Daniel Parker Coke was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 barrister

Barrister

A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...

 and member of parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

.

Early life

Coke was the only son of Thomas Coke (1700–1776), a barrister, and his wife, Matilda Goodwin (1706–1777). He belonged to an old Derbyshire

Derbyshire

Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...

 family, the Cokes of Trusley

Trusley

Trusley is a parish and small village in South Derbyshire.The manor was given to Henry de Ferrers together with many villages in Derbyshire for his contribution to the Norman Conquest. More recently the hall and manor house have been the homes of the Coke family...

. He was educated at Derby School

Derby School

Derby School was a school in Derby in the English Midlands from 1160 to 1989. It had an almost continuous history of education of over eight centuries. For most of that time it was a grammar school for boys. The school became co-educational and comprehensive in 1974 and was closed in 1989...

, Queen's College, Oxford, and All Souls College, Oxford

All Souls College, Oxford

The Warden and the College of the Souls of all Faithful People deceased in the University of Oxford or All Souls College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England....

, graduating BA in 1769 and MA in 1772, then at Lincoln's Inn

Lincoln's Inn

The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn. Although Lincoln's Inn is able to trace its official records beyond...

, London.

Career

Coke was called to the bar in 1768, and practised as a barrister on the midland circuit. In 1773 and 1774 he was in Italy where he met Joseph Wright of Derby

Joseph Wright of Derby

Joseph Wright , styled Wright of Derby, was an English landscape and portrait painter. He has been acclaimed as "the first professional painter to express the spirit of the Industrial Revolution"....

. Wright was not the first to note on what an attractive man Coke was, and Coke visited Wright at his abode in Italy. Coke is thought to be the only person who appears in a Wright painting and who also bought one of Wright's industrial landscapes.

From 1776 to 1780 he was a member of parliament for Derby

Derby (UK Parliament constituency)

Derby is a former United Kingdom Parliamentary constituency. It was a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of England then of the Parliament of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1950. It was represented by two Members of...

, then from 1780 to 1812 for Nottingham

Nottingham (UK Parliament constituency)

Nottingham was a parliamentary borough in Nottinghamshire, which elected two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons from 1295. In 1885 the constituency was abolished and the city of Nottingham divided into three single-member constituencies....

.

From 1793, Coke supported the British government's policy on war with France. By the 1802 general election Coke was unpopular in Nottingham because of his support for the war, blamed for high food prices, and lost to Dr Joseph Birch of Preston. Coke petitioned against the result and in May 1803 won the new election. He fought Birch successfully again in 1806.

After retiring from parliament, Coke continued as chairman of the Derbyshire quarter sessions

Quarter Sessions

The Courts of Quarter Sessions or Quarter Sessions were local courts traditionally held at four set times each year in the United Kingdom and other countries in the former British Empire...

 until 1818.

He never married. He died in Derby

Derby

Derby , is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands region of England. It lies upon the banks of the River Derwent and is located in the south of the ceremonial county of Derbyshire. In the 2001 census, the population of the city was 233,700, whilst that of the Derby Urban Area was 229,407...

 in 1825 and he has a substantial monument in Derby Cathedral

Derby Cathedral

The Cathedral of All Saints , is a cathedral church in the City of Derby, England. It is the seat of the Bishop of Derby, and with an area of around is the smallest Anglican cathedral in England.-History:...

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Joseph Wright

Joseph Wright of Derby

Joseph Wright , styled Wright of Derby, was an English landscape and portrait painter. He has been acclaimed as "the first professional painter to express the spirit of the Industrial Revolution"....

  painted a portrait of DEwes Coke and his wife and his very distant cousin Daniel. This painting is now in Derby Museum and Art Gallery

Derby Museum and Art Gallery

Derby Museum and Art Gallery was established in 1879, along with Derby Central Library, in a new building designed by Richard Knill Freeman and given to Derby by Michael Thomas Bass. The collection includes a whole gallery displaying the paintings of Joseph Wright of Derby; there is also a large...

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