Robert Cooke (officer of arms)

Cooke served as Deputy Earl Marshal at the funeral of Sir Philip Sidney in 1587, but was later accused by some fellow heralds of granting arms to unworthy men for personal gain.

Educated at Kirkham Grammar School from a recusant family, Cooke was brought up in the household of Sir Edmund Brudenell, an ardent genealogist.

[13] As Chester Herald and deputy to William Harvey, who preceded him as Clarenceux, Cooke conducted visitations of Worcestershire in 1560, Devonshire in 1562, Lincolnshire in 1562 and 1564, and Leicestershire and Warwickshire in 1563.

[14] As Clarenceux, Cooke conducted visitations of London in 1568 and again in 1593; Worcestershire in 1569; Herefordshire in 1569 and 1584; Worcester in 1569; Shropshire in 1569 and 1584; Essex in 1570 and 1583; Surrey, Hertfordshire and Middlesex in 1572; Devonshire in 1572; Somerset in 1573 and 1591; Cornwall in 1573; Kent in 1574 and 1589; Dorsetshire in 1574; Hampshire and Cambridgeshire in 1575; Suffolk in 1577; Buckinghamshire in 1580; Bedfordshire in 1582 and 1586; Gloucester in 1583; Berkshire in 1584; and Norfolk in 1589.

On one copy of An English Baronage the antiquarian Sir Simonds d'Ewes wrote a title concluding "in which are a world of errors, ergo caveat lector.