Joseph Cooke
| Joseph Cooke | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born | 1775 Dudley, England |
| Died | 1811 Rochdale, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Minister |
Rev. Joseph Cooke (1775–1811), a Free Christian, was expelled by the Wesleyan Methodists on doctrinal grounds and became the inspiration behind the Methodist Unitarian movement formed under the leadership of another former Wesleyan Joseph Ashworth.
Joseph Cooke was born near Dudley in the Black Country.
In 1795, Cooke entered the Methodist itinerancy. In 1803 he was appointed to the Wesleyan Methodist Chapel, Union Street, Rochdale, east Lancashire. During his ministry in the mill town he was rebuked by the Conference and transferred to Sunderland.
Whilst in the north-east, his supporters in Rochdale published two of his sermons on justification by faith. Later, during the 1806 Conference, he was expelled from the Wesleyan Methodists for preaching doctrines incompatible with Methodist beliefs. A significant proportion of the Union Street congregation supported their former minister and helped him to establish a brand-new chapel (The Providence Chapel, High Street) in Rochdale. Cooke ministered in the chapel and the surrounding districts until his death in 1811. At the time of Cooke's premature demise there were more than 1,000 'Cookites', organised around 16 'preaching-stations' and served by 18 preachers.
After Cooke’s death, Providence Chapel building in Rochdale was sold to a Congregationalist group.
Like many English General Baptists, the Cookites throughout east Lancashire were persuaded by Richard Wright (1765–1836), `the Unitarian missionary', to make common cause with their liberal Christian counterparts within Unitarianism. In Rochdale, led by James Wilkinson, the Cookites, or ‘Methodist Unitarians’ as they soon became known, erected a new chapel in Clover Street in 1818. The chapel soon became known locally as the ‘Co-op chapel’ “because Wilkinson and at least nine of the original co-operators worshipped there”. (This Methodist Unitarian link to the early labour movement continued. For example, both James Taylor and James Mills, the Rochdale and the Oldham delegates to the first Chartist convention in 1839, were Methodist Unitarians).
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