JANE ELIZABETH COOK OF WANTAGE (1835-1920) A design for the bookplate of Dorothy Tennant, Lady Stanley (1855-1926)

Note: Jane Elizabeth Cook (née Robins) was born on September 27, 1835, in Marylebone, London, the youngest daughter of John Robins and his wife Mary Ann. Young Jane was initially self-taught by visiting the British Museum and the National Gallery. In the early 1850's she attended Coney’s School of Art in Bloomsbury and began selling her sketches and paintings. One of her first major commissions was for a miniature of the Countess Gleichen and her first picture was exhibited and sold in the 1861 Academy Exhibition. 

On June 30, 1866, at Hampstead, Jane married Henry Cook a schoolmaster at Penrose’s Preparatory School at Exmouth. Shortly after the marriage, Henry was appointed headmaster at King Alfred’s School in Wantage where the couple moved to the following year. The family was completed by two sons Theodore (later Sir Theodore) and Arthur. The former became a noted journalist, art critic and sportsman. It was at this time that Jane gave up her promising career to help her husband in the task of improving the standards, extending the accommodation and increasing the number of scholars at the school.