Edward Coke - Family Background and Early Life

Family Background and Early Life

The surname "Coke", or "Cocke", can be traced back approximately 400 years before Edward Coke's birth, to a William Coke in the hundred of South Greenhoe, now Swaffham. It was not a common surname, being limited to one family, but the family itself was relatively respected – members of the family from the 1400s on included an Under-Sheriff, a Knight Banneret, a barrister and a merchant in Norwich. The origins of the name prior to that are uncertain; theories are that it signified a river among early Britons, or was descended from the word "Coc", or leader. Another hypothesis is that it was simply an attempt to disguise the word "cook".

Coke's father, Robert Coke, was a barrister and Bencher of Lincoln's Inn who built up a strong practice representing clients from his home area of Norfolk, particularly the Townsend family. Over time, he bought several manors at Congham, Westacre and Happisburgh and was granted a coat of arms, becoming a minor member of the gentry. The name "Coke" itself was pronounced "kuke" during the Elizabethan age itself, although it is now pronounced "cook". Coke's mother was Winifred Knightley Coke, who came from a family even more intimately linked with the law than her husband. Both her father and grandfather had practised law in the Norfolk area, and her sister Audrey was married to Thomas Gawdy, a lawyer and Justice of the Court of King's Bench with links to the Earl of Arundel, something that later served Edward well. Winifred's father later married Agnes, the sister of Nicholas Hare.

Edward Coke was born on 1 February 1552 in Mileham, one of eight children. The other seven were daughters – Winifred, Dorothy, Elizabeth, Ursula, Anna, Margaret and Ethelreda – although it is not known in which order the children were born. It is sometimes supposed that Edward was the oldest, because his name is first on the monument to Robert Coke, but this is most likely simply because the names were listed with the son first and daughters second, not because the order represented their ages. One estimate by Allen Boyer is that Edward was the fourth child based on baptism registers. Two years after Robert Coke died on 15 November 1561, Winifred remarried to Robert Bozoun, a member of an old family who had a tremendous influence on the Coke children. A property trafficker, Bozoun was noted for his piety and strong business acumen, once forcing Nicholas Bacon to pay an exorbitant amount of money for a piece of property. From Bozoun, Coke learnt to "loathe concealers, prefer godly men and briskly do business with any willing client", something which shaped his future conduct as a lawyer, politician and judge.