2Nd Wife of Sir Edward Coke 1St Wife of Sir Edward Coke

1st Wife of 2nd wife of Sir Edward Sir Edward Coke Wives & Daughters Coke Bridget Paston of the Elizabeth Hatton’s famous Paston family daughter Frances, who whose letters have was forced by her revealed so much about father to marry Sir life in late medieval Introduction, John Villiers, later 1st England. Viscount Purbeck. Bridget and Elizabeth his exhibition looks at some of the intriguing stories from Elizabeth Hatton Holkham’s history from the 16th century through to the T lizabeth Hatton was the rich, well-connected and beautiful widow of women associated with Holkham today. ESir William Hatton. Elizabeth was unsuccessfully wooed by Sir Edward Coke’s great rival, Francis Bacon, but she married Sir Edward in 1598, only Bridget Paston four months after the death of his first wife. The wedding was secretly held e begin in 1583 with the marriage of Bridget Paston to the founder of in a private house, despite being against church law. Sir Edward Coke and his Wthe family fortune, Sir Edward Coke, Attorney-General to Elizabeth I. wife were threatened with prosecution and imprisonment by the ecclesiastical Having grown up nearby, Sir Edward knew Bridget’s family and asked for her courts, however he pleaded ignorance of church law and they were forgiven. hand as soon as she turned eighteen. At the time he was a thirty-one year old Sir Edward Coke lizabeth was twenty-six years younger than her husband and owned an barrister with a successful practice. Bridget’s father had no qualms about (1552 –1634) Eextensive and valuable collection of books and manuscripts. She was accepting his offer and his daughter brought a handsome dowry to the described as frivolous and self-willed; her public disagreements with her marriage. Bridget kept their house at Holborn close to the Temple where Sir Edward husband and her refusal to take the name of Coke, preferring to remain known went about his business at law. Her diary shows that she ran the household, but as Lady Hatton, earned her a reputation as a troublesome woman. Sir Edward she was also an independent woman, often travelling without her husband. and Elizabeth had a daughter, Frances, who was forced to marry the brother They had ten children, eight of whom survived. of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham. Elizabeth bitterly opposed the Bridget died in 1598 and is buried in match and hid her daughter in the country but Sir Edward discovered nearby Tittleshall church. Sir Edward’s where she was and sent men to return her to London. They eventually admiration for her is displayed on brought her back, despite being waylaid and pursued by Elizabeth her memorial: ‘Many daughters and her own men. have done virtuously but Sir Edward and Elizabeth’s marriage ended in thou surpassest separation. Elizabeth died in 1646 and she was them all.’ Bridget’s eight children are carved buried in the crypt at St. Andrew on her memorial kneeling in prayer. Guild Church in Holborn. Wife of Sister of the 1st Earl Wives & Daughters the 1st Earl Lady Margaret Tufton Anne Coke (1700–1775) The builder, (1699–1758) completed the building grandmother of of Holkham Hall. ‘Coke of Norfolk’ eloped at the age of an elopement sixteen. and ‘The White Cat’ Lady Margaret Tufton Her fair complexion and temperamental nature earned her the nickname of ‘The White Cat’. The marriage he accounts show that the wedding of Thomas was deeply unhappy; Mary declined to sleep with her TCoke, later 1st Earl of Leicester, to Lady Margaret husband and in retaliation he kept her a virtual prisoner Tufton, 18 year-old daughter of the 1st Earl of Thanet, at Holkham. After much legal wrangling, the couple was a lavish affair with more than £3,000 spent on separated, but Mary remained married to Edward until presents for her alone. Even as the young couple took his death in 1753, which left her a widow at the age of their place in London society, Thomas Coke was twenty-six. planning the building of a vast Palladian mansion on the north Norfolk coast. He began the building of Holkham Mary then seems to have become delusional and Hall but died before it could be completed. It fell to Lady claimed to be secretly married to the Prince of Wales. Lady Margaret’s wedding presents Margaret to finish the construction and furnish the There is no proof of this, but she once made the as listed in the accounts book. house and her meticulous accounts of acquisitions of claim in his presence and he declined to deny it. fabrics and furnishings tell us much about Holkham’s Mary Campbell, early history. Lady