Alexander Shank Cook 1811-1869
From Book Owners Online
Alexander Shank COOK 1811-1869
Biographical Note
Likely born in Laurencekirk, he was the son of the Rev. George Cook, minister of Laurencekirk, and Diana Shank. Educated at the university of St Andrews. He was an advocate in Edinburgh from around 1834, and Sheriff Ross & Cromarty, and procurator for the Church of Scotland in from 1861.
Books
His library was sold at auction by Thomas Chapman in Edinburgh over two days from 23rd March 1869, with lots 1-452 belonging to Cook. The majority of his library was printed in the nineteenth-century, with some from the eighteenth-century. Lot 395 was a copy of Skene’s important law text de Verborum Significatione (Edinburgh, 1599), with autograph of David Herd (1732-1810). A copy of the auction catalogue survives at the NLS ((X.44.g.8(6)).
Sources
- Boase, Fredric. Modern English Biography: Containing Many Thousand Concise Memiors, Netherton and Worth, For the author, 1892, Vol.1
- Catalogue of a valuable collection of books, including the law and general library of the late Alexander Shank Cook, Esq., Advocate, Sheriff of Ross and Cromarty, a portion of the rare library of the late Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Esq., law and miscellaneous books of the late James Bell, Esq., S.S.C., and of a gentleman deceased... Edinburgh, 1869