D'Ewes Coke
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D'Ewes Coke (1747 – 12 April 1811) was rector of
Pinxton Pinxton is a village and civil parish in Derbyshire on the western boundary of Nottinghamshire, England, just south of the Pinxton Interchange at Junction 28 of the M1 motorway where the A38 road meets the M1. Pinxton is part of the Bolsover D ...
and
South Normanton South Normanton is a village and civil parish in the Bolsover District of Derbyshire, England. The population at the 2011 Census was 9,445. An ex-mining village, it is two miles east of Alfreton. The historic industries of the village were agr ...
in
Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It borders Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, and South Yorkshire to the north, Nottinghamshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south-east, Staffordshire to the south a ...
, a
colliery Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extra ...
owner and
philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...
. He married Hannah, heiress of George Heywood of
Brimington Brimington is a large village and civil parish in the Borough of Chesterfield in Derbyshire, England. The population of the parish taken at the 2011 census was 8,788. The town of Staveley is to the east, and Hollingwood is nearby. The pari ...
.


Background

Coke was born at
Mansfield Woodhouse Mansfield Woodhouse is a town and civil parish in the Mansfield District, Mansfield district of Nottinghamshire, England. It is about north of Mansfield, along the main A60 road in a wide, low valley between the Rivers River Maun, Maun and Rive ...
in 1747, the only son of George Coke (1725–1759) of Kirkby Hall, Nottinghamshire, and of his wife Elizabeth, daughter of the Reverend Seth Ellis. George Coke was himself the son of another D'Ewes Coke (died 1751), of
Suckley Suckley is a village and civil parish in the Malvern Hills District in the county of Worcestershire, England, close to the border with Herefordshire. The parish includes the hamlets of Suckley Knowl (at ), Suckley Green at and Longley Green a ...
, and of his first wife, Frances Coke, daughter and co-heiress of William Coke of Trusley, and was the only one of their three children to survive childhood. Coke's father died in 1759, when his son was only about twelve. The name D'Ewes came from Coke's great-grandmother Elizabeth d'Ewes, who was the mother of the first D'Ewes Coke. A daughter of Sir Willoughby d'Ewes, 2nd Baronet, of Stowlangtoft Hall,
Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...
, she was the wife of Coke's great-grandfather Heigham Coke of Suckley. Her grandfather was
Sir Simonds d'Ewes, 1st Baronet Sir Simonds d'Ewes, 1st Baronet (18 December 1602 – 18 April 1650) was an English antiquary and politician. He was bred for the bar, was a member of the Long Parliament and left notes on its transactions. D'Ewes took the Puritan side in the Civ ...
.Pedigree of Coke
at stirnet.com (subscription required), accessed 14 April 2008.
Coke's own family can be traced back to the 15th century and includes such notable figures as
George Coke George Coke or Cooke (3 October 1570 – 10 December 1646) was successively the Bishop of Bristol and Hereford. After the battle of Naseby in 1645, Hereford was taken and Coke was arrested and taken to London. He avoided charges of High Trea ...
, a
Bishop of Hereford The Bishop of Hereford is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Hereford in the Province of Canterbury. Until 1534, the Diocese of Hereford was in full communion with the Roman Catholic Church and two of its bishop ...
just before the
English Civil War The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...
, and Sir John Coke, Secretary of State to King Charles I. Coke's family owned collieries in
Pinxton Pinxton is a village and civil parish in Derbyshire on the western boundary of Nottinghamshire, England, just south of the Pinxton Interchange at Junction 28 of the M1 motorway where the A38 road meets the M1. Pinxton is part of the Bolsover D ...
, where Coke later paid for a school and a schoolmaster's residence to be erected.''White's Directory of Derbyshire, 1857'' Coke was a cousin of
Daniel Coke Daniel Parker Coke (17 July 1745 – 6 December 1825), was an English barrister and Member of Parliament. Early life Coke was the only son of Thomas Coke (1700–1776), a barrister, and his wife, Matilda Goodwin (1706–1777). He belonged ...
(1745–1825), a
barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...
and member of parliament.


