Coke, Thomas (1747-1814)

Welsh Methodist bishop. He became John Wesley's ‘right hand man’, and was appointed by him as superintendent (bishop) of the Methodist societies in America in 1784.

Coke was born in Brecon and studied at Oxford. He held a series of open-air services that led to his dismissal from his Somerset curacy, and from then on he was allied to the Methodists. He was the joint author, with Henry Moore, of a life of Wesley (1792). He died on his way to India on a missionary voyage.