Nicholas Leke, 4th Earl of Scarsdale (1682? – 17 July 1736) was an English politician and

courtier A courtier () is a person who attends the royal court of a monarch or other royalty. The earliest historical examples of courtiers were part of the retinues of rulers. Historically the court was the centre of government as well as the officia ...

Biography

Leke was the nephew of Robert Leke, 3rd Earl of Scarsdale, succeeding him when Robert died childless in 1707. He was admitted to

St John's College, Cambridge St John's College, formally the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge, is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch L ...

in 1699. Scarsdale was

Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire This is a list of people who have served as Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire. Since 1689, all the Lord Lieutenants have also been Custos Rotulorum of Derbyshire. * Francis Hastings, 2nd Earl of Huntingdon * George Talbot, 6th Earl of Shrewsbury 3 ...

from 1711 to 1714. In 1724 Leke asked the Warwick architect Francis Smith to transform the ancestral home at

Sutton Scarsdale Sutton Scarsdale is a village in Derbyshire, England. It is in the North East Derbyshire district. It is very close to the M1 motorway. It is in the civil parish of Sutton cum Duckmanton. The settlement is notable for a large, ruined former sta ...

to a Georgian style that would rival houses such as

Chatsworth House Chatsworth House is a stately home in the Derbyshire Dales, north-east of Bakewell and west of Chesterfield, Derbyshire, Chesterfield, England. The seat of the Duke of Devonshire, it has belonged to the House of Cavendish, Cavendish family si ...

. Smith employed the best craftspeople including Francesco Vassalli, the Atari brothers and

Robert Adam Robert Adam (3 July 17283 March 1792) was a British neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam (architect), William Adam (1689–1748), Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and train ...

. The building passed through various owners and was stripped in the 20th century. Three of the panelled rooms are now in an American museum whilst the ruins of the building are still there in 2009 as a monument to their ideas. Leke died unmarried and the earldom became extinct. Although unmarried, he fathered three children by Madame Margaret Seymour of Yaxley. Those children were Nicholas, Seymour, and Margaret.Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute, p. 137
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References

, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Scarsdale, Nicholas Leke, 4th Earl of 1680s births 1736 deaths Lord-lieutenants of Derbyshire Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge Earls of Scarsdale