COKE

(pronounced Cook)

Thomas William COKE, Earl of Leicester of Holkham [pronounced Lester of Hokum] (1752 - 1842).
A descendant of the famous jurist Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634) [see below].
Member of Parliament for north-west Norfolk 1776-1833; but best known (as Coke of Norfolk) for his agricultural developments, converting north-west Norfolk into a major wheat-growing district, and improved breeds of farm animals.
Created Earl of Leicester of Holkham in 1837.
Buried at Tittleshall
See Holkham; BurnhamOvery; Mileham; Sparham; Tittleshall; Wellingham;
Weasenham All Saints; Weasenham St.Peter; and Wendling (White's 1854)
See also Thomas Coke Biography

Right Hon. Thos. Wm Coke, Earl of Leicester
Son of the above.
See Fulmodeston; Holkham and South Creake (Kelly's 1883)

Major Richard COKE (1918-2001).
Grandson of the above.
See Obituary Eastern Daily Press, 10 May 2001.

Sir Edward COKE (1552-1634).
Famous English jurist, born at Mileham, Norfolk. Main proponent of the Petition of Right 1628); author of Coke's Institutes (1628-24) dealing with the statutes, criminal law and jurisdictions of the various law courts; founder of the Law Reports.

Undountedly, the most famous of Norwich School's 'old boys' in this period [last 16th century] was Edward Coke, recorder of Norwich from 1572 to 1592, MP for the county of Norfolk in 1592 and 1625, and chief justice of the common pleas and King's Bench in the seventeenth century. [John Pound in Norwich since 1550 (ed. Carole Rawcliff and Richard Wilson, London: Hambledon aand London) p.60 (referenced to S.D. White, Sir Edward Coke and the Grievances of the Commonwealth (Manchester, 1979), pp.1-13.)]

His entry in Alumni Cantabriensis says:
COKE, EDWARD College: TRINITY Entered: Michs. 1567 Born: Died: Matric. pens. from TRINITY, Michs. 1567. Said to have resided till 1571. M.A. 1597. S. of -, of Mileham, Norfolk. B. there, Feb. 1, 1551-2. School, Norwich. Adm. at Clifford's Inn, 1571; and at the Inner Temple, Apr. 24, 1571. Barrister, 1578. Bencher, 1590. Recorder of Coventry, 1585; of Norwich, 1586; of London, 1592. Counsel for the University, 1586. Solicitor-general, 1592. Attorney-general, 1593. M.P. for Aldborough, Suffolk, 1588; for Norfolk, 1592. Speaker, 1593. Knighted, 1603. Chief Justice C.P. 1606; of the King's Bench, 1613-6. High Steward of the University, 1615. Removed from the chief justiceship, Nov. 10, 1616. M.P. for Liskeard, 1620; for Coventry, 1624; for Norfolk, 1625; and for Bucks., 1628. Retired to Stoke Poges, Bucks., where he died Sept. 3, 1634. The well-known author of the Reports and Institutes. Buried at Tittleshall, Norfolk. Will, P.C.C. (D.N.B.)

See Holkham; Mileham; Swaffham; and Tittleshall (White's 1854)

See also:

Book references [GENUKI-NFK]
Didlington Estate [Coke, holder of a fee and a half in the time of Henry III].

Thomas Coke (d. 1759)
Successor to the above; created Baron Lovel, of minster Lovel, Oxfordshire, in 1728; Viscount Coke of Holkham, and Earl of Leicester, in 1744.
Embanked Holkam marshes from the sea in 1772 (1742 ?)
He commenced the erection of the mansion of HOLKHAM HOUSE in 1734, and it was finished by his Dowager Countess in 1760.

See Holkham (White's 1854).

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