Samuel Cole

• General Notes
  • Samuel Cole
    M, b. circa 1597, d. before 13 February 1667, #432
    
    Charts     Pedigree for Parley Parker Pratt
    Pedigree for Winifred Dean
    Reference     2QVS-ZK
    
    Birth*     Samuel Cole was born circa 1597 at Mersea, Essex, England.
    Marriage*     He married Anne (?) before 1622 at England.1
    Immigration     He and Anne (?) immigrated on 13 June 1630 to Salem, Massachusetts, with the Winthrop Fleet.2
    Event-Misc*     Made freeman on 18 May 1631 at Boston, Suffolk, MA.1
    Occupation*     He was an innkeeper. Winthrop reported that "Samuel Cole set up the first house for common entertainment ..." On 4 March 1634 at Boston, Suffolk, MA.1
    Marriage*     He married Margaret (?) before 30 September 1647 at Boston, Suffolk, MA.1
    Occupation     He was selectman between 1653 and 1657 at Boston, Suffolk, MA.1
    Marriage*     He married Ann Mansfield on 16 October 1660 at Boston, Suffolk, MA.1
    Will*     He left a will on 21 December 1666 at Boston, Suffolk, MA.1
    Death*     He died before 13 February 1667 at Boston, Suffolk, MA.1
    Probate*     His estate was probated on 13 February 1666/67 at Boston, Suffolk, MA.1
    Note*     The Great Migration Begins has this on him: SAMUEL COLE
    
