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Nicholas Leke, 4th Earl of Scarsdale (1682? – 17 July 1736) was an English politician and courtier.

Biography

Leke was the nephew of Robert Leke, 3rd Earl of Scarsdale, succeeding him when Robert died childless in 1707. He was admitted to St John's College, Cambridge in 1699.

Scarsdale was Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire from 1711 to 1714. In 1724 Leke asked the Warwick architect Francis Smith to transform the ancestral home at Sutton Scarsdale to a Georgian style that would rival houses such as Chatsworth House. Smith employed the best craftspeople including Francesco Vassalli, the Atari brothers and Robert Adam.

The building passed through various owners and was stripped in the 20th century. Three of the panelled rooms are now in an American museum whilst the ruins of the building are still there in 2009 as a monument to their ideas. Leke died unmarried and the earldom became extinct. Although unmarried, he fathered three children by Madame Margaret Seymour of Yaxley. Those children were Nicholas, Seymour, and Margaret.

References

1. A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England Ireland and Scotland Sir Bernard Burke (1844) p. 308. Pedigree of Leke of Sutton. Google Books
2. "Leeke, Nicholas (LK699N)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
3. "Sutton Scarsdale Hall". peakdistrictonline.co.uk. Retrieved 3 June 2008.
4. "Sutton Scarsdale Hall". derbyshireuk.net. Retrieved 3 June 2008.
5. English furniture in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, G.Beard, June 2006, accessed November 2009
6. Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute, p. 137

• 1680s births
• 1736 deaths
• Lord-lieutenants of Derbyshire
• Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
• Earls of Scarsdale