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.

Read more about this topic:  Edward Coke

Famous quotes containing the words family, background, early and/or life:

    Welcome to the great American two-career family and pass the aspirin please.
    Anastasia Toufexis (20th century)

    In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.
    Emma Goldman (1869–1940)

    No two men see the world exactly alike, and different temperaments will apply in different ways a principle that they both acknowledge. The same man will, indeed, often see and judge the same things differently on different occasions: early convictions must give way to more mature ones. Nevertheless, may not the opinions that a man holds and expresses withstand all trials, if he only remains true to himself and others?
    Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)

    There is but one truly serious philosophical problem and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy. All the rest—whether or not the world has three dimensions, whether the mind has nine or twelve categories—comes afterwards. These are games; one must first answer.
    Albert Camus (1913–1960)