ii. 480. Johnson refers also to 'A demurre about the burgesses for both the universities' in the Bodleian, No. 8489, and a law commonplace book, 2 vols., supposed to be by Coke, in the Bishop's Library, Norwich, No. 462. For the household book which Johnson mentions see Holkham MSS. 724, 729.
[There is no good biography of Coke. That by Johnson (2 vols. 1837) is inaccurate and disorderly; Serjeant Woolrych's (1826) is shorter and better. In the article in the Penny Cyclopædia the Harl. MS. 6687 was first used. See also Biog. Brit.; Foss's Judges, vol. vi.; and Campbell's Chief Justices, vol. i. Lord Campbell's life is very inaccurate. Calendar of State Papers, Dom. for the period of Coke's life; Reps, of the Hist. MSS. Comm.; Spedding's Bacon; Gardiner's Hist. of England.]
COKE or COOKE, GEORGE, D.D. (d. 1646), bishop successively of Bristol and Hereford, was brother of Sir John Coke [q. v.], secretary of state, and son of Richard Coke of Trusley, Derbyshire, by Mary his wife, daughter and heiress of Thomas Sacheverell of Kirby, Nottinghamshire (Wood, Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 882). He was educated at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, where he obtained a fellowship, and in 1605 he was junior taxor of the university (Addit. MS. 5865, f. 65 b). After taking orders he obtained the rectory of Bygrave, Hertfordshire, where, Fuller quaintly observes, ' a lean village (consisting of but three houses) maketh a fat living ' (Worthies, ed. Nichols, i. 255; Chauncey, Hertfordshire, ed. 1700, p. 45). On 10 Feb. 1632-3 he was consecrated bishop of Bristol (Godwin, De Præsulibus, ed. Richardson, pp. 497, 565), and in July 1636 he was translated to the see of Hereford (Le Neve, Fasti, ed. Hardy, i. 216, 471). During the rebellion he was one of the protesting bishops, and was imprisoned on that account. When Colonel Birch [see Birch, John, 1616-1691] took the city of Hereford in 1645, he rifled the bishop's palace and after wards took up his habitation there till the Restoration. Moreover he had great part of the revenues of the see to his own use, 'and to this day,' wrote Walker in 1714, 'the manor of Whitborn, by the sorry compliance of some who might have prevented it, continues in his family' (Sufferings of the Clergy, ii. 94). The bishop died at Quedgley, Gloucestershire, 10 Dec. 1646, and was buried in Erdesley parish church. After the Restoration a handsome altar-monument was erected to his memory in Hereford Cathedral (Rawlinson, Hist. of Hereford, p. 218).
[Authorities cited above; also Lloyd's Memoires (1677), p. 600; Fuller's Church Hist. lib. xi. 183; Heylyn's Cyprianus Anglicus (1671), pp. 214, 459, 460.]
COKE, JEREMIAH (d. 1817). [See Brandreth, Jeremiah.]
COKE, Sir JOHN (1563–1644), secretary of state, second son of Richard Coke of Trusley, near Derby, and Mary Sacheverell, was born on 5 March 1562-3 (Melbourne Papers). Being one of a family of eleven children, and his father dying in 1582, John Coke began life with nothing but an annuity of 40l., payable by his elder brother, Francis. It has been supposed that he was educated at Westminster School. It is certain that he was admitted scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge, about Easter 1580, and became a fellow of the same society in October 1583 (Trinity College Register). According to Lloyd, he was 'chosen rhetoric lecturer in the university, where he grew eminent for his ingenious and critical reading in that school' (State Worthies, 945). He seems from his correspondence to have entered the service of Lord Burghley, and in March 1591 appears to have been deputy-treasurer of the navy. The year 1594 and the two following years were spent in travelling, and on his return in 1597 Coke attached himself to the service of Fulke Greville [q. v.], then treasurer of the navy, under whom he was deputy-treasurer, supervising also his patron's household, and watching his interests at court. In 1604 Coke was rich enough to buy Hall Court in Herefordshire, and in the following year he married Mary, daughter of Mr. John Powell of Preston in that county. The years which followed this marriage were spent in farming in the country, varied by periodical journeys to Warwickshire and elsewhere to audit the accounts of Sir Fulke Greville's estates (Melbourne Papers). Owing probably to Greville's influence, Coke was appointed in June 1618 one of a special commission for the examination of the state of the navy, and was continued in that service when the commission became a permanent board, February 1619 (Gardiner, History of England, iii. 203). According to Bishop Goodman, the reform of the naval administration (and also of the Tower establishment) was mainly Coke's work (Court of James I, 308). The king rewarded his industry by a grant of 300l. a year, charged on the funds of the navy, expressly stated to be given 'for his service in several marine causes, and for the office of ordnance which he had long attended far remote from his family, and to his great charge' (November 1621, Melbourne Papers). In November 1622 Coke was also appointed one of the masters of requests, but still continued to act as one of the commissioners of the navy. 'The rest of the commissioners,' says Eliot, writing of 1625, 'were but cyphers unto him' (Negotium Posterorum, ii. 8).