    ORIGIN: Unknown
    MIGRATION: 1630
    FIRST RESIDENCE: Boston
    OCCUPATION: Innkeeper (On 4 March 1633/4 Winthrop reported that "Samuel Cole set up the first house for common entertainment ..." [ WJ 1:148; see also MBCR 1:155, 159, 199, 208, 226, 228, 244, 245, 279]). Confectioner, as he calls himself in deeds.
    CHURCH MEMBERSHIP: "Samuell Cole and Anne his wife" (the latter annotated as "dead since") admitted to Boston church as members #42 and #43, which would be in the fall of 1630 [ BChR 13].
    FREEMAN: Requested 19 October 1630 and admitted 18 May 1631 (both times as "Mr. Sam[ue]ll Coole") [ MBCR 1:80, 366].
    EDUCATION: Signed his will and numerous deeds. Inventory included "Books 13 bound in leather with some other books, £1 15s.," as well as "a picture of a ship and another picture." He made a bequest to Harvard College, and on 13 December 1652 he was appointed to a Boston committee for collecting money for the college [ BTR 1:113].
    OFFICES: Boston selectman, 1653 through 1657 [ BTR 1:114, 118, 122, 128, 134]. Sealer of weights and measures, 27 March 1654 [ BTR 119]. Surveyor, 13 March 1647/8 [ BTR 1:92]. Rater, 10 November 1634 [ BTR 1:2]. Highway company, 10 January 1641/2 [ BTR 1:65].
    He was admitted to the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company in 1638 [ HAHAC 1:30].
    ESTATE: On 26 September 1636 it was found that "Mr. Samuell Cole" had sold an allotment without consent of the allotters to "one Mr. Greenefield" who was a stranger, and Cole must "forfeit for the breaking of the order £3" [ BTR 1:12]. His great allotment at Rumney Marsh and Pullen Point in 1637 was one hundred and five acres [ BTR 1:29].
    On the last day of February 1638, Samuel Cole of Boston, "innholder," and his wife (unnamed) sold to Capt. "Robert Sedgwicke" of Charlestown for £200 the southern part of one new mansion house in Boston where Samuel "lately dwelled" together with an old house, leantos, stable, hogstyes, hoghouse, yard, garden, on the other side of "the same house assured to...Thomas Marryot and others" [ Lechford 51-57].
    In the Boston Book of Possessions, Samuel Cole held "one house and garden" [ BBOP 9].
    On 20 May 1645 Valentine Hill of Boston sold to Samuel Cole "a certain parcel of land bounded with Wm. Pierce on the west, the cove on the north, Mr. Hill's highway ... on the east, & a small lot of Samuel Cole's which he lately purchased of Joshua Hues on the south"; and on the same day Samuel Cole sold to George Halsall "a certain house & garden bounded with Edmund Gross' lot and well northeast, Mr. Thomas Clarke northwest and southwest, & the bay southeast" (this latter being Samuel Cole's lot in the Boston Book of Possessions) [ SLR 1:59; Aspinwall 6].
    With his neighbors, Samuel Cole went to court 14 October 1651 and pleaded for relief from "Sagamore George," who pretended title to land in Rumney Marsh. The court ordered that they set aside twenty acres of land for the sagamore and then enjoy their land unmolested [ MBCR 3:252].
    On 24 March 1653 Samuel Cole of Boston "confectioner" and Margaret "his wife" sold to William Halsey of "Pullin Point in the parish of Boston" their farm house and appurtenances, reserving one sixth part of the premises, also ten acres of upland and six acres of meadow or marsh excepted to Edmond Gross of Boston. Part of this deed assured Halsey that the purchase of the property would not compel him to "travel above seven miles distance from the place of their several abodes" to receive assurance that the deed was good [ SLR 2:4-8].
    On 18 May 1653, the General Court granted Mr. Samuel Cole of Boston four hundred acres of land at Nonatocke, he "having long since disbursed £50 in the common stock" [ MBCR 3:304]. Again, in June 1661, the court took up this matter and further ordered that "considering that Mr. Cole was an ancient adventurer in the public stock and hath been long out of his money, been at great charges and loss in this business, hath approved himself respective and serviceable to this Court, the Court judgeth it meet to grant Mr. Samuel Cole three hundred acres more in any place free from former grants" [ MBCR 4:2:22]. On 26 May 1658, the General Court granted petitioner Samuel Cole a neck of land lying within a mile and a half or two miles of "Nacooke" beyond the town of Chelmsford, and to make up the four hundred acres formerly granted him in any other place [ MBCR 4:1:337].
    On 26 October 1653 "Mr. Samuell Cole of Boston comfitmaker" in consideration "of a marriage solemnized and fully finished betwixt Edmond Jackson of Boston ... shoemaker & Mary my daughter" gave the couple the dwelling house with a garden and well which he had purchased of William Halsey [ SLR 3:502].
    On 31 December 1658 Samuel Cole of Boston, "confectioner," and Margaret "his wife" sold to Zachariah Phillips of Boston, butcher, nine acres in Boston [ SLR 3:194-95]. On 7 March 1664/5 "Samuel Cole of Boston, confectioner," sold for £50 to Thomas Walker Sr. of Boston, brickmaker, (then deceased), and Thomas Walker Jr. of Boston, brickmaker, a strip of land in Boston [ SLR 5:92-3].
    On 18 March 1665/6 "Samuell Cole of Boston..., comfitmaker, and Anna his now wife" for that love & affection which we bear towards Samuel Royal "son of William Royall of Casco Bay who married with Febee Greene the daughter of Margaret, former wife of me the said Samuel Cole," for a "former promise to the said Margaret in the time of her life" grant Samuel Royal a strip of land in Boston, reserving one half part of the fruit trees and half the roses [ SLR 5:484-86].
    On 21 September 1666 "Samuel Cole of Boston ... confectioner" sold for £40 to Isaac Gross of Boston, cordwainer, and John Senter of Rumney Marsh, husbandman, two small houses adjoining each other and the land they stand on in Boston, bordered by Elisha and Elizabeth Jackson and others [ SLR 5:53-5]. On 6 October 1666 "Samuel Cole of Boston ... confectioner" gave for natural love and affection to "my grand children Elisha Jackson & Elizabeth Jackson son and daughter of Edmund Jackson of Boston ... cordwainer had by Mary my daughter his late deceased wife" a strip of land in Boston, and if either of them die, Elisha before age eighteen or Elizabeth before age sixteen or marriage, then the survivor to enjoy the land, or if they both die, to their father Edmund Jackson "and I the said Samuell Cole do hereby nominate, and authorize Isaac Grose my Grandson, and attorney to give possession ... unto their father Edmund Jackson" [ SLR 5:74-6].
    In his will, dated 21 December 1666 and proved 13 February 1666/7, "Samuell Cole of Boston" though "weak in body through many weaknesses that do attend me" bequeathed to "my daughter Elizabeth Weeden that land of mine at Rumney Marsh which at present her husband and she lives upon and have done for some years past, which is the sixth part of my land ... as also all the marsh ground I have at Hogg Island," six acres, which "my said daughter and her husband shall enjoy during their natural life ... and after their decease it shall be equally divided amongst all their children"; to "my daughter Marie's children which she had by Edmond Jackson, vizt. Elisha and Elizabeth" a house lot in Boston; to "my grandchild Sarah Scenter" a colt now in the possession of "her husband John Scenter"; to "my daughter Elizabeth Weeden £20 which is due unto me from John Scenter," toward the building of a new house at Rumney Marsh; to "my son John Cole's children" £10 equally divided amongst them; to "my daughter Elizabeth Weeden's children" £10 equally divided amongst them, "which £20 is due unto me by Elizabeth Gross"; to "my grandchild Samuel Cole the eldest son of my son John Cole" I give "my land at Monecticott bought of Clement Cole and given him by the town"; to "my old servant Elizabeth Ward" a cow "in the keeping of my son-in-law Edward Weeden as long as she liveth ... & afterwards to remain to my daughter Elizabeth Weeden, also my old green coat I give unto the said Elizabeth Ward"; to "the old Church of Boston" 20s; "whereas I promised to give 20s. to Harvard College & some part of it paid in wooden ware by Elzer to Mr. Danforth" the residue to be paid together with 20s. more; residue to "my son John Cole and my daughter Elizabeth Weeden" to be equally divided, they also to be joint executors; but if John Cole refuses to be executor, then Elizabeth to be sole executor and John to have 20s; to "my grandchild Samuel Royall" 40s. toward building a house; confirms the deed of gift made to son John of one half of house at Boston. "This will was taken from the mouth of the aforesaid Testator and read before him who owned it to be his last will and Testatment..."; James Everell and Goodman Search, the weaver, overseers [ SPR 1:482-84].
    The inventory of the estate of Mr. Samuell Cole was taken 7 May 1666 by Elias Maverick, Aaron Way and William Ireland, and totalled £156 15s. 2d., itemizing first the estate "at Winnesimet" and then that "what was at Boston at James Everell's," of which £42 was real estate: "marsh land at Hogg Island," £12; and "land at Monotilot," £30 [ SPR 5:36-37].
    BIRTH: By about 1597 based on estimated date of marriage.
    DEATH: Boston between 21 December 1666 (date of will) and 13 February 1666/7 (probate of will).
    MARRIAGE: (1) By about 1622 (assuming she was mother of all his children) Ann _____; she had died by 1647, and perhaps earlier.
    (2) By 30 September 1647 Margaret (_____) Greene, daughter-in-law of Isaac Greene of Mersey, Essex, England [ Aspinwall 90, 155].
    (3) Boston 16 October 1660 Ann (Mansfield) Keayne, widow [ BVR 76]; born about 1596-7 (aged about 21 on 17 June 1617 [ EIHC 28:83] and aged 38 years when she came in the Defense in 1635 [ Hotten 107]). She married (1) by license dated 17 June 1617 Robert Keayne [ EIHC 28:83], who listed many of her relations in his 1656 will, including her "brother John Mansfield" [ SPR Case #171].
    CHILDREN:
    i CATHERINE, b. say 1622, m. Boston by 1642 Edmund Gross (birth of eldest child Isaac to "Edmund and Catherine Gross," 1 October 1642 [ BVR 13], and Samuel Cole calls Isaac Gross his grandson [ SLR 5:74-6]). Gross m. (2) Ann _____ ; Ann, the widow Gross, m. (2) Boston 15 August 1658 "Samuel Sheeres of Dedham" [ BVR 67]. (The year of this marriage must be incorrect as published, for a child was born to this couple in Dedham on 3 October 1657 [ DeVR 7] and they consented to a deed as a married couple in the same year [ SLR 3:362].)
    
