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James Cook was born on Sunday 27th October 1728, the second child of James and Grace Cook.  His father, originally from Roxbroughshire in Scotland, was a farm labourer and had married Grace Pace, from Thornaby in Stainton Parish Church, in October 1725.  They originally set up home in the parish of Ormesby and moved to Marton where the family lived in a small cottage belonging to James Cook senior’s employer, farmer George Mewburn .

 

The family left Marton for a short period, as the baptism of their third child was shown in the Ormesby parish register, but were back in Marton by the time their second daughter was born in 1733.   James Cook senior obtained employment for a farmer at Aireyholme farm in Great Ayton in 1736 and the family moved to that area ending their association with Marton.

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The birthplace cottage has been described as a mud house of two rooms covered with thatch. Houses of this type were entered either by a door in the front wall or the gable which led into the main room.  A screen probably separated this room from a parlour or main bedroom where James parents slept.  The larger children would probably have slept in a loft also used for storage.

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In 1786 Bartholomew Rudd bought the manor and estate of Marton and built a new house, Marton Lodge.  He dismantled what remained of the cottage but marked its site in the courtyard of the stables by a quadrangle of flint stones.  In 1853 the estate was bought by Henry Bolckow and in 1858 having unearthed the remains of the birthplace cottage he erected the granite urn to mark the spot.