Coke, Thomas

(1747–1814)

   Missionary.

   Coke was born in Brecon, Wales, and was educated at the University of Oxford. After ordination in the Church of England, he served as a curate in Somerset. From 1777, he worked with John wesley; he was appointed Methodist Superintendent for America with Francis asbury; he chaired the Christmas Conference of 1784 which laid down a constitution for the American Methodist Episcopal Church, and he was constantly travelling between America and England. He also presided over the Methodist Connexion in Ireland; he organised missions to the West Indies, to Gibraltar, to Sierra Leone and to the Cape of Good Hope and he was a tireless campaigner against slavery. Coke was a man of enormous energy and he had considerable administrative ability. In the history of the Methodist movement, he is frequently described as Wesley’s ‘righthand man’.

   J. Vickers, Thomas Coke (1969);

   E.S. Bucke (ed.), The History of American Methodism, Vol. 1 (1964).