Circus (San Bernardino, CA : Borgo Press, 1998).
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Comments
Hi Sarah. My name is Richard Oesterheld and I live in California. I’m a descendent of the Cookes on my grandmother’s side — grew up hearing stories — and enjoyed reading more about the circus history of the family in your article. (Most of what I know comes from a picaresque written in 1866 by Tom Cringle, a nom de plume for an Australian writer.) I know even less about the family’s history in England, so the bit that’s contained in this article is wonderful! Thanks for posting it. All the best, Richard
Richard Oesterheld — February 13, 2019
Hi Richard,
Are you descended from James Cooke the Irish Shakespearean Clown? Maybe you did not know this, but that “James Cooke” was not James Cooke at all but the Nom d’ Arena of Patrick Hoey. I know that “Tome Cringle” aka William Walker, wrtote that it was his true name whilst acknowledging he was not a blood relative of the famous circus family. But the reality is that poor old Tome Cringle was a little bit gullible in his starry eyed enjoyment of meeting circus performers and hearing about their lives. Tom Cringle lived in Bombay for many years. He was English and as a boy he became a ship’s boy. There were only 2000 Europeans in Bombay in the 1860sm and it meant that when Circuses came to town it was far less of a task to enable a personal meeting with the visiting performers. As a star struck circus enthusiast he managed to meet several. I have him to thank for the only accounts of the personal life of several famous acrobats who have never wrote an autobiography and no complete biography exists. One must take what he wrote because ehe accepted what he was told whole sale. Sweet, but not reliable. Cringle was a well known and fodly regarded idiocratic character in the expatriot Bombay community. He was a regular contributor of correspondence to the editor of the Times of India, writing for the public good in a slightly pompous way. When he left Bombay for Australia in 1865- to retire- he took up his regular public good intentioned correspondence to the Melbourne newspapers who did not receive his contributions with indulgence. Poor old Cringle found himself mocked and ridiculed. Melbourne’s population was significantly larger than the European population of Bombay and it was a much more sophisticated, culturally rich society than he had enjoyed before- it musty have been a bit shocking, humiliating and hurtful for him. He only lasted a few years in Melbourne before returning to Bombay. Ultimately that is where he died. He built a remarkable mansion in Acland Street St Kilda. It was in that street that he ran into James Cooke who was in Melbourne with Wilson’s Great World Circus in 1866- hence the booklet. He also wrote another one Ella The Beautiful which is a love letter, really to “Ella Zoyara” the famous “equestrienne” actually Samuel Omar Kingsley a very good male rider dressed as a girl. Cringle wrote an original version in Bombay in 1864 that was published in the Bombay Gazette over four editions. It was evidently based on stories told to him by Thomas McCollum, an American rider and circus proprietor who spent nearly a year in the Bombay Presidency in 1862, who is also featured in the account.
Anyway, if that “James Cooke” was your ancestor, then I’m sorry, his name was actually Hoey. However, there was a James Cooke, a son of Thomas Taplin Cooke – then that is another story- but then, he is not the same James Cooke to whom Tom Cringle dedicated his homage.
I have been researching circuses touring in Asia in the nineteenth century. Your comment caught my eye. Tom Cringle is one of my favourite eccentrics!
Ms Kirby
Margaret L Kirby — October 12, 2021
Hi. Another descendent here (from the Isle of Wight in the UK). My parents have a large “Cooke Royal Circus” picture showing monotone portraits of the principle circus members (probably about 20 of them) including William snr and Thomas Taplin. If you google Thomas Taplin Cooke, you’ll see a few photos of portraits surrounded by branches/wreaths; these are photos of the portraits in the picture on my parent’s wall. If you let me know where to send it, I’ll try and get better photos of all the portraits for you.
Graeme Shorter — April 5, 2019
Hi all I am a descendant if the Cooke family as my grandmother was Victoria Cooke married to Maximilian Schumann. If anybody out there wishes to explore further pls feel free !
Schumann John — April 20, 2019
hello, yet another descendant form guernsey channel isles originally birmingham uk. thomas taplin cooke 1786-1866
3rd great-grandfather
rebecca mary anne cooke/woolford 1826-1898
Daughter of thomas taplin cooke
Ellen clara “Nellie” Boswell 1858-1938
Daughter of rebecca mary anne cooke/woolford
Arthur Claude Cattle 1889-1973
Son of Ellen clara “Nellie” Boswell
Donald George Cattle 1923-2008
Son of Arthur Claude Cattle
Carolyn Donna rea-Cattle
c d marshall — October 16, 2019
Cooke’s – Britain’s Greatest Circus Dynasty (Step Series)
by Stuart McMillan | 12 Mar 2012. would be of interest for all Cooke family descendants.
Gordon Millar — December 18, 2019