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Wenman Roberts Married Married Married Elizabeth Chamberlayne-Denton | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thomas William Coke [CFT #5621] Born: 1754 Died: 1842 |
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| b London d Longford, Derbyshire Thomas William was the 1st Earl of Leicester of the 2nd creation. His father was Wenman Roberts (1717-11/4/1776) who assumed the name of Coke in 1750 on the death of his uncle. Thomas William's mother was Elizabeth Chamberlayne-Denton who died in 1810. Thomas William Coke and his wife Lady Anne Amelia Keppel had five sons and a daughter. The earldom of Leicester was first created in 1107, but whenever an earl dies without a son to inherit the title it lapses and can then be granted to an entirely unrelated family. Over the centuries this happened three times before Thomas was created earl in 1744. Previous Earls of Leicester had included Simon de Montfort, champion of the barons against the crown in the 13th century, and Queen Elizabeth I’s favourite, Robert Dudley. The Coke family has no connection with any of these earlier Earls of Leicester. Thomas Coke’s only son died before him so the peerage once again fell into abeyance when he died in 1759. The hall and estate passed to his great-nephew, a commoner, who was always known as ‘Coke of Norfolk’. In 1837, when he was 83, the title was re-created for him. In the meantime, however, it had been granted to a rival local family, the Townshends of Raynham, an estate only a few miles away. T. W. Coke’s official title was therefore ‘Earl of Leicester of Holkham’ and until the Townshend line died out in 1855, there were two Earls of Leicester living near to each other. In each creation, the numbering of the earls started afresh. In Holkham history, Thomas Coke is known as the 1st Earl, T. W. Coke became the 1st Earl of the 2nd creation and his descendants are the 2nd to 7th Earls. This numbering is helpful as five of the earls were named Thomas William Coke. |
1: 1777 Jane Elizabeth Cokec 2: 1779 Anne Margaret Cokec 3: 1795 Elizabeth Wilhelmina Cokec 4: 1822 Thomas William Cokec W/C | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4 Children | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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