Henry Cooke (c. 1616 – 13 July 1672) commonly known as Captain Cooke, was an English composer, choirmaster and singer. He was a guy chorister in the Chapel Royal and by the outbreak of the English Civil War was a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal. He united the Royalist cause, in the encouragement of which he rose to the rank of captain. With the Restoration of Charles II he returned to the Chapel Royal as Master of the Children and was answerable for the rebuilding of the chapel and the start of instrumental music into the services. The choristers in his warfare included his successor and eventual son-in-law Pelham Humfrey, as with ease as Henry Purcell and John Blow.
On reconstituting the choir of the Chapel Royal, Dussuaze states:
Cooke was one of the five English composers who created music for Sir William Davenant’s The Siege of Rhodes (1656), often called the first English opera.
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