John Coke, English civil servant and politician (d. 1644)
Sir John Coke (5 March 1563 – 8 September 1644) was an English office holder and politician who sat in the House of Commons, at various times between 1621 and 1629.
Coke was the son of Richard and Mary Coke of Trusley, Derbyshire. He was educated at Westminster School . After leaving the university he entered public life as a servant of Sir Fulke Greville, later Lord Brooke, a client of Robert Devereux, second earl of Essex, afterwards becoming deputy-treasurer of the navy and then a commissioner of the navy, and being specially commended for his labours on behalf of naval administration. Coke was also acquainted with Essex from his university days.
In 1621 Coke was elected Member of Parliament for Warwick. He was appointed a Master of Requests in 1622 and was knighted in 1624. In 1624 he was elected MP for St Germans and was re-elected for the seat in 1625. In the parliament of 1625 Coke acted as a secretary of state; in this and later parliaments he introduced the royal requests for money, and defended the foreign policy of Charles I and Buckingham, and afterwards the actions of the king. His actual appointment as secretary dates from September 1625. He was elected MP for Cambridge University in 1626 and 1628. Disliked by the leaders of the popular party, his speeches in the House of Commons did not improve the king's position.
Coke married Marie Powell, and they set up home at Hall Court, Kynaston, Much Marcle. Several of their letters to each other survive.King Charles ruled without a parliament from 1628 and he found Coke's industry very useful to him. Coke kept his post until 1640. Dismissed from office, he retired to his estate at Melbourne in Derbyshire, which he had bought in 1628. He died at his house in Tottenham near London, on 8 September 1644.
Coke in his earlier years had been a defender of absolute monarchy and greatly disliked the papacy. He was described by Clarendon as "a man of very dumb education and a narrower mind"; and again he says, "his cardinal perfection was industry and his most eminent infirmity covetousness."
Coke's elder son, Sir John Coke was a Parliamentarian in the English Civil War, while his younger son Thomas Coke was a Royalist.
The Coke family continued to own Melbourne Hall until George Lewis Coke, an ambiguous figure who died childless in 1777. His sister married the family's lawyer and the Coke name was lost.