Women of Holkham: Margaret Coke

March 9, 2020 | Holkham voices | 3 minute read

When looking at buildings such as Holkham, one of the first questions that springs to mind is “Who built that?” The answer, which is very debatable here at Holkham, is either William Kent, the architect, or Thomas Coke, the man whose vision it was to have a home for the treasures he brought back from Italy. To be the visionary is one thing, to be the architect is another, but someone worth mentioning alongside these two, is Lady Margaret Coke. Lady Margaret is the woman who oversaw the halls completion, undertook the rest of its furnishing with her own money, and understood that Holkham was to be enjoyed by others for years after her lifetime.

Thomas Coke died five years before the completion of the hall, which was to be a 30-year long project. Margaret was described as an “excellent curator”, commissioning for some stunning paintings and items of furniture for the state rooms. Margaret saw the completion of not just the bricks and mortar, but also her husband’s vision of a temple dedicated to the Italian arts. The interior of each room is designed to tell stories, highlight the beauty of its contents, and to further bridge a relationship with its owner’s beliefs and ideology. Intelligent and sensible, Margaret could even be described as a conservator, having provided all the upholstered furniture with covers to protect them against sunlight and dust.

Margaret Coke had a good attention to detail, and undertook her role of overseer very seriously. She kept detailed account books that reveal much about the early days of Holkham, and show how involved she was in the day-to-day running of the hall. In addition, she took on Coke’s landlord duties after he passed away, meeting her tenants at Audit Days, and had the hall open on Tuesdays for the public to enter. She was also “beloved by the poor”. Accounts show that she was generous in gifting those less fortunate, even after her death: she regularly gave food to some of the poorest in the community, and left gifts for others in her will. In preparation for her funeral, she ensured that money was left aside to buy mourning clothes for the servants.

Lady Margaret was born in 1700, and lived to the age of 75 years old. None of her children survived. Four were lost through either miscarriage or didn’t survive their earliest years, and her only son to survive the early stages of childhood tragically died at the age of 34. After the deaths of her son and her husband, she had a monument erected in Tittleshall Church.

Holkham looks after its tenants and workers, and is a large estate to look after. For anyone to manage it is a feat, but for a woman at this time to do so, it is even more impressive.

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