Irish lives

ROBERT COOK (1646-1726):Eccentric veggie who wore linen and gave fox a sporting chance

ROBERT COOK (1646-1726), eccentric, was the son of Robert Cook of Cappoquin, Co Waterford. He fled to England during the reign of James II and lived at Ipswich. In its act of attainder the 1689 Jacobite parliament declared him a traitor if he did not return by the following September 1st.

Originally a Quaker, he followed his own ideas on religion as in other matters. He became a vegetarian, adopting a "Phagorian" philosophy, which he expounded in a pamphlet in 1691. He was known as Linen Cook because he wore only linen clothes, refusing wool and leather as he objected to their animal origins. He was possibly also supporting his own business interests: his family made its money largely from the textile industry.

Tales of his eccentricity were told for many years. It was said that he would have only white cattle and horses, and that once when a fox that had attacked his poultry was caught, it was obliged to listen to a dissertation on murder before being given a "sporting chance" of escape by running the gauntlet of his farm labourers, who were armed with sticks.

Cook married twice, his first wife being a Bristol woman. On one of his visits to that city he had a pile of stones erected on a rock in the Bristol Channel. It came to be known as Cook's Folly. His second wife, Cecilia or Cicely, bore him three sons and two daughters. He died in about 1726, when he was more than 80 years old. His will directed that his body be interred at the "Tempul" at Youghal in a linen shroud.

From the Royal Irish Academy's Dictionary of Irish Biography. See dib.ie for more details