Sir John Coke MP JP PC (5 March 1563 – 8 September 1644) was an English civil servant and naval administrator, described by one commentator as "the Samuel Pepys of his day".

[1] He was MP for various constituencies in the House of Commons between 1621 and 1629, and served as Secretary of State under Charles I, playing a key part in government during the eleven years of Personal Rule from 1629 to 1640.

The younger son of a Derbyshire lawyer, Coke owed his career to the patronage of Fulke Greville, 1st Baron Brooke and George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, both of whom valued his efficiency and capacity for hard work.

The Royalist statesman Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon later wrote that he was "unadorn’d with any parts of vigour or quickness",[2] but he retained this position until dismissed at the age of 77 in January 1640.

[3] He was one of at least four children, the others being his elder brother Francis (1561–1639), who inherited the family estates, George Coke (1570–1646), later Bishop of Hereford, and Dorothy, wife of Valentine Cary (ca.

He left Cambridge in 1591 to work for Greville full time, then spent the years from 1593 to 1597 travelling in Europe, almost certainly on behalf of Essex who was seeking to establish a network of agents there.