[CJ] Matric. Jan. 30, 1606/7: took B.A. Feb. 16, 1608/9.
[658]Vide his life by ...: quaere his nephew or sonne[659] Roger Coke. Sir Edward Coke[CK], knight, Lord Chiefe Justice of the King's Bench, was borne at ... in Norfolke. I heard an old lawyer ( ... Dunstable) of the Middle Temple, 1646, who was his country-man, say that he was borne to 300 _li._ land per annum[CL], and I have heard some of his country say again that he was borne but to 40 _li._ per annum. What shall one beleeve?
Quaere Roger Coke of what house he was in Cambridge, or if ever at the University.
Old John Tussell (that was my attorney) haz told me that he gott a hundred thousand pounds in one yeare, viz. 1º Jacobi, being then attorney-generall. His advice was that every man of estate (right or wrong) should sue-out his pardon, which cost 5 _li._ which[660] was his fee.
He left an estate of eleaven thousand pounds per annum. Sir John Danvers[CM], who knew him, told me that when one told him his sonnes would spend the estate faster then he gott it, he replyed 'they cannot take more delight in spending of it then I did in the getting of it.'
He was chamber-fellow to the Lord Chiefe Baron Wyld's father (Serjeant Wyld[CN]). He built the black buildings at the Inner Temple (now burn't) which were above the walke toward the west end, called then 'Coke's buildings.'
After he was putt out of his place of Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench[661], to spite him, they made him sheriff of Buckinghamshire, anno Dni ...; at which time he caused the sheriff's oath to be altered, which till that time was, amongst other things, to enquire after and apprehend all Lollards. He was also chosen, after he was displaced, a burghesse to sitt in Parliament.
[XLVIII.]He was of wonderfull painstaking, as appeares by his writings. He was short-sighted but never used spectacles to his dyeing day, being then 83 yeares of age. He was a very handsome proper man and of a curious complexion, as appeares by his picture at the Inner Temple, which his grandson gave them about 1668, at length, in his atturney-generall's fusted gowne, which the house haz turned into judge's robes.
He maried, his second wife, ..., the relickt of Sir ... Hatton, who was with child when he maried her[662].--<from> <Elizabeth> lady Purbec; vide B. Johnson's masque of the Gipsies.