192 THE HISTORY OF NEWMARKET. [Book IY. 



were then deemed extinct, and his estates passed to his collateral 

 heirs, excepting such as he had devised to his widow, who 

 afterwards married Lord Vaux. In a few years this lady pro- 

 duced two sons, born during her marriage with Lord Banbury, 

 her first husband. They had first been called Vaux, but now 

 she set them up as the sons of the Earl of Banbury, and gave 

 to the eldest the title of that earldom. They were not of 

 age before the House of Lords had been abolished during the 

 Commonwealth. The elder died. Nicholas, the survivor, avail- 

 ing himself of the convocation of Parliament in 1660, took his 

 seat therein, and voted on several occasions. But soon after a 

 question arose as to his right to sit and vote in the House of 

 Lords, which occasioned a series of investigations, committees, 

 and trials, that lasted, on and off, until, in 1813, it was finally 

 decided that Lord Banbury's descendant, the then claimant, 

 was not entitled to the honours and estates of the earldom, 

 which title still remains in abeyance. 



^^ Edward Coke — son of Robert Coke, of Mileham, county 

 Norfolk, and Winifred, daughter and co-heiress of William 

 Knightly, of Morgave Knightly, in the same county — was 

 born at Mileham, February i, 1 55 1-2. He received the 

 rudiments of his education at the Grammar School at 

 Norwich, and went in 1567 to Trinity College, Cambridge, 

 where he remained three years and a half. He was called to 

 the bar April 20, 1578. About 1585 he was chosen Recorder 

 of Coventry, and the next year the same office was given 

 to him by the citizens of Norwich. In 1592 he was like- 

 wise appointed Recorder of the City of London. By Lord 

 Burleigh he was selected as Solicitor-General, June 16, 

 1592. In 1598 he married Elizabeth, relict of Sir William 

 Hatton, and daughter of Thomas Cecil, who had just suc- 

 ceeded his father as Lord Burleigh, by whom he had, with 

 other issue, a daughter Frances, above mentioned. On the 

 accession of James I., Coke was confirmed in his offices, and 

 received the honour of knighthood at the hands of the new 

 sovereign, to whom he became a most subservient tool. His 

 mode of conducting the prosecution of Sir Walter Raleigh 



