COKE, kirk or kick, Sir EDWARD (1552-1634). A distinguished English lawyer and judge. He was born at Mileham, in Norfolk. on February 1, 1552. Educated at the free grammar school at Norwich, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. he passed thence to Clifford's Inn, and subsequently to the Inner Temple, to study law, and was called to the bar in April, 157S. His great ability, legal learning. and the tact he exhibited in the conduct of his cases, secured him a large prac tice on the very threshold of his career. In 1586 he was appointed recorder of Norwich, in 1592 recorder of London, a position he resigned the same year for the Solicito•-Generalship. In the following year he was elected member of Parliament for the county of Norfolk, and was chosen Speaker of the House of Commons. In :594 he was made Atto•ney-General. and it was in this capacity that he conducted the prosecu tion in the famous State trials of Southampton and Essex in 1601, of Sir WaItrr Raleigh in 1603 (in which he exhibited a brutal rancor and bitterness), and of the Gunpowder plotters in 1605. Ile held this office until MN, when lie was appointed Chief Justice of theCommon Pleas. the duties of which position he discharged in a manner that secured for him a great reputa tion. Upright and independent. with a high no tion of the dignity and importance of his office, he (lid not, in an age of judicial sycophancy, hesitate to oppose any illegal encroachment by royalty. At the suggestion of Bacon (between whom and Coke there was a long standing hos tility), James 1., in order to bring him over, ap pointed Coke, in 1613, Chief Justice of the King's Bench, and shortly afterwards Privy Conn cilor. But here he proved equally incorrigible, among other things maintaining, in the Com mendams ease, that the King had no power to stay the proceedings in a court of justice, even after his more pliable colleagues had retracted and begged the royal pardon on their knees for having entertained and expressed that opinion.
This was too much. Coke, in a few months (November, 1616), was relieved from his Chief Justieeship. His ardent and unflinching sup port of liberal measures in Parliament, especial ly of the right of freedom of debate, soon brought him into further trouble with the Court party, and in 1621-22 he suffered nine months' im prisonment in the Tower. In the third Parlia ment of Charles I. (1628) Coke took an active part in framing the celebrated Petition of Right, and it was in a great measure owing to his advocacy that the Lords were induced to agree to it. lie (lied September 3, 1634. He had an extraordinary popularity, and his utterances and courage did much to contribute to the final result in the struggle between the Crown and the Commons. Yet he was of an intolerant disposition, and in religious matters and in his fear of the growth and influence of the Papal power he was fanatical. He is now best known for his law treatise, Coke Upon Littleton: or, the First Institute, a work of extraordinary learning and of great acumen, which is still. perhaps, the most influential and authoritative treatise on English law. His other works are the Second, Third, and Fourth Institutes: The Complete Copyholder; and Reading on Fines; while his collection of law reports. which made an epoch in the history of law on their appearance, are still of great value to the pro fession. Consult : Johnson, Life of Sir Ed vard Coke (2d ed.. London, 1845), which is somewhat untrustworthy; also Woolrych, The Life of Sir Edward Coke (London. and the sketches of his life in Foss, Judges of Eng land, vol. vi. (London, 1857), and in Campbell, The Lircs of the Chief Justices of England, etc., vol. i. (London, 1849).