William Cooke (1711–1797) was an English cleric and academic, Provost of King's College, Cambridge from 1772 and Dean of Ely from 1780.

In May 1743 he was unanimously elected head-master, but found his health too weak for the place, and in 1745 took the college living of Sturminster-Marshall, Dorset.

In one of the sermons (1750), on the meaning of the expression in the second Epistle of St. Peter, "a more sure word of prophecy", he contributed to the Middletonian Controversy, defending Thomas Sherlock against Conyers Middleton.

[2] Cooke composed an epitaph for himself in a south vestry of King's College Chapel, attributing whatever he had done to the munificence of Henry VI.

[2] Cooke married Catherine, daughter of Richard Sleech, canon of Windsor, in January 1746, and had by her twelve children.