Benjamin Cooke

Born: November 28, 1734, Lon­don, Eng­land.
Died: Sep­tem­ber 14, 1793, Lon­don, Eng­land.
Buried: In the west cloister of West­min­ster Ab­bey, Lon­don, Eng­land.

Son of Ben­ja­min Cooke, a Co­vent Gar­den mu­sic pub­lish­er, Cooke stu­died un­der Pep­usch start­ing at age 9, and with­in three years was able to serve as as­sist­ant to John Ro­bin­son, or­gan­ist at West­min­ster Ab­bey. He suc­ceeded Pep­usch as con­duct­or at the Acad­e­my of An­cient Mu­sic in 1752. At West­min­ster Ab­bey, he be­came mas­ter of the chor­ist­ers 1757, lay vi­car in 1758, and or­gan­ist in 1762. Cooke was ed­u­cat­ed at Cam­bridge (MusD 1775) and Ox­ford (doc­tor­ate 1782). He be­came org­anist at St. Mar­tin-in-the-Fields in 1782, with his son Ro­bert suc­ceed­ing him there in 1784. He be­came as­sist­ant di­rect­or at the Han­del Com­mem­o­ra­tion in 1784, and re­signed the con­duct­or­ship at the Acad­e­my of An­cient Mu­sic in 1784.

--www.hymntime.com/tch