The Reverend D'Ewes Coke was rector of Pinxton and South Normanton in Derbyshire, a colliery owner and philanthropist.
Background
Coke was born at Mansfield Woodhouse in 1747, the only son of George Coke (1725–1759) of Kirkby Hall, Nottinghamshire, and of his wife Elizabeth, daughter of the Reverend Seth Ellis. George Coke was himself the son of another D'Ewes Coke (died 1751), of Suckley, and of his first wife, Frances Coke, daughter and co-heiress of William Coke of Trusley, and was the only one of their three children to survive childhood. A daughter of Sir Willoughby d'Ewes, 2nd Baronet, of Stowlangtoft Hall, Suffolk, she was the wife of Coke's great-grandfather Heigham Coke of Suckley.
Career
The name D'Ewes came from Coke's great-grandmother Elizabeth d'Ewes, who was the mother of the first D'Ewes Coke. Her grandfather was Sir Simonds d'Ewes, 1st Baronet. Coke's own family can be traced back to the 15th century and includes such notable figures as George Coke, a Bishop of Hereford just before the English Civil War, and Sir John Coke, Secretary of State to King Charles I.
Coke's family owned collieries in Pinxton, where Coke later paid for a school and a schoolmaster's residence to be erected.
Coke was educated at Repton School and St John's College, Cambridge, where he was admitted a pensioner on 13 October 1764, his father being named as George Coke, Colonel of the 3rd Dragoons, of Kirkby Hall, Nottinghamshire. They had three sons, the eldest being another D'Ewes Coke (1774–1856), who was Coke's heir and became a barrister. The second son also went into the law and became Sir William Coke (1776–1818), a judge in Ceylon.
Coke's third son was John Coke DL (died 1841), who served as High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire in 1830. John Coke was also instrumental in founding the Pinxton China factory, on land rented from his father. All three sons played a role in the establishment of the Mansfield and Pinxton Railway, which opened in 1819.
The focus of the composition, and apparently the object of discussion, is a sheet of paper held by Daniel Coke, which may relate to the unseen landscape. The meaning of the painting has been lost. Coke died at Bath on 12 April 1811 and was buried at Pinxton.
In his Will, Coke established an educational charity at Pinxton, leaving five pounds a year from the profits of his collieries to buy books for poor children. In 1846, the books were generally given to children attending an unendowed school.
Membership
Coke was a cousin of Daniel Coke (1745–1825), a barrister and member of parliament. Coke became a member of Derby Philosophical Society which was formed when Erasmus Darwin moved to Derby.