George Lewis Coke (1715–1751) of

Melbourne Hall Melbourne Hall is a Georgian style country house in Melbourne, Derbyshire, previously owned by William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, British Prime Minister from 1835 to 1841. The house is now the seat of Lord and Lady Ralph Kerr and is open to th ...

Melbourne, Derbyshire Melbourne () is a market town and civil parish in South Derbyshire, England. It was home to Thomas Cook, and has a street named after him. It is south of Derby and from the River Trent. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 Census was ...

was an English gentleman and landowner.

Biography

George Lewis Coke was born in 1715 to Thomas Coke and his wife Mary (née Hale). His father had been Vice-Chamberlain of the Household to Queen Mary and

George I George I or 1 may refer to: People * Patriarch George I of Alexandria (fl. 621–631) * George I of Constantinople (d. 686) * George I of Antioch (d. 790) * George I of Abkhazia (ruled 872/3–878/9) * George I of Georgia (d. 1027) * Yuri Dolgor ...

Thomas Coke served from 1706 to 1727 and briefly (in 1704) Teller of the Receipt of the Exchequer. Melbourne Hall

His father died when he was twelve and he was taken care of by his uncle, John Coke, in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. He attended

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

in 1732 and property at

Kings Newton Kings Newton is a village in South Derbyshire. The population of the village is included in Melbourne. The Holy well (pictured) was constructed around 1660, but has been refurbished at the end of the twentieth century. History Unlike many villa ...

was purchased for him by his uncle.Coke of Trusley He also inherited his father's property at

. When Coke was nineteen he embarked on the traditional

Grand Tour The Grand Tour was the principally 17th- to early 19th-century custom of a traditional trip through Europe, with Italy as a key destination, undertaken by upper-class young European men of sufficient means and rank (typically accompanied by a tut ...

of Europe, despite being appointed Surveyor-General of His Majesty's Customs two years before when he was just 17.The History of Melbourne Hall In the first year he visited Paris and ?? after staying over the winter in Montpelier, he visited

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

. Whilst in Italy he had his portrait painted by the Italian painter,

Pompeo Batoni Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (25 January 1708 – 4 February 1787) was an Italian painter who displayed a solid technical knowledge in his portrait work and in his numerous allegorical and mythological pictures. The high number of foreign visitors tra ...

– who made a good living from young English aristocrats. Like other Grand Tour portraits, Coke appears amongst antiquities. In this case the Coliseum is in the background of Batoni's composition. When Coke returned from abroad he was accompanied by a "companion and tutor" known as John Lewis Pasteur. Between 1742 and 1745, Coke hired William Smith to remodel the gardens of Melbourne Hall which, together with rebuilding the front and east wing, completed the plans of his father who had died prematurely. In 1745 a key event happened in British History when

Bonnie Prince Charlie Bonnie, is a Scottish given name and is sometimes used as a descriptive reference, as in the Scottish folk song, My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean. It comes from the Scots language word "bonnie" (pretty, attractive), or the French bonne (good). That ...

travelled with Scottish supporters south towards London to claim the throne of England. The troops made it as far as

Swarkestone Bridge Swarkestone Bridge is a medieval bridge crossing the River Trent between the villages of Swarkestone and Stanton by Bridge, about 6 miles south of Derby. It is currently Grade I Listed and a scheduled monument. History The bridge was built i ...

which takes the road between

Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby g ...

and

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

over the

River Trent The Trent is the third-longest river in the United Kingdom. Its source is in Staffordshire, on the southern edge of Biddulph Moor. It flows through and drains the North Midlands. The river is known for dramatic flooding after storms and ...

. A source says, the Deputy Lieutenant and the monarch's representative in the county in 1745 was George Lewis Coke."The Owners of Melbourne Hall, Howard Usher, 1993 On his death in 1751, his property went to his sister, Charlotte, who had married the family lawyer,

Sir Matthew Lamb, 1st Baronet Sir Matthew Lamb, 1st Baronet (1705 – 6 November 1768) was a British barrister and politician. He was the grandfather of Prime Minister William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne. Lamb was the son of Matthew Lamb, of Southwell, Nottinghamshire, and ...

, and was to become grandmother to

William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, (15 March 177924 November 1848), in some sources called Henry William Lamb, was a British Whig politician who served as Home Secretary (1830–1834) and Prime Minister (1834 and 1835–1841). His first prem ...

, the Victorian Prime Minister. Coke's companion, Pasteur, lived until the year 1793 after marrying and having three children in England and paying the Hearth Tax on the hall in 1777, over twenty years after Coke's death.

Afterwards and alternatively

In 1860, the fabric of Melbourne church was restored and this involved the removal of "hundreds of skulls"; the first coffin to be removed was that of George Lewis Coke which was unusual in shape. This was recorded by the local historian

John Joseph Briggs John Joseph Briggs (6 March 1819 – 23 March 1876), naturalist and topographer, was born in the village of Kings Newton (or King's Newton), Derbyshire on 6 March 1819. His father, John Briggs, who married his cousin, Mary Briggs, was born and re ...

who also noted the story about his valet, John Lewis Pasteur. According to Briggs, Coke had returned from abroad in the coffin, 109 years before, with Pasteur as valet. It was Pasteur who went on to be a shepherd in Bredon.. The History of Melbourne in the county of Derby, including Biographical Notices of the Coke, Melbourne and Hardinge Families", by John Joseph Briggs, Bemrose, 1852./ref> Briggs indicates that Coke never returned alive from his foreign tour and that his coffin was of "foreign" construction. Others agree with Briggs and say that "J.L.Pasteur" set out on the journey with him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coke, George Lewis 1715 births 1751 deaths People from Melbourne, Derbyshire People from King's Newton