    ii ELIZABETH, b. say 1624; m. by 1644 Edward Weeden (son Samuel b. Boston in August 1644 [ BVR 17]).
    
    iii JOHN, b. say 1626; m. Boston 30 December 1651 Susanna Hutchinson, daughter of William Hutchinson [ BVR 34]. (John Cole was misrepresented twice in early records. On 5 September 1639 "Samuel Cole of Boston in N.E. g[ent]. placeth John Cole his grandchild apprentice to John Mylam of Boston aforesaid cooper for 7 years" from "1.1.1638" [apparently 1 March 1638/9] [ Lechford 175]. If this were really the grandchild of Samuel Cole, then the latter would have to be a generation older than otherwise required by the evidence, and so the record apparently errs in stating the relation. The marriage record for John Cole calls him "son of Isaac Cole," but the only known Isaac Cole of this early date was of Charlestown, and he did not have a son John [ Wyman 229]. In 1943 Mary Lovering Holman published an excellent article on this John Cole and his connections [ NEHGR 97:194-95].)
    
    iv MARY, b. say 1628; m. (1) _____ Gawdren; m. (2) Boston 7 January 1652/3 Edmund Jackson [ BVR 38]. (The marriage record as printed explicitly identifies the bride as "Mary Gawdren, widow," but no other record of this surname has been found in New England at this early date; perhaps it is a corruption of some more familiar name.)
    
