The case of Reverend Joseph Cook

Collection of letters and bills relating to the illness and medical treatment of Reverend Joseph Cook of Chatton Vicarage in 1805, apparently brought together during the attempt by the wife (widow?) of Dr Robert Pringle of Alnwick to obtain payment for treatment administered ten years later.

The majority of the letters deal with the episode occuring between April and June 1805 when the Reverend Joseph Cook came to believe that his family were poisoning him and left Chatton Vicarage for Edinburgh, thereafter seeking refuge with his friend Mr Grey in Kyloe. This generated correspondence between Joseph Cook himself, Robert Pringle, Dr Robert Gregory and Dr Benjamin Bell of Edinburgh, Cook's son Joseph Cook jr, and friends or servants.

1-2 "Advice and Directions for Mr Cook"
3 J Cook, Chatton Vicarage, to Pringle, 25 Apr 1805
4-5 J Cook, Chatton Vicarage, to Pringle, n.d. [probably Apr 1805]
6 J Cook jr, Edinburgh, to Pringle, 2 May 1805
7-9 J Gregory to Pringle, 2 & 3 May 1805
10 J Cook, at [illegible] Inn, to Pringle, n.d
11 Pringle to Dr Gregory, 15 May 1805
12-13 Benjamin Bell to Pringle, 20 and 27 May 14 Wm Nelson [?in Edinburgh] to Dr Pringle, n.d.: "Mr Cook has made his escape from Edinburgh"
15 Pringle, 29 May 1805 to unidentified recipient with report on J Cook's "convalescent state"
16 M Grey, Kyloe, to Pringle, 30 May 1805
17 Pringle to Dr Gregory, 31 May 1805
18 J Cook, Kyloe, to Pringle, 5 Jun 1805
19 Pringle to J Cook, 6 Jun 1805
20 J Cook to Pringle, n.d [probably 6 Jun 1805]
21 J Cook jr, Chatton Vicarage, to Pringle, 8 Jun 1805
22 J Cook , Kyloe, to Pringle, 9 Jun 1805
23 Pringle to unnamed correspondent, probably Bell, 12 Jun 1805 24 J Cook, Newton Hall, to Pringle, 9 Dec 1807, concerning a bill from George Bell in Edinburgh

25-28 Rough notes of expenditures, May 1805, n.d.

29-31 "7 April 1815 Mrs Pringle's account against Rev. Jos. Cook"

Correspondence with Robert Thorp of Alnwick, presumably the lawyer of that name, about Mrs Pringle's claims against Mr Cook and Mr Smith, Sep-Oct 1815
32 Covering wrapper, dated 14 Sep 1815
33 Armorer Donkin [solicitor of Newcastle upon Tyne] to Thorp, 11 Sep 1815 34-37 Grace Pringle to Thorp, 14 Sep 1815, n.d.
38 Thorp to Donkin, Newcastle upon Tyne, 15 Sep 1815
39 John Herriot, Belford [? apothecary: a John Herriot is given as "surgeon" in a local directory some years later], to Mrs Pringle, 10 Oct 1815, with copy of prescription for J Cook, 22 Feb 1805
40 In reply to Mr Donkin's letter, 11 Oct 1815, with notes on verso detailing correspondence of 1805
41 Thorp to Donkin, 16th Oct 1815, "Mrs Pringle has given me a large bundle of letters"

1805-1815

1 file

Purchased from Dean Byass, Bristol, Nov 2012