Life and family

Coke was educated at
Repton School Repton School is a 13–18 co-educational, private, boarding and day school in the public school tradition, in Repton, Derbyshire, England. Sir John Port of Etwall, on his death in 1557, left funds to create a grammar school which was th ...
and St John's College,
Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
, where he was admitted a pensioner on 13 October 1764, his father being named as George Coke,
Colonel Colonel ( ; abbreviated as Col., Col, or COL) is a senior military Officer (armed forces), officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, a colon ...
of the
3rd Dragoons Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (dis ...
, of Kirkby Hall, Nottinghamshire. Entering the ministry of the
Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...
in 1770, Coke was ordained a
deacon A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian denominations, such as the Cathol ...
on 23 September of that year and
priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...
on 15 December 1771, both in the
Diocese of Coventry and Lichfield The Diocese of Lichfield is a Church of England diocese in the Province of Canterbury, England. The bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint Chad in the city of Lichfield. The diocese covers of seve ...
, and held the rectories of Pinxton and
South Normanton South Normanton is a village and civil parish in the Bolsover District of Derbyshire, England. The population at the 2011 Census was 9,445. An ex-mining village, it is two miles east of Alfreton. The historic industries of the village were agr ...
, Derbyshire, from 1771 to 1811. He married Hannah,
ied 1818 IED may refer to: Devices * Improvised explosive device, an explosive device often used in unconventional warfare * Instantaneous electrical detonator, used to trigger an explosive device * Intelligent electronic device, in the electric power i ...
daughter of George Heywood of Brimington Hall, Nottinghamshire, where Coke spent his later years. They had three sons, the eldest being another D'Ewes Coke (1774–1856), who was Coke's heir and became a barrister. The second son also went into the law and became Sir William Coke (1776–1818), a judge in
Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...
. Coke's third son was John Coke DL (died 1841), who served as
High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire This is a list of the High Sheriffs of the English county of Nottinghamshire. The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centu ...
in 1830.Burkes Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry
Bernard Burke, 1847, retrieved 28 March 2008
John Coke was also instrumental in founding the Pinxton China factory, on land rented from his father.A Brief Chronology of the Pinxton China Factory
by C. Shepherd, pub 1996
All three sons played a role in the establishment of the
Mansfield and Pinxton Railway The Mansfield and Pinxton Railway was an early horse-drawn railway in the United Kingdom. It was completed in 1819, to make a transport link between Mansfield and the Cromford Canal at Pinxton. An important traffic was coal inward to Mansfield ...
, which opened in 1819. The family portrait on this page by
Joseph Wright of Derby Joseph Wright (3 September 1734 – 29 August 1797), styled Joseph Wright of Derby, was an English landscape and portrait painter. He has been acclaimed as "the first professional painter to express the spirit of the Industrial Revolution". Wr ...
was painted about 1782, just after Coke and his wife had inherited Brookhill Hall, near
Pinxton Pinxton is a village and civil parish in Derbyshire on the western boundary of Nottinghamshire, England, just south of the Pinxton Interchange at Junction 28 of the M1 motorway where the A38 road meets the M1. Pinxton is part of the Bolsover D ...
. It shows them with Coke's cousin
Daniel Coke Daniel Parker Coke (17 July 1745 – 6 December 1825), was an English barrister and Member of Parliament. Early life Coke was the only son of Thomas Coke (1700–1776), a barrister, and his wife, Matilda Goodwin (1706–1777). He belonged ...
at a table in the open air, under a large tree. The focus of the composition, and apparently the object of discussion, is a sheet of paper held by Daniel Coke, which may relate to the unseen landscape. Wright places D'Ewes Coke at the apex of a triangle, with his gaze towards his wife, while the other two look away from the small group. The meaning of the painting has been lost. Coke became a member of
Derby Philosophical Society The Derby Philosophical Society was a club for gentlemen in Derby founded in 1783 by Erasmus Darwin. The club had many notable members and also offered the first institutional library in Derby that was available to some section of the public. P ...
which was formed when
Erasmus Darwin Erasmus Robert Darwin (12 December 173118 April 1802) was an English physician. One of the key thinkers of the Midlands Enlightenment, he was also a natural philosophy, natural philosopher, physiology, physiologist, Society for Effecting the ...
moved to Derby. Coke died at
Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...
on 12 April 1811 and was buried at Pinxton.


Legacy

In his
Will Will may refer to: Common meanings * Will and testament, instructions for the disposition of one's property after death * Will (philosophy), or willpower * Will (sociology) * Will, volition (psychology) * Will, a modal verb - see Shall and will ...
, Coke established an educational
charity Charity may refer to: Common meanings * Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons * Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sha ...
at Pinxton, leaving five pounds a year from the profits of his collieries to buy books for poor children. In 1846, the books were generally given to children attending an unendowed school.History, gazetteer and directory of Derbyshire
p.660, accessed 30 March 2008


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Coke, Dewes People from Pinxton 18th-century English Anglican priests Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge People educated at Repton School 1747 births People from Mansfield Woodhouse 1811 deaths People associated with Derby Museum and Art Gallery British businesspeople in the coal industry