THE COKE PAPERS AT MELBOURNE HALL. 55 



of Trusley, and brother of Sir Francis Coke, of Trusley. He 

 married (i) Alary, daughter of John Powell, of Presteign, and (2) 

 Joan, daughter of Sir John Lee, Knight, Alderman of London, 

 and relict of Alderman Gore. He was born on March 5th, 1563. 

 He was educated at Westminster School, and on April 22nd, 

 1580, was admitted a scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge, 

 being chosen Fellow of the same college in 1584. His University 

 career was distinguished, and he for some time held the Professor- 

 ship of rhetoric. It was not until he was past forty years of age that 

 he retired into the country to live as a private gentleman, on the 

 occasion of his first marriage. In 16 13, employment was found 

 for him in connection with the navy, and soon after he was made 

 Secretary to the Navy. His next appointment was to the lucrative 

 office of Master of the Requests, through the interest of his 

 relative, Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke. In 1620, he was made 

 Secretary of State in the room of Sir Albert Moreton ; soon after- 

 wards John Coke was knighted. In the first Parliament of 

 Charles I., Sir John Coke was one of the representatives of the 

 University of Cambridge. In the early Parliaments of this reign 

 he played a distinguished part, and his speeches are fully reported 

 in Rushworth's Historical Collections. 



In most of the letters of this first volume of Mr. Fane's collec- 

 tion, he is addressed as Principal Secretary to His Majesty, and 

 was evidently in his close confidence. Letters of his, as Secretary 

 of State, are also to be found in the Clarendon Papers, and in the 

 Miscella?ieous State Papers, published by the Earl of Hardwick. 

 Sir John Coke appears to have ended his public life at the close 

 of 1639, when he was in his 77th year. He was removed by an 

 intrigue of the Queen's to make room for Sir Harry Vane. In 

 the spring of 1640, he moved to Melbourne, where he joined his 

 son John, and tliey lived, as he states, with their wives in one 

 house, forming '• one familie." The troublous times of the Civil 

 Wars obliged him to leave Melbourne, and he died at Tottenham 

 ,on September 8th, 1644, aged eighty- two.* He seems to have 



See Coke of Trusley, a Family History, privately printed in 1880. 



