Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester (fifth creation)

Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester, KB (17 June 1697 – 20 April 1759) was an English land-owner and patron of the arts.

During his time in Rome in 1715, he made the acquaintance of Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington, the aristocratic architect at the forefront of the Palladian revival movement in England, and of William Kent.

However, Coke was badly affected by financial losses when his investments in the South Sea Company proved worthless.

As he surveyed the result of his long years of labour and achievement, Lord Leicester lamented: "It is a melancholy thing to stand alone in one's own country.

"[4] Coke, who had been made Earl of Leicester on 9 May 1744, died on 20 April 1759, five years before the completion of Holkham Hall, having never fully recovered his financial losses.