embroiderer, was born in Wapping, London, the only child of Samuel Batts, a publican, and his wife Mary, née Smith. She is known to history only as the wife of the renowned navigator-explorer Captain James Cook whom she married at St Margaret’s Church, Barking, on 21 December 1762. They lived in the East End of London, near the Docks. According to Sinclair, of their 17 years of married life Elizabeth and her husband spent only four (in total) together. The Cooks had six children, three of whom grew to maturity. All three sons died young; like her husband, her children long predeceased her. Elizabeth lived on for 56 years after Captain Cook was killed at Kealakekua Bay in the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) in 1779.
Unlike her husband, Elizabeth Cook never visited Australia. However, the embroidery long attributed to her which depicts her husband’s voyages makes her an appropriate founding mother for Heritage: the National Women’s Art Book . Another embroidery, an elaborate waistcoat she was making for her husband to wear when he was to be presented at court after returning from his third voyage, remains poignantly unfinished (Mitchell Library). The only known portrait, a formidable view of her in old age, is held by the Mitchell Library.
- Writers:
- Callaway, Anita
Kerr, Joan
- Date written:
- 1995
- Last updated:
- 2011
