Thomas William Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester (1754 to 1842), known as Coke of Norfolk or Coke of Holkham, was a British politician and agricultural reformer. He inherited a 30,000 acre Norfolk estate and sat in Parliament for Norfolk almost continuously from 1776 until his retirement in 1832, but his lasting legacy came from his farming reforms at his Holkham Hall estate, where he has historically been credited with helping to spark the British Agricultural Revolution, though later historians have questioned how much of that credit belongs to him personally rather than to other individuals working on his estate. He was made Earl of Leicester in 1837 and was described in his own time as the greatest commoner in England.
Facts
Defining ContributionBritish politician and agricultural reformer known as Coke of Norfolk. Historians such as R. A. C. Parker have found that many of the farming innovations popularly credited to him should be attributed instead to his Norfolk predecessors. 1 In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Thomas William Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundationopening sentence
Thomas William Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester (6 May 1754-30 June 1842), known as Coke of Norfolk or Coke of Holkham, was a British politician and agricultural reformer.
historiography section (R. A. C. Parker assessment)
many of the innovations he is supposed to have introduced should be attributed to his predecessors in Norfolk
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