Notes on John Jay’s Conversation with Rutherford Cooke, 1 April 1781
Notes on John Jay’s Conversation with Rutherford Cooke
[[Madrid,] 1 Ap. 1781]
1 Ap. 1781 Rutherford Cook, born in the City of New York, carried when a Child to New Haven, of or near wh. place his Mother was a Native & Sister to the Mother of Gen. Arnold1—was brought ^up^ to the sea—lately a Master of a Vessel calld the True Blue from Boston & one of the Captors of the Dover Cutter in wh. he had saild. from Engld.—told me that Arnold was born at Norwich in Connt. his Father, a Mercht. who left abt. five or six hundred pounds amg his Children, which were Benedt & a Sister.2 The Gen. was brought up an apothecary under Dr. Lothrop of —3 That with Slight Recoms. he went to England, spent what little he had, but retd. with Goods on Credit to the Amt of 5000£ Sterl. which he sold & spent the Money for so that in an after Composition with Mr Lintot4 of NYork on the part of his Creditors they lost 3400£ Sterling— That he afterwards settled at New Haven & was concerned in the West India Trade that in one voyage he was concerned jointly with Mr Babcock5 & went Supercargo—it consisted chiefly of Horses—his orders were to go to an English Island where he was to prefer sellg his Horses at 20£ a Head than Risque going to a French Island where am. vessels had been often seized—he nevertheless went to Guadaloupe, sold his Horses for double the Sum, but accounted only for twenty pounds for each. He used to tell Cook that his Grandfather was the first Govr. of Rhode Island,6 & that an Estate in England belonging to his Family wd. probably fall to him—it was intailed—& that Arnold refused on this acct to be married by a presbyterian Minister lest his Children shd. on such an Event be embarrassed by it, & was married by a Justice of the peace to his first Wife who was a Daughter of at .7
Cook sailed several Years in his Employ—
AD, NNC (EJ: 13317).
1. JJ was mistaken. Rutherford Cooke (d. 1783) was the son of Samuel Cooke (1711–88) and Susanna Mansfield (1713–89). Susanna Mansfield was the sister of Samuel Mansfield (1717–75), father of Margaret Mansfield Arnold (1745–75), Arnold’s first wife. Connecticut Journal, 26 Oct. 1785; Franklin Bowditch Dexter, Biographical Sketches of the Graduates of Yale College (New York, 1885–1912), 2: 412–13; James Kirby (New York, 1997), 49–50. For an earlier encounter between JJ and Captain Cooke, see JJ to Frances Dana, 19 Aug. 1780, above. For the Dover cutter affair, see JJ to the President of Congress, 25 Apr., 29 May, and 1 Aug. 1781, above, and 3 Oct. 1781, below; JJ to Floridablanca, 20 June 1780, above, and 28 June 1781, below; Floridablanca to JJ, 29 June 1780, above; and JJ to the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, 28 Apr. 1782, below. See also Samuel Cooke to JJ, 27 Feb. 1786, ALS, DNA: PCC, item 78, 10: 509; LbkC, DNA: PCC, 120, 2: 124–25 (EJ: 10800, 1891).
General Benedict Arnold was the son of Benedict (d. 1761) and Hannah Waterman King Arnold (1706–59). , 16–19.
2. Hannah Arnold.
3. Here and below, spaces left blank in manuscript. Doctors Daniel and Joshua Lathrop, cousins of Hannah Arnold, operated an apothecary shop in Norwich. , 27–31.
4. Bernard Linton, a New York merchant and counsel to Arnold’s London creditors. , 46–47.
5. Adam Babcock (1740–1817), a New Haven merchant. , 36–37.
6. Benedict Arnold (1615–78) served variously as president (under the Patent of 1643) and governor (under the Royal Charter of 1663) of Rhode Island, 1657–60, 1662–63, 1663–66, 1669–72, 1677–78.
7. Arnold and Margaret Mansfield were married 22 Feb. 1767.