LIST OF THE INHABITANTS OF MELBOURNE, 1695. 27 
buried here on 14th October, 1718. His predecessor, Thomas 
Little, was buried on 26th March, 1690 ; but the assessment shows 
that his widow, Agnes Little, with her two daughters, Elizabeth 
and Dorothy, and her maid-servant, was still living in the parish 
in 1695. 
The next names on the list are those of the two resident Squires 
—Thomas Coke, of Melbourne ; and Robert Hardinge, of King’s 
Newton,—each of whom kept 7 servants: 3 men and 4 women. 
But this does not imply equality of estate and establishment ; for 
it must be borne in mind that Hardinge was a man of 41, witha 
wife and five children ; whilst Coke was a young lad of 20, whose 
father had died at Geneva in 1692, since which time the son had 
been the ward of Walter Burdett, Esq., of Knowle Hill. 
The Cokes of Melbourne were descended from Sir John Coke, 
Secretary of State in the reign of Charles I, who was a younger 
brother of Sir Francis Coke, of Trusley, and was in no way related 
to his contemporary, Sir Edward Coke, the Chief Justice. The 
heir of Melbourne took a leading position amongst the Derby- 
shire gentry, and married, at Repton, in 1698, Lady Mary Stan- 
hope, daughter of Philip, second Earl of Chesterfield; but she 
died on toth January, 1703-4, leaving two daughters. The 
widower soon married again, and his second wife, Mary Hale, was 
one of Queen Anne’s maids of honour. He was M.P. for Derby- 
shire in five successive Parliaments, 1701-1710, and was Vice- 
Chamberlain to Queen Anne and George I. He was sworn a 
member of the Privy Council in 1711, and died 11th May, 1727, 
leaving issue, by his second wife, a son and a daughter. His son 
and heir, George Lewis Coke, died, unmarried, 14th January, 
1750, and was succeeded in his estates by his sister Charlotte, 
wife of Sir Matthew Lamb, Bart., M.P. for Peterborough. Their 
grandchildren—Viscount Melbourne, the Prime Minister, and his 
sister, the late Viscountess Palmerston—were successive owners 
of the Melbourne estate, which now belongs to Earl Cowper, Lady 
Palmerston’s grandson. It is described in the Parliamentary 
return of 1873 as consisting of 2,787 acres, which produced a 
gross rental of £6,670 per annum. 
