Sears Cook

Died	1816-09-01 Billerica, MA
Select Board
In Office	1786 - 1788
Preceded by	William Bowers
Succeeded by	Ephraim Crosby
Select Board
In Office	1797 - 1806
Preceded by	Oliver Crosby
Succeeded by	Jeremiah Crosby
Select Board
In Office	1807 - 1808
Preceded by	Thomas Spaulding
Succeeded by	Josiah Rogers
Children	Francis (b. 1775-08-25)

Sears Cook (about 1746-1816) was the Revolutionary era selectman of that name, the father of selectman Francis Cook and the great-grandfather of the later town officer Sears J. Cook (1834-1924). No record found gives him a middle name: Hazen's genealogical register, the Billerica vital records and the Revolutionary rolls all call him simply Sears Cook, and the "J." once attached to him belongs to his great-grandson.

He was a son of Paul Cook of Wilmington, who came to Billerica about 1771 and died in 1787. Paul's will made Sears executor and residuary legatee, and Sears took over the homestead. Recorded as "of Wilmington," he married Abigail Crosby, daughter of Lieut. Francis Crosby, on December 10, 1771, and Hazen says he lived in the east part of the town; Hazen's annotated tax list of December 1776, which lists Paul and Sears Cook together, places the family in the Shawshin District east of the Shawsheen River. Their children were Abigail (born 1773), who married John Crosby; Francis (born August 25, 1775); and the twins Susan and Sarah (born May 6, 1778). Susan married Benjamin Walker of Wilmington in 1800, and Sarah married Joseph Gleason in 1798.

Hazen's list of Billerica's Revolutionary soldiers credits Sears Cook with service in 1775. The state's Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors records Sears Cook of Billerica as a private in Capt. Edward Farmer's company, which marched on the alarm of April 19, 1775, and a Sears Cook (town not given) as a lieutenant in Col. Jonathan Reed's regiment from July to November 1776. The second entry is probably the same man, since his gravestone, as cited in the vital records, calls him "Lt. Sears."

He was chosen selectman in 1786 and 1787, again from 1797 through 1805, and in 1807, twelve years in all by Hazen's count. He died in Billerica on September 1, 1816, aged 70. Abigail survived him by twenty years and died on December 31, 1836, aged 93.

Sears Cook

Sears Cook

References