The history of the people who came by the name of de Coker through betaking themselves elsewhere does not properly belong to the annals of the village; but since the items of this history in earlier times have not been collected elsewhere and should be of some interest to the village, it has seemed worth while to set them down here. In doing this, there is the danger that the actions of the family that remained at Coker may be attributed to those that moved to other parts of the county, and vice versa, for the Christian names in use were comparatively few. The Thomas's, Johns, Roberts and Richards married Joans, Margerys, Eleanors and Alices. The difficulty, however, is greatest in the case of those who did not marry at all; monks and priests were sent to places other than where they were born and with which their families may have had no association.

At a very early date de Cokers must have settled in Bristol, as Nicholas de Coker was ‘prepositus’ or reeve there in 1226. In 1285 Thomas de Coker was mayor. In 1303 a Thomas Coker (and there is little reason to doubt it was the same person), was one of four commissioners appointed to levy the customs ‘in Hwerford and in every place thence to Bristol and thence in every place by the sea-coast to Exeter’. This included the coasts of south Wales, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall.