SIR EDWARD COKE'S COLLECTION OF KNOWLEDGE: THE INCEPTION OF THE HOLKHAM ARCHIVE

摘要

This article considers the early history of the archive of the Coke family now held at Holkham Hall, Norfolk, and suggests that the efforts of the seventeenth-century jurist Sir Edward Coke to collect reliable information about his and others' Norfolk estates were the driving force behind its creation. Using a variety of documents in the Holkham archive, it shows that Coke had systematic procedures in place for copying manorial documents, and an extensive network of friends who helped him collect them. It points towards the large amount of research which remains to be done on Sir Edward Coke as a land magnate.