Great Ayton - Captain Cook Connection

Captain Cook Connection

James Cook and his family moved to the village when he was 8 and lived there until he was 16. James' father, James Sr., was a Scottish migrant farm labourer married to Grace, a local Yorkshire woman, and had moved to the village to take up a position on one of the local farms. His employer, one Thomas Skottowe, financed the younger James' schooling. After completing this tuition James stayed on at the farm for several years helping out his father (who was now farm manager), before leaving in 1745 to take up an apprenticeship at a haberdasher and grocery store 20 miles (32 km) away in the fishing village of Staithes, near Whitby.

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