Years 1600 -1700

The 16th Century were landmark years for my heritage. Mini HaHa Davis whom married James Elwood SEE was a direct descendant and Francis and John COOKE. The COOKE's were a very prominent family who descended from Sir Anthony COOKE and Sir Thomas COOKE who was the Mayor of London in the 1400's.

Records indicate that many of the SEE's descended from Johannes ZEH who was borned in the year 1614 and lived in Nassau, Deggendorf, Bayern, Germany. He was likely a farmer and did not own the land. Life in Germany was difficult and many came to the new world for a new beginning.

Francis and John COOKE sailed across the Alantic on the Mayflower. They were the only Father and son to travel together to the new world.

Francis COOKE Mayflower He was born prob after 1582 in Probably England.

—A 1620 Mayflower passenger, Francis COOKE married Hester Mayhieu at Leiden 30 June 1603, the records there describing him as a woolcomber, unmarried, from England. Thus he was in Holland before the arrival of the Clyfton/Robinson Separatists. He was probably born no earlier than 1583, for he must have been under sixty in 1643 when he was on the ATBA for Plymouth, and yet not much after 1583 if he married in 1603.

He arrived on the Mayflower and was among those signing the Mayflower Compact. He and his son John were the first to arrive, with Hester and daughter Jane and son Jacob arriving on the Anne in 1623. Two more children, Hester and Mary, were born at Plymouth. He appears frequently in Plymouth records on grand and trial juries, as a surveyor of the highways, on various ad hoc committees, and in a number of land transactions.

Francis Cooke died 7 April 1663, having labored in this new land for some 43 years and receiving various additional land grants. His will is made 7/10/1659. He makes his wife Hester and son John executors. It is witnessed by Howland and Alden. Inventory was taken 1663 by Eph.Tuckham and Wm Crowe.His will and inventory enumerates his belongings and his bequests. He and his wife Hester had eight children. By 1666, of these children, John, Jacob, Hester and Mary were living, as was the widow Hester. Hester died after 8 June 1666.

Mayflower Compact : 1620

IN THE NAME OF GOD, AMEN. We, whose names are underwritten, the Loyal Subjects of our dread Sovereign Lord King James, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, &c. Having undertaken for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the northern Parts of Virginia; Do by these Presents, solemnly and mutually, in the Presence of God and one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid: And by Virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions, and Officers, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general Good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due Submission and Obedience. IN WITNESS whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names at Cape-Cod the eleventh of November, in the Reign of our Sovereign Lord King James, of England, France, and Ireland, the eighteenth, and of Scotland the fifty-fourth, Anno Domini; 1620.

Mr. John Carver,
Mr. William Bradford,
Mr Edward Winslow,
Mr. William Brewster.
Isaac Allerton,
Myles Standish,
John Alden,
John Turner,
Francis Eaton,
James Chilton,
John Craxton,
John Billington,
Joses Fletcher,
John Goodman,
Mr. Samuel Fuller,
Mr. Christopher Martin,
Mr. William Mullins,
Mr. William White,
Mr. Richard Warren,
John Howland,
Mr. Steven Hopkins,
Digery Priest,
Thomas Williams,
Gilbert Winslow,
Edmund Margesson,
Peter Brown,
Richard Britteridge
George Soule,
Edward Tilly,
John Tilly,
Francis Cooke,
Thomas Rogers,
Thomas Tinker,
John Ridgdale
Edward Fuller,
Richard Clark,
Richard Gardiner,
Mr. John Allerton,
Thomas English,
Edward Doten,
Edward Liester.