Margaret Coke, Countess of Leicester
Margaret Coke, Countess of Leicester was a British peer.
She was born Lady Margaret Tufton, the third daughter of Thomas Tufton, 6th Earl of Thanet by his wife Catherine, daughter of Henry Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
On 3 July 1718 she was married to Thomas Coke. Their only child Edward was born on 6 February 1726. Coke was raised to the peerage as Baron Lovel on 28 May 1728 and his wife became known as the Lady Lovel.
On 30 July 1729 her father Lord Thanet died. He was also 18th Baron de Clifford, and as he had no surviving male issue this title fell into abeyance between five co-heirs: Margaret, her two elder sisters Catherine and Anne, and her two younger sisters Mary and Isabella. The abeyance was terminated in Margaret's favour on 3 August 1734, and she became 19th Baroness Clifford in her own right.
Her husband, who had spent many years of his youth abroad on the Grand Tour, returned to England determined to build an English country house in the Palladian style. This was realised as Holkham Hall, which took decades to build, from the 1730s to the 1760s. Margaret oversaw the finishing and furnishing of the house.
On 9 May 1744 Lord Lovel was created Earl of Leicester, and his wife became the Countess of Leicester. Their son Edward died without issue on 31 August 1753, and Lord Leicester died on 20 April 1759.
Lady Leicester died on 28 February 1775, and her barony again fell into abeyance. The co-heirs were now Edward Southwell ; James Cecil, 6th Earl of Salisbury ; the fourth sister Mary ; and the fifth sister Isabella, or her daughter Isabella. The abeyance was terminated in favour of Edward Southwell on 17 April 1776.
