COKE, Thomas (1697-1759), of Holkham, Norf.

Descended from the great chief justice, Coke succeeded to estates worth over £10,000 a year, which, in spite of heavy losses in the South Sea bubble, had increased by 1741 to £15,000. He became Walpole’s chief electoral manager for Norfolk, which he represented unopposed from 1722 to 1728, when he was raised to the peerage at George II’s coronation. Two years later he was saying: ‘I have an estate sufficient for an earl or a viscount at least, and I shall expect to be made one of them’;C. W. James, Chief Justice Coke, his Family and Descendants, 176, 215; HMC Egmont Diary, i. 10; iii. 190. but he had to wait fourteen years for his earldom, which was granted him in 1744 on an old promise obtained for him from the King by Walpole.Walpole to Mann, 8 May 1744. Meanwhile his electoral services were rewarded with the office of joint postmaster general, worth about £3,000 a year.K. Ellis, Post Office, 14. With these additional resources he was able to make a start in 1734 on the chief work of his life, the creation of Holkham, a seat which, in the words of his own inscription,

on an open barren estate was planned, planted, built, decorated, and inhabited the middle of the XVIIIth century by Thos. Coke, Earl of Leicester.James, 274.

When he died, 20 Apr. 1759, the house was still unfinished.