John Coker (d. 1631/35) was an English

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

cleric and the reputed author of ''A Survey of Dorsetshire'', a

county history English county histories, in other words historical and topographical (or "Chorography, chorographical") works concerned with individual ancient counties of England, were produced by antiquarians from the late 16th century onwards. The content was ...

published in 1732.

Life and career

Coker was the third son of Robert Coker of Mappowder,

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

(d. 1571/2) and his wife, Elizabeth, the daughter and heir of Henry Beaumont of Giddesham. He served as rector of

Tincleton Tincleton is a village and civil parish in the county of Dorset in southern England. It is situated near the River Frome, approximately east of the county town Dorchester. The name of the village comes from the Old English "Tin la Ton", or "f ...

from 1576 to 1579 or 1582, as a new rector's name was only recorded on the second date. After this office, Coker probably retired to Mappowder. The parish burial register records the burial of two John Cokers, in 1631 and 1635, uncertain as to which is the clergyman.

''A Survey of Dorsetshire''

Coker was long believed to be the author of ''A Survey of Dorsetshire … to which is Prefix'd a Map of the County'' (1732), a systematic description of the history, topography, and genealogy of the county, published sometime after the author's death. This was revealed to be a misattribution by county historian

Rodney Legg Rodney Frank Legg (18 April 1947 – 22 July 2011) was a campaigner, author and publisher, known for being chairman of the Open Spaces Society and for publishing numerous works on the history and landscape of Dorset, England. Early life Legg was ...

, in an afterword to the 1980 facsimile edition of the work. The survey was, in fact, composed by Thomas Gerard (1592–1634) in the 1620s and passed onto the Coker family upon his death. Nearly a century later a London bookseller, John Wilcox, proceeded to publish it under John Coker's name.

References

External links

A Survey of Dorsetshire (1732)
at Google Books {{DEFAULTSORT:Gibson-Craig, James Thomson 1631 deaths 1635 deaths 17th-century English Anglican priests People from North Dorset District

Life and career

''A Survey of Dorsetshire''

References

Further reading

External links