Margaret was an educated woman, wife of the 1st Earl’s son Anne Coke able to read French, Latin and Greek, and who gave from a portrait by Reynolds. he 1st Earl’s younger sister Anne generously to the poor of the district. TCoke eloped at the age of sixteen with Philip Roberts, the son of a London neighbour. When news Mary Campbell of their marriage reached her brother on his Grand Tour he disowned her. As the 1st Earl’s son Edward died before Lady Margaret’s endorsement of the dward Coke, only son of the 1st Earl and his parents and childless, it was Anne’s grandson, accounts in her own hand. Lady Margaret Tufton, married Mary E Thomas William Coke, the famous Campbell, the youngest daughter of the ‘Coke of Norfolk’, who inherited 2nd Duke of Argyll. Holkham in 1776. 1st wife 2nd wife of Coke of of Coke of Norfolk Wives & Daughters Norfolk Jane Dutton Anne with her took a close ﬁrstborn, Thomas. interest in The mouse Although 50 years the education younger than Coke of her three of Norfolk, she daughters. survived him by that changed only two years. the course of a dynasty Jane Dutton Anne Keppel ane Dutton was twenty-two when her twenty-one year old husband, Thomas William oke of Norfolk had been a widower for over twenty years when he married his JCoke, inherited Holkham. They had been at Holkham less than ten months when Ceighteen-year-old goddaughter, a girl fifty years his junior. Anne Keppel was the their first child, a son, was stillborn after Jane was frightened by a mouse that climbed daughter of his great friend, Lord Albemarle. Both he and Lord Albemarle had hoped into her nightcap and hair. Although the couple went on to have three more children that Anne might marry Coke’s nephew and heir apparent, William, but the two young over the next twenty years, all were daughters and no son was people refused to entertain the idea. It was only when her father’s born to inherit Holkham. remarriage threatened to put an end to her visits to Holkham, he accounts show that Jane was kind and generous. She that Anne confessed her attachment to her godfather, and they Tmade donations to the Society for the Abolition of the were married. Coke of Norfolk’s political enemies mocked the Slave Trade, as well as to the local poorhouse, the almshouses alliance and many of his friends thought it folly, but it was a happy at Holkham and gave many small gifts to people in the district. marriage and soon produced the longed-for son and heir. The servants always had Christmas boxes and were treated to nne seems to have adjusted easily to her new role and, in the theatre each year. Aspite of producing five additions to the Coke family in ten Jane was clever and well read and often accompanied her years, she maintained an active social life. She persuaded her Coke of Norfolk husband to modernise his appearance by cutting off his pigtail Coke of Norfolk as a young man. husband on political visits to London, enjoying a rich social in later life. life while in the capital. Her daughters were taught to draw and giving up his wig, but she could not stop him powdering his by Gainsborough and the youngest, Elizabeth, showed hair, nor give up wearing knee breeches. considerable talent as an artist. Coke of Norfolk died in 1842. A year later Anne Jane died unexpectedly while on a visit to married Edward Ellice, MP for Coventry, Bath in 1800, when she was only only to die in childbirth at the age of forty-six years old. forty-one. Granddaughter of ‘Coke of Norfolk’ Wives & Daughters Jane Digby, Jane Digby el Mezrab Lady Ellenborough. A as depicted in 1859 Portrait by Stieler. in this painting by Scandalous Life Carl Haag. Jane Digby From Miss Jane Digby to Lady Ellenborough Wife to the Sheikh – Jane Digby el Mezrab he vivacious and beautiful Jane Digby was born on t the age of 48, disillusioned by men, Jane set out on a TApril 3rd 1807. She was a favourite granddaughter of the Apainting trip to Syria. The young nobleman, Sheikh Medjuel celebrated Coke of Norfolk. Jane’s father, Admiral Digby was el Mezrab, who was hired to act as her guide, impressed her by one of Nelson’s admirals and away a good deal, so Jane and her risking his own life to save hers, when their camp was raided by two brothers spent much of their childhood at Holkham with bandits and before long the two were deeply in love. After many their mother, Thomas Coke’s daughter, Lady Andover. vicissitudes the couple married and Medjuel – Jane’s 4th husband At seventeen, Jane married the much older Lord Ellenborough – was unquestionably the love of her life.

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