    ASSOCIATIONS: Samuel Cole was almost certainly closely related to Clement Cole who came to New England in 1635 on the Susan & Ellen [ Hotten 59]. The name immediately above Clement Cole's on the passenger list was "Jo: Mansfield," aged 34, whose sister had married Mr. Robert Keayne. (Edward Weeden, who would later marry Elizabeth, the daughter of Samuel Cole, was also on this vessel.)
    Clement Cole was a servant to Robert Keayne as early as 1635 ("Cleoment Cole, who served with Mr. Robert Keayne four years...," 30 September 1639 [ BTR 1:42]); Samuel Cole later purchased Clement Cole's lands in Braintree, and married Robert Keayne's widow. (Savage says that this John Mansfield came to New England in 1634 on the Regard of Barnstable, and attaches to him a moralizing story about "one Mansfield, a poor godly man of Exeter," who was subsidized on his voyage to New England by a local merchant, became rich, and lost his godliness [ WJ 1:178]. This does not fit John Mansfield, brother-in-law of Robert Keayne, whose father and brother-in-law were quite wealthy, and not from the West Country. Savage himself shows his uncertainty about the ascription of this tale, for he repeats it again at the end of the Mansfield section, without connecting it to any one immigrant.)
    "Samuel Cole of Boston...yeoman & Margaret his wife daughter of Isaac Greene late of Mersey in the Count of Essex deceased" pursued the sale of "lands lying in Mersey...wherein the said Margar[et] had interest during her life" [ Aspinwall , 90]. Samuel Royal, "grandchild," named in Samuel Cole's will, was the son of William Royal and Phebe Greene, and grandson of Cole's second wife, Margaret Greene, daughter-in-law (or widow?) of Isaac Greene.
    COMMENTS: In his will, Samuel Cole gives his daughter Elizabeth one sixth part of his land. In his deed to William Halsey, he excepts one-sixth of the land in favor of Edmund Gross. An argument can be made that Cole had five children, and the sixths that are seen in the will and deed represented a double share for son John and single shares for four other children. Although none of the Gross children of Catherine Cole were mentioned in Samuel's will, they were provided for in deeds. This leaves one child unspoken for, perhaps the share represented by Margaret Greene's grandson, Samuel Royal.
    The inventory of Samuel Cole shows that all his remaining land and most of his furniture were "at Winnesimet," and that his possesions in Boston were few and at the house of James Everell. He had been deeding his Boston land to his children and grandchildren, and at some time late in life must have moved out of Boston to his lands on the other side of the Mystic River.
    On "12 August 1636, at a general meeting of the richer inhabitants [of Boston] there was given towards the maintenance of a free school master for the youth with us" donations by numerous persons, including Samuel Cole, who gave 10s. [ BTR 1:160].
    On 20 November 1637 Samuel Cole was disarmed for signing the remonstrance on behalf of Rev. John Wheelwright [ MBCR 1:211]. On about 22 November 1637, in the face of immediate and stern governmental disapproval, and an order to disarm all those who failed to recant, Cole was the first to sign an acknowledgment that "it was ill done, and unwarrantably, as transgressing therein the rule of due honor to authority, and of modesty, and submission in private persons, and therefore I desire my name may be put out of it" [ WP 3:513].
    With others, Samuel Cole was asked to "make sufficient the cartway against Mr. Hutchinson's house, under which they drain their gardens" 18 February 1638/9 [ BTR 1:38].
    The Boston selectmen ruled 30 November 1657 that Mr. Samuel Cole, having added Elizabeth Knap to his household contrary to the order of the town, and Elizabeth remaining in Boston, if she became chargeable to the town, Mr. Cole was to be responsible for all costs [ BTR 1:140].1
    Baptism     He witnessed the baptism of Samuel Cole on 20 November 1953.
    Note     Birth year in question; may be ABT 1601
    
    Birth place spelling in question; may be Esses rather than Essex.
    
    Rebaptism     He witnessed the rebaptism of Samuel Cole; death and burial dates; family group sheet shows "Will dated 21 DEC
    1666, Will proved 13 FEB 1667".
    
    Info. source: P 80-1-2-3 Cole Families A5C11 (also pt 1 R8A12); p. 324 Cole
    Families B13F6; p. 194 Am Pub H vol 97; p. 156 Am Pub H 6 p. 249 vol 15;
    Mrs. Nephi Nielson, 980 Denver St., SLC, UT
    
    Other marriages: Margaret GREENE (#2, RIN 644); Ann MANSFIELD (#3, RIN
    645)
    
    One of the family group sheets shows subsequent dates for ordinances as
    follows: baptized 21 MAY 1960; endowed 20 FEB 1962
    
    !Children of this man & Margaret GREENE are shown as the same as those of
    this man & Anne COLE; ordinance dates are different but spouses of the
    children are the same; which couple do the children belong to?