Sir Edward Coke(1551/2-1633).

[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 300li.land per annum[CL], and I have heard some of his country say again that he was borne but to 40li.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 5li.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 83yeares 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.

[XLVIII.]From Roger Coke.

He maried, his second wife, ..., the relickt of Sir ... Hatton, who was with child when he maried her[662].— lady Purbec; vide B. Johnson's masque of the Gipsies.

He dyed at Stoke-poges in com. Bucks ... 1638[663](quaere), but is buryed at ... in Norfolk.

For his moralls, seeSir W. Raleigh's Tryall.

He shewed himselfe too clownish and bitter in his carriage to Sir Walter Ralegh at his triall, where he sayes 'Thou traytor,' at every word, and 'thou lyest like a traytor.' See it in Sir Walter Ralegh's life, Lond. 1678, 8vo.

His rule:—

Sex horas somno, totidem des legibus aequis,Quatuor orabis, des epulisque duas,Quod reliquum est tempus sacris largire Camenis.

He playes[664]with his case as a cat would with a mouse, and be so fulsomely pedantique that a school boy would nauseate it. But when he comes to matter of lawe, all acknowledge him to be admirable. When Mr. Cuff[665], secretary to the earle of Essex, was arraigned, he would dispute with him in syllogismes, till at last one of his brethern said, 'Prithee, brother, leave off: thou doest dispute scurvily.' Cuff was a smart man and a great scholar and baffeld him. Said Cooke

'Dominum cognoscite vestrum';

Cuff replied,'My lord, you leave out the former part of the verse[666], which you should have repeated,

Acteonego sum'—

reflecting on his being a cuckold.

[667]The world expected from him a commentary on Littleton's Tenures; and he left them his Common-place book, which is now so much made use of.

Sir Edward Coke did envie[668]Sir Francis Bacon, and was wont to undervalue his lawe: vide de hoc in the lord Bacon's lettres, where he expostulates this thing with Sir Edward Coke, and tells him that he may grow when that others doe stand at a stay.

Memorandum:—he was of Clifford's Inne before he was of the Inner Temple, as the fashion then was first to be of an Inne of Chancery.

Memorandum:—when the play calledIgnoramus(made by one Ruggle of Clare-hall) was acted with great applause before King James, they dressed Sir Ignoramus like Chief Justice Coke and cutt his beard like him and feigned his voyce. Mr. Peyton, our vicar of Chalke, was then a scholar at Kings College and sawe it. This drollery did ducere in seria mala: it sett all the lawyers against the clergie, and shortly upon this Mr. Selden wrote of Tythes not jure divino.

Notes.[CK]Aubrey gives in trick the coat:—--'..., 3 eagles displayed ...'[CL]In MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 97v, Aubrey has this note:—'Sir Edward Coke, Lord Chief Justice—when I was first of the Middle Temple, I heard an old (80 ) Norfolke gentleman of the Dunstable affirme that Sir Edward Coke was borne but to 300li.a yeare land.'[CM]This story is repeated at the foot of the leaf:—'Sir John Danvers told me that he had heard one say to him, reflecting on his great scraping of wealth, that his sonnes would spend his estate faster then he gott it. He replied, they cannot take more delight in the spending of it then I did in the getting of it.'[CN]George Wilde, Serjeant at Law, 1614; father of Sir John Wilde, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, 1648.

[CK]Aubrey gives in trick the coat:—--'..., 3 eagles displayed ...'

[CL]In MS. Aubr. 8, fol. 97v, Aubrey has this note:—'Sir Edward Coke, Lord Chief Justice—when I was first of the Middle Temple, I heard an old (80 ) Norfolke gentleman of the Dunstable affirme that Sir Edward Coke was borne but to 300li.a yeare land.'

[CM]This story is repeated at the foot of the leaf:—'Sir John Danvers told me that he had heard one say to him, reflecting on his great scraping of wealth, that his sonnes would spend his estate faster then he gott it. He replied, they cannot take more delight in the spending of it then I did in the getting of it.'

[CN]George Wilde, Serjeant at Law, 1614; father of Sir John Wilde, Chief Baron of the Exchequer, 1648.

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