Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 11.djvu/282

 clear, well-formed hand. He died about Michaelmas 1600, and was buried in his cathedral church. A monument, now destroyed, was erected to him by his daughter Abigail, with a rhymed epitaph, characterised by detestable plays upon words, given by Browne Willis (Cathedrals, iii. 79), recording that He sought God's glory and the Church's good, Idle Idol worship firmly he withstood;

and expressing the assurance that When the latter Trump of Heaven shall blow, Cole, now raked in ashes, then shall glow.

Cole had several children, but the above-named daughter, who married Henry Stratford of Hawley in the county of Gloucester, is the only one of whom there is any record. Among the letters of Simon Trippe (Addit. MS. Brit. Mus. 6251, p. 39) is one to him accompanying a gift of rosewater, which he thinks may prove serviceable to Mrs. Cole, who had very recently become the mother of a son, on whose birth the writer congratulates him. Cole's only known writings are the letters to the Parker Society's series already referred to.  