MR. THOMAS WILLIAM COKE. T^J 



Mr. Archcr-Houblon — hunted in Esse.x. These Coopersale 

 visits in all probability ceased not later than 1780, as after 

 that date the house was deserted, and nobody was permitted 

 to reside in it until, on Mr. Archer's death, it passed into 

 other hands. 



No more than about five years after the cessation of 

 Mr. Archer's visits, a great part of the county of Essex was 

 hunted in exceedingly good style by a well established and 

 well maintained pack of hounds. They belonged to a no 

 less notable person than Mr. Thomas William Coke,' after- 

 wards created Earl of Leicester. When scarcely twenty 

 years of age, that is to say, in 1773, he returned from travel- 

 ling abroad, went into Oxfordshire, and joined his brother- 

 in-law, Lord Sherborne, in the management of the hounds 

 kept by the latter at Bradwell Grove, now part of the 



' Mr. Coke was born on the 6th May, 1753, it is beHeved at Holkhani. 

 The paternal name was formerly Roberts ; but his ancestors assumed the name 

 of Coke upon inheriting large estates from Thomas Coke, Earl of Leicester, a 

 descendant of the famous Sir Edward Coke. He first entered Parliament in 

 1776, and was elected for the last time in 1826. He was twice married ; the 

 first time to Jane Dalton, sister of Lord Sherborne (Lord Sherborne married 

 Coke's sister) by whom he had three daughters, and curiously enough the 

 husband of each of the daughters was well known in the world of sport. Jane 

 Elizabeth married Charles Ncvinson, Lord Andover, who was killed by the 

 accidental discharge of his gun ; Ann Margaret, the second daughter, married 

 Thomas, Viscount .Xnson, who succeeded Sir Bellingham Graham as master of 

 the Atherstone Hounds ; while the third daughter, Eliza, married the Hon. 

 Spencer Stanhope, a noted amateur four-horse coachman. At the age of 68, 

 Mr. Coke married a young wife who bore him five sons. 



