William Cole

Notes:

"The Coles were far from poor. Indeed, according to the standards of the day, Robert, at least, came from a prosperous family. His father, William Cole, was a yeoman, meaning that he was a farmer with modest land holdings. The competent English prose of Robert’s will indicates that his family had the means to provide him with some formal education. There are also extant tax records that show that his widowed mother, Joan Cole, ranked within the top third of the economic pyramid in Heston. Additionally, Robert Cole had the resources necessary to transport his family and two servants to Maryland and then to purchase a three hundred acre farm when he got there." [Rory T. Conley, citation details below.]

Family/Spouse: Jone. Jone was born in of Heston, Middlesex, England; died after 2 Apr 1662. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 1663
• Alternate death: Bef Sep 1663

Notes:

He emigrated from (probably) Heston, Middlesex to Maryland 1652 with his wife, four children, and two servants. He died in London during a business trip back there. He was literate, and Roman Catholic. He held minor offices such as manor court juror and from 1658 on he was sometimes referred to as "Mr."

His Maryland plantation is the subject of a book-length study, Robert Cole's World: Agriculture & Society in Early Maryland by Lois Green Carr, Russell R. Menard, and Lorena S. Walsh (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 1991).

He called his fellow Maryland immigrant Benjamin Gill "kinsman" and was an executor of Gill's estate. Gill's wife Mary (Ann Maria) was a daughter of the recusant Oliver Mainwaring (d. 1631) and his royally-descended wife Margaret Torbock. Joan or Jane Mainwaring, a sister of Mary's, may have been the Joan/Jane who married a Thomas Cole in Heston, Middlesex; this has led to a hypothesis (here, here, and here) that the settler was a son of that Joan and Thomas, but there appears to be no proof that this was the case. And yet we note that Robert Cole's grandson Edward Cole (d. 1762) married Ann Neale, a great-granddaughter of Benjamin Gill and Mary Mainwaring -- and also that the second wife of Edward Cole (1657-1717), son of this Robert and father of the aforementioned Edward, was Elizabeth Slye, a granddaughter of the royally-descended Maryland immigrant Thomas Gerard. All of which fuels a certain suspicion that, even if Robert and his son Edward called themselves "yeomen", the family had non-trivial connections to fellow Roman Catholics of higher social rank.

Carr, Menard, and Walsh (citation details below) believe that his parents were William and Joan/Jane Cole of Heston. A Robert Cole is recorded as baptised 15 Nov 1629 at St. Margaret, Westminster, son of William Cole. Another Robert Cole, also the son of a William, is recorded baptised in London, at St. Giles without Cripplegate, on 28 Aug 1629. Mary Ellen Donnelly (citation details below) believes his parents were Thomas Cole of Lampton, Middlesex, baptized 15 Dec 1594, and Jane Hanckes of Middlesex. The fact that Robert Cole's will mentions his "couzen" Henry Hanks lends some credence to this latter theory.

There is a 1662 burial in the records of the parish of St. Leonard's in Heston (now part of the London borough of Hounslow) which may well refer to the burial of our Robert Cole. Incorrectly recorded in several places as dated 16 August 1662, it is actually dated 17 August of that year. It reads "Augusti 17 sepultus Robertus Cole filius", followed on the same line by a long blank spot and then some very hard-to-read further letters. The first chunk probably says "Cole" and the rest, while very hard to make out on its own, matches closely in overall shape with other inscriptions on the same ledger that say "di Hounslow". So it looks like what the inscription says is "On August 17, Robert Cole, son of _____ Cole of Hounslow, was buried."

Ultimately, though, this adds little to our knowledge of the indentity of the father of the emigrant Robert Cole, except that he may well have been from Hounslow. Heston, associated in several ways with our Robert Cole, is part of Hounslow. The William and Jane Cole asserted by Carr, Menard, and Walsh as his parents were of Heston, and certainly our Robert referred in his will to "my Loving mother Mrs Jone Cole of heston in the County of Middlesex." Two Jone Coles, both identified as widows, are assessed for three or four hearths in the Heston hearth tax records of 1664. Additionally, the Thomas Cole claimed by others as Robert's father was probably from Lampton, which has been part of Hounslow at least some of the time over the centuries. And "Jana wife of Thomas Cole of Heston yeoman" appears on the same recusant roll (#20--E377/31, 1622-23) as "Benjamin Gill of St. Andrew Holborn, Middlesex, chandler" and "Mary his wife."

Robert married Rebecca between 1649 and 1652. Rebecca died about Mar 1662. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate birth: 15 Oct 1651, England

Robert married Anne Warren before Jun 1676. Anne (daughter of John Warren) died about 1677. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Mary married Ignatius Warren before 1673. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: Bef 20 Dec 1717, St. Clement's Hundred, St. Mary's County, Maryland
• Alternate death: Bef 3 Mar 1718

Notes:

Planter and householder. Literate. Called "Mr." After the death of his parents when he was five or six, he was raised by his father's friend Luke Gardiner.

His second wife Elizabeth Slye was a daughter of Robert Slye and Susanna Gerard. Susanna Gerard was a daughter of early Maryland immigrant (and Edward I descendant) Dr. Thomas Gerard and his wife Susanna Snow. But more interestingly in connection with American history, Susanna Gerard's second husband, following the death of Robert Slye, was John Coode, one of the three leaders of Maryland's Protestant revolution of 1689 (and also a shadowy and malign figure in John Barth's 1960 novel The Sot-Weed Factor). Susanna's sister Elizabeth Gerard was the wife of Nehemiah Blackiston, another of the leaders of the 1689 uprising, who was a son of regicide judge John Blackiston. Her sister Mary Gerard was the wife of Kenelm Cheseldine, the third of the revolution's leaders. And finally, her sister Frances Gerard was, in the fourth of her five marriages, the third wife of Col. John Washington (1633-1677), great-grandfather of George Washington.

Edward married Honora on 27 Apr 1683 in St. Clement's Hundred, St. Mary's County, Maryland. Honora was born about 1667 in "Strand," St. Mary's County, Maryland; died after 1694. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Edward married Elizabeth Slye after 1694. Elizabeth (daughter of Robert Slye and Susannah Gerard) was born in 1668; died in 1734. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Alternate death: 1761, St. Mary's County, Maryland

Notes:

He was the overseer of the will of his mother-in-law, Elizabeth Lord.

Edward married Ann Neale in 1715. Ann (daughter of James Neale and Elizabeth Lord) died in 1768. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Robert married Elizabeth Tant before 1704 in St. Mary's County, Maryland. Elizabeth (daughter of John Tant and Margaret Bloomfield) was born before 1689 in St. Mary's County, Maryland; died after 1724 in St. Mary's County, Maryland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]