OK, so you all guys are wondering what a British West Indian girl like me (British by descent - West Indian by birth) is doing being related to King Charles the First.
Well here is the story…. Thomas William Coke, the Second Earl of Leicester was married. Was he happily married? I couldn’t say, but let’s speculate….. if a man is happily married, will he look outside the wedlock to find the comfort of another? Well…… we will never know how the marriage was between the Earl and his wife, but one thing is for sure, he had an affair.
The story goes, that being a man of well means and living in a house the size of Holkham Hall, he obviously had plenty of servants. His eye caught the fancy of one of his chamber maids. Then the dreaded happened. She got pregnant. Uh oh. Not good in those days, I’m sure. But being a man of honour, he saw to it that his mistress was married off and taken care of financially. The product of that affair - John William Blyth - was my Grandfather.
To his credit, the Earl took care of his bastard son throughout his life. ……… to be continued.
