Thomas William Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester

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Thomas William Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester

Thomas William Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester (born May 6, 1754 in London - † June 30, 1842 ), also called Coke of Norfolk or Coke of Holkham , was a British politician and agricultural reformer.

Life

Thomas Coke was the son of the landowner Wenman Coke, a British member of the House of Commons, and his wife Elizabeth. He attended several schools, including Eton College , before embarking on the so-called Grand Tour , the compulsory trip through Europe, which was part of the educational program for many upper class sons. Coke's father died in 1776 after Coke returned to Britain and married. The legacy his father bequeathed to him included extensive land holdings in Norfolk, in north-east England. In 1776, Coke became a member of the House of Commons and became a close friend of the British statesman Charles James Fox . Politically, he worked closely with William Windham , whom he already knew from his time at Eton College.

A supporter of Charles James Fox, Thomas Coke lost his seat in the House of Commons in the British general election in 1784 and returned to Norfolk to take care of his land holdings and the expansion of his family home, Holkham Hall .

Coke won a seat in parliament again in the election to the House of Commons in 1790 and held that seat until 1832. He spoke primarily on matters of interest to landowners, including the Corn Laws , which protected domestic agriculture through high import duties and import bans . His second focus was civil rights. For example, he protested sharply against the British government's reaction to the Peterloo massacre . Hailed as “the greatest commoner in England”, he took advantage of the passage of the Reform Act 1832 , with which, among other things, the constituencies were redrawn in order to withdraw from political life.

Thomas William Coke (1822–1909), son and from 1842 2nd Earl of Leicester

Shortly afterwards, in July 1837, he was raised to the hereditary nobility as Earl of Leicester , with the subordinate title Viscount Coke . A seat in the House of Lords was associated with the title . After a short illness, Coke died in June 1842. The title passed to his son.

influence

Robert Bakewell, painting by John Boultbee

Thomas William Coke, along with Robert Bakewell and Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend, is one of the people who significantly influenced the British agricultural revolution.

As a landowner, Coke firmly believed that it was a responsibility of every landowner to improve the lives of those who lived on their estates. The basic understanding was that the landowner provided fields, roads and buildings, while the tenant brought in seeds, agricultural implements and his labor. Coke's estates included 54 farms, and it is due to his influence that they improved both pasture and ranching through the cultivation of ball grass and alfalfa . As a result, the number of cattle that could be kept on the given area increased. Influenced by the rancher Robert Bakewell, he introduced selective breeding of sheep and cattle on his estates and was one of the first to keep Leicester sheep on his estates . Although Coke personally preferred the meat of old breeds of sheep, he ran an ultimately successful campaign for decades to end the keeping of these old breeds on his property and throughout County Norfolk .

literature

Single receipts

  1. ↑ BBC - History - British History in depth: Agricultural Revolution in England 1500 - 1850, accessed May 30, 2015.
  2. ↑ Martins (2009) p. 180.
  3. ↑ Martins (2009) p. 33.
  4. ↑ Martins (2009) p. 81.
  5. ↑ Philip Walling: Counting Sheep . P. 44.
predecessor Office successor
New title created Earl of Leicester
1837-1842 		Thomas Coke
personal data
SURNAME Coke, Thomas William, 1st Earl of Leicester
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Coke of Holkham; Coke of Norfolk
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British politician and agrarian reformer, member of the House of Lords
DATE OF BIRTH May 6, 1754
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH June 30, 1842