John Rogers Cooke was born on June 17, 1788, in Bermuda. He was the third child of Dr. Stephen Cooke and Catherine (Esten) Cooke, and brother of John Esten and Philip St. George Cooke. In 1791 Cooke accompanied his parents to Alexandria and thence to Leesburg, Loudoun County, Virginia.
Cooke received his early education in Leesburg, Virginia. In 1807 he held a commission in the Frederick troop, which was raised in consequence of the Chesapeake incident, and in 1812 saw service in the coast defense. Later he took up the study of law at William and Mary College law school and was admitted to the bar about 1812.
Cooke commenced the law practise at Martinsburg (now Western Virginia) and later established himself at Winchester, where he practised for twenty-five years. In 1814 he represented Frederick County in the House of Delegates, but served only one term. Great intellectual endowments joined to remarkable powers of speech fortified by wide reading quickly made him the prominent lawyer in Virginia. Elected a delegate from Frederick and Jefferson counties to the Virginia constitutional convention 1829-1830, he was a conspicuous figure in “one of the greatest assemblies of intellect ever held on Virginia soil”. On the major question before the convention, i. e. , the future basis of representation in the legislature, he and Doddridge were the leaders of the Western party and his speeches, dealing with the matter from the philosophical standpoint of the natural rights of man and displaying deep constitutional study, were among the ablest in a brilliant series of arguments.
A member of the select committee of seven, including Madison and Marshall, which drafted the resulting compromise constitution, he was the only western delegate who voted for it on its final submission to the convention, his action being bitterly assailed by Doddridge who accused him of betraying the West. In March 1840 he moved to Richmond where he confined himself to work before the superior and appellate courts, holding retainers in almost every case of importance, including the Randolph Will litigation.
John Rogers Cooke was remembered for his prominent part he took in the Convention of 1829–1830 that bought him a state-wide reputation. He also established himself as one the leading lawyers in transmontane Virginia. His speech in Randolph Will case before the court of appeals was said by one of the judges to have been the ablest ever delivered in that court.
A contemporary described him at this juncture as “thin in stature, the full expression of a good face neutralized by green glasses; unknown in federal politics and as yet in state . .. his mind thoroughly imbued with the logic of the schools, and feeding on abstractions as its daily bread; versed in the minute history of the state, and famous for the provoking pertinacity with which he worried an opponent, a dog-eared Hening in his hand”.
On November 18, 1813, Cooke married Maria, daughter of Philip and Agnes (Patterson) Pendleton of Martinsburg, and grandniece of Judge Edmund Pendleton. This marriage assured him a prominent social position. Of his children, Philip Pendleton Cooke and John Esten Cooke attained high distinction.
