Before speaking of Lady Ann Bacon, it is necessary to give some account of her father, Sir Anthony Cooke. He was a great-grandson of Sir Thomas Cooke, Lord Mayor of London, and was born at Giddy Hall, in Essex. Again the most valuable observations on his character are to be found in "The Lives of Statesmen and Favourites" before referred to. The author states that Sir Anthony "was one of the Governors to King Edward the sixth when Prince, and is charactered by Mr. Camden _Vir antiqua serenitate_. He observeth him also to be happy in his Daughters, learned above their Sex in Greek and Latine: namely, Mildred who married William Cecil, Lord Treasurer of England; Anne who married Nichlas Bacon, Lord Chancellor of England; Katherine who married Henry Killigrew; Elizabeth who married Thomas Hobby, and afterwards Lord Russell, and Margaret who married Ralph Rowlet." "Gravity," says this author, "was the Ballast of Sir Anthony's Soul and General Learning its leading.... Yet he was somebody in every Art, and eminent in all, the whole circle of Arts lodging in his Soul. His Latine, fluent and proper; his Greek, critical and exact; his Philology and Observations upon each of these languages, deep, curious, various and pertinent: His Logic, rational; his History and Experience, general; his Rhetorick and Poetry, copious and genuine; his Mathematiques, practicable and useful. Knowing that souls were equal, and that Women are as capable of Learning as Men, he instilled that to his Daughters at night, which he had taught the Prince in the day, being resolved to have Sons by education, for fear he should have none by birth; and lest he wanted an Heir of his body, he made five of his minde, for whom he had at once a _Gavel-kind_ of affection and of Estate." "Three things there are before whom (was Sir Anthony's saying) I cannot do amis: 1, My Prince; 2, my conscience; 3, my children. Seneca told his sister, That though he could not leave her a good portion, he would leave her a good pattern. Sir Anthony would write to his Daughter _Mildred, My example is your inheritance and my life is your portion_.... "He said first, and his Grandchilde my Lord Bacon after him, That the Joys of Parents are Secrets, and so are their Griefs and Fears.... Very providently did he secure his eternity, by leaving the image of his nature in his children and of his mind in his Pupil.... The books he advised were not _many_ but _choice_: the business he pressed was not reading, but digesting.... Sir John Checke talked merrily, Dr. Coxe solidly and Sir Anthony Cooke weighingly: A faculty that was derived with his blood to his Grandchilde Bacon."