82 
Dorothy Wordsworth, the poet’s famous sister, also spent much 
of her early life at her grandfather Cookson’s house, and so long 
as the worthy old mercer lived there was a home at Penrith for 
his orphan grandchildren. 
Returning to the registers of the Cookson family, we see in— 
1790, Feb. 26—William, son of Mr. Christopher Crackenthorpe 
Cookson, baptized. 
This is the late well-known Mr. Crackenthorpe, of Newbiggin 
Hall, who died about three years ago; so we see how near he was 
to being a centenarian. It will be observed that Mr. Cracken- 
thorpe and the poet were first cousins, with a difference of twenty 
years in their respective ages, Wordsworth having been born in 
1770, and Mr. William Crackenthorpe in 1790. 
Mr. Christopher Crackenthorpe Cookson had a daughter Char- 
lotte, born in 1791, and a daughter Sarah in 1794, on which latter 
occasion he stands in the register as ‘‘Christopher Crackenthorpe, 
Esq.” His mother having enjoyed the Newbiggin estates for one 
year after the death of James Crackenthorpe’s widow, died in 
1792, when he succeeding her in the inheritance, dropped the 
name of Cookson and assumed that of Crackenthorpe. 
There is just one more Cookson register to notice, and that is 
the marriage of the Rev. Dr. William Cookson, who comes to 
Penrith to wed Dorothy Cowper, daughter of the Rev. John 
Cowper, vicar of Penrith. The marriage is dated October 17th, 
1788, and is witnessed by William Monkhouse and Dorothy 
Wordsworth. Dorothy was then about seventeen years of age. 
She had been of late living much with her uncle, the rev. bride- 
groom, at Froncett, and probably came to Penrith with him for 
the auspicious occasion. ‘There is a rather curious circumstance 
in connection with the register of this marriage—the bridegroom’s 
age is stated to be thirty, whereas by the baptismal register it was 
thirty-three ; the bride’s age is also stated as thirty, while the bap- 
tismal register makes it out to be thirty-four years. 
Wordsworth went to Cambridge in 1787, and during the 
