Thomas Taplin Cooke

Thomas Taplin Cooke (1782–1866)[1] was an eminent English showman, born in Warwick, who toured in America as well as his own country. In 1997 Cooke was inducted into the Circus Hall of Fame.[2]

Grave of the Cooke family at Kensal Green

Private life

Cooke was said to have had between thirteen and nineteen children who were mostly circus performers. He and his wife, Mary Anne,[1] had a daughter Rebecca who married James Clements Boswell and their daughter was the equestrian performer Nellie Boswell.[3] Another daughter, Mary Anne (1819-1897), married clown and contortionist William H. Cole; with their son, William Washington "Chilly Billy" Cole, she helped manage their Cole circus.[4] At his death, her son's estate was valued at $5 million.

References
  1. William L. Slout (1998). Olympians of the Sawdust Circle: A Biographical Dictionary of the Nineteenth Century American Circus. Wildside Press LLC. pp. 60–. ISBN 978-0-8095-1310-9. Retrieved 9 June 2013.
  2. "International Circus Hall of Fame Inductees, Peru Indiana". Retrieved 9 June 2013.
  3. Turner, John M. (23 September 2004). Boswell [married name Cattle], Nellie [Ellen Clara] (1858/9–1938), equestrian performer. Vol. 1. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/53838.
  4. Cole Bros. Circus


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