Sir Richard Cooke (1561 in Great Linford, Buckinghamshire – 1616), was an English-born politician who spent most of his career in Ireland.
Educated at Oxford University, his rise in politics was mainly due to his family connection to William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley, who had married his aunt, Mildred Cooke.
As an MP he was embarrassed by a lawsuit brought against him in the Court of Chancery by Margery Dyke, but he was able to plead Parliamentary privilege to defeat her claim.
Notwithstanding his important role in Government, he preferred to live in England, where he spent most of the years 1612–1614.
In 1615 he was writing to the London government complaining about the maladministration of Ireland, and urging that the Irish Parliament be dissolved.