Editing James Cook (section)

==Early life and family==
James Cook was born on {{OldStyleDate|7 November|1728|27 October}} in the village of [[Marton, Middlesbrough|Marton]] in the [[North Riding of Yorkshire]] and baptised on 14 November (N.S.) in the [[parish church]] of [[Marton, Middlesbrough#St Cuthbert's Church|St Cuthbert]] where his name can be seen in the church register.<ref name="Rigby25" /><ref>{{harvnb|Robson|2009|p=2}}</ref> He was the second of eight children of James Cook (1693–1779), a Scottish farm labourer from [[Ednam]] in [[Roxburghshire]], and his locally born wife, Grace Pace (1702–1765), from [[Thornaby-on-Tees]].<ref name="Rigby25">{{harvnb|Rigby|van der Merwe|2002|p=25}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Stamp|1978|p=1}}</ref>{{Sfn|Collingridge|2003|pp=13–15}} In 1736, his family moved to Airey Holme farm at [[Great Ayton]], where his father's employer, Thomas Skottowe, paid for him to attend the local school. In 1741, after five years of schooling, he began work for his father who had been promoted to farm manager. Despite not being formally educated, he became capable in mathematics, astronomy and charting by the time of his ''Endeavour'' voyage.<ref name="Frost2018">{{cite book |first=Alan |last=Frost |title=Mutiny, Mayhem, Mythology: Bounty's Enigmatic Voyage |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nxBzDwAAQBAJ |date=19 October 2018 |publisher=Sydney University Press |isbn=978-1-74332-587-2 |page=255 |access-date=4 December 2018 |archive-date=3 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200803163945/https://books.google.com/books?id=nxBzDwAAQBAJ |url-status=live}}</ref> For leisure, he would climb a nearby hill, [[Roseberry Topping]], enjoying the opportunity for solitude.<ref>{{harvnb|Collingridge|2003|p=15}}</ref>

In 1745, when he was 16, Cook moved {{convert|20|mi|km}} to the fishing village of [[Staithes]] to be apprenticed as a shop boy to grocer and [[haberdasher]] William Sanderson.<ref name="Rigby25" /> Historian [[Vanessa Collingridge]] has speculated that this is where Cook first felt the lure of the sea while gazing out of the shop window.{{Sfn|Collingridge|2003|pp=31–33}}

[[File:Elizabeth Batts Cook.jpg|thumb|[[Elizabeth Batts Cook|Elizabeth Cook]], wife and for 56 years widow of James Cook, by William Henderson, 1830]]
After 18 months, not proving suited for shop work, Cook travelled to the nearby port town of [[Whitby]] to be introduced to Sanderson's friends John and Henry Walker. The Walkers, who were [[Religious Society of Friends|Quakers]], were prominent local ship-owners in the coal trade.<ref name="horwitz" />{{Page needed|date=December 2024}}{{Sfn|Collingridge|2003|pp=33–35}} Their house is now the [[Captain Cook Memorial Museum]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Captain Cook Memorial Museum |url=https://artuk.org/visit/venues/captain-cook-memorial-museum-3247 |url-status= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240104215753/https://artuk.org/visit/venues/captain-cook-memorial-museum-3247 |archive-date=4 January 2024 |access-date=28 December 2024 |website=Art UK}}</ref> Cook was taken on as a merchant navy apprentice in their small fleet of vessels, plying coal along the English coast. His first assignment was aboard the [[Collier (ship type)|collier]] ''Freelove'', and he spent several years on this and various other [[coastal trading vessel|coasters]], sailing between the [[River Tyne|Tyne]] and London. As part of his apprenticeship, Cook applied himself to the study of algebra, geometry, trigonometry, navigation and astronomy – all skills he would need one day to command his own ship.{{Sfn|Collingridge|2003|pp=34–36}}

His three-year apprenticeship completed, Cook began working on [[merchant ship]]s in the [[Baltic Sea]]. After passing his examinations in 1752, he soon progressed through the merchant navy ranks, starting with his promotion in that year to [[Master's mate|mate]] aboard the collier [[brig]] ''Friendship''.<ref>{{harvnb|Hough|1994|p=11}}</ref> In 1755, within a month of being offered command of this vessel, he volunteered for service in the Royal Navy, when Britain was re-arming for what was to become the [[Seven Years' War]]. Despite the need to start back at the bottom of the naval hierarchy, Cook realised his career would advance more quickly in military service and entered the Navy at [[Wapping]] on 17 June 1755.<ref name="Rigby27">{{harvnb|Rigby|van der Merwe|2002|p=27}}</ref>

Cook married [[Elizabeth Batts Cook|Elizabeth Batts]], the daughter of Samuel Batts, [[Public house#Inns|keeper]] of the Bell Inn in Wapping<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lbbd.gov.uk/MuseumsAndHeritage/LocalHistoryResources/Documents/Infosheet22JamesCookDickTurpin.pdf |title=Famous 18th&nbsp;century people in Barking and Dagenham: James Cook and Dick Turpin |publisher=London Borough of Barking and Dagenham |access-date=5 March 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120605124552/http://www.lbbd.gov.uk/MuseumsAndHeritage/LocalHistoryResources/Documents/Infosheet22JamesCookDickTurpin.pdf |archive-date=5 June 2012}}</ref> and one of his mentors, on 21 December 1762 at [[St Margaret's Church, Barking]], Essex.<ref>{{harvnb|Robson|2009|pp=120–121}}</ref> The couple had six children: James (1763–1794), Nathaniel (1764–1780, lost aboard {{HMS|Thunderer|1760|6}} which foundered with all hands in a hurricane in the [[West Indies]]), Elizabeth (1767–1771), Joseph (1768–1768), George (1772–1772) and Hugh (1776–1793, who died of scarlet fever while a student at [[Christ's College, Cambridge]]). When not at sea, Cook lived in the [[East End of London]]. He attended [[St Paul's Church, Shadwell]], where his son James was baptised. Cook has no direct descendants – all of his children died before having children of their own.<ref>{{harvnb|Stamp|1978|p=138}}</ref>

Sir [[Walter Besant]], a biographer of Cook, described Cook as being "over six feet high" with "dark brown hair", "bushy eyebrows", and "small brown eyes".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://teara.govt.nz/en/1966/cook-james/page-2 |title=Features and appearance of Cook |publisher=[[Encyclopaedia of New Zealand]] |access-date=31 July 2024}}</ref>