Thomas William Coke, of Holkham,
co.Norfolk, 1st Earl of Leicester, (1754-1842)
Born 6 May 1754 Westminster
Died 30 June 1842 Longford Hall, co. Derby
Married (1) 5 October 1775 Sherborne
Jane Dutton,
daughter of James Lennox Dutton, of Sherborne
and Jane Bond
Born 29 November 1753 Sherborne
Died 2 June 1800 Bath
Buried Tittleshall, Norfolk
Married (2) 26 February 1822 St.James's
Sq, Westminster
Lady Anne Amelia Keppel,
daughter of William Charles Keppel, 4th Earl
of Albemarle
and Hon. Elizabeth Southwell
Born 16 June 1803
Died 22 July 1844 Longford Hall
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Thomas Coke was the celebrated Coke of Norfolk who, during a reign
of sixty-six years from 1776 to 1842, greatly improved the Holkham estate
which became famous for its advanced methods of husbandry.
People interested in farming flocked here from all over Britain and
also from further afield, the more distinguished being lavishly entertained
in 'Coke's rustic palace' with an abundance of partridges, pheasants and
woodcock to divert those of them whose tastes were sporting as well as
agricultural. The annual Holkham sheep-shearings, known as 'Coke's Clippings',
rivalled the Derby as a national event.
For most of his long life, the princely owner of Holkham was content
to be plain Mr. Coke, though he could easily have obtained a peerage. "I
had rather remain the first of the ducks than the last of the geese," he
used to say. There is a story of how, when the Prince
Regent was displeased with him, he threatened to knight him. When told
of this threat, Coke is reputed to have said: "If he tries to knight me,
by God, I'll break his sword." In 1837, however, Coke accepted a new earldom
of Leicester, a reason for his change of heart being that his second wife,
whom he married in 1822 when he was approaching seventy, had presented
him with four sons.
By his first marriage, Coke of Norfolk had only daughters. One of them
married the 1st Viscount Anson; another married Admiral Sir Henry Digby
and was the mother of the beautiful but wayward Jane Digby, known as "Aurora,
the Light of Day", who, after leaving her first husband, Lord Ellenborough
(a future Governor-General of India) had a succession of husbands and lovers
and ended up happily and respectably married to a Bedouin Sheikh.
From: "Ancestral Houses", by Mark
Bence-Jones, Leo van de Pas. |
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