International Women’s Day 2025: Lady Margaret Tufton

March 7, 2025 | Holkham voices | 5 minute read

2025 marks the 250th anniversary of the death of the truly magnificent Lady Margaret Tufton, 1st Countess of Leicester of the 5th Creation.

Born Lady Margaret Tufton, she was the third of five daughters of Thomas Tufton, 6th Earl of Thanet and Lady Catherine, daughter of Henry Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Her lineage can be traced to notable families who had considerable wealth. Her father was an MP for Appleby and had substantial estates in Rainham (Kent), Appleby (Cumbria) and in Scotland.

Lady Margaret was described as a ‘Lady of Great Beauty, Singular Virtue and Goodness’ and was seen as excellent prospect for Thomas Coke by his guardians: she had a title and brought a large dowry. On 3 July 1718, Lady Margaret aged just 18 and Thomas, just 21, married with great expense at St Margaret’s of Antioch, Hothfield and brought a dowry of £15,000. Thomas gave lavish presents to his bride valued at £3,077 15s 4d including plenty of diamond encrusted jewellery. They established a new household together and spent time visiting various Coke properties including Longford Hall, the former home of Thomas whilst alterations were made to Thanet House, their London residence in Great Russell Street. These were completed by February 1717 and four months later Lady Margaret welcomed her first son, Edward. Sadly, this was to be her only surviving child. Two more children, born in 1721 and 1722 died in infancy and she also experienced further loss with a number of miscarriages.

In September 1719, Lady Margaret and Thomas took their first visit to Holkham and would have stayed in the old manor house, Hill Hall. It must have been a great celebration to have the couple at Holkham after lying dormant whilst Thomas was in his minority. There are accounts of regular visits to Norwich and to the neighbouring families in Norfolk.

In 1728, Thomas was elevated to the peerage and Lady Margaret become known as Lady Lovel. The following year, her father died. He had also been known as the 18th Baron de Clifford, although as he had no male heirs this title fell into abeyance between Lady Margaret and her two elder sisters Catherine and Anne and her two younger sisters Mary and Isabella. The abeyance was terminated in 1734 in favour of Lady Margaret, who became Baroness de Clifford. This was the same year that work began on building Holkham Hall. Lady Margaret may have hoped that this would have distracted her husband from the many delights on offer to him in London, she quietly tolerated his persistent and open infidelities, and she tended to shy away from society.

On 9 May 1744, Lord Lovel was created Earl of Leicester and Lady Margaret became the Countess of Leicester, and their heir, Edward became Viscount Coke. Edward was a product of his extravagant childhood: a promising and much loved child but by the time of his marriage to Lady Mary Campbell well on his way to becoming a dissolute rake. This must have been utterly heartbreaking to Lady Margaret.

Lady Margaret was much aggrieved by his untimely death in 1753, and Holkham was left without a direct heir. Lord Leicester’s response was to throw himself to completing his ‘Temple of the Arts’ at Holkham. Lady Margaret set about creating her own legacy in the establishment of the alms houses outside the northern edge of the park which was first considered the following year.

After Lord Leicester’s death in 1759, Lady Margaret was in the driving seat to finish Holkham Hall with instructions from her late husband. Lady Margaret proved herself more than capable in this respect and she made slight modifications. She kept detailed accounts of the construction costs and purchases for the hall from the allowance provided by his executors and that from her own money.

The Hall was completed in 1764, but Lady Margaret continued in her commitment to Holkham. She financed the full restoration of Holkham parish church, St Withburga’s between 1767-1768: replacing windows, repairing the walls and roof, internal redecoration and new fixtures and fittings at a cost of £1,000. She also commissioned an armorial window displaying her coronet above the arms of Coke, Tufton and Cliford.

Lady Leicester lived the rest of her days at Holkham and died on 28 February 1775, and her barony again fell once more into abeyance. There is an elaborate memorial to her, her husband and son at St Mary’s Church, Tittleshall.

Lucy Purvis, Archivist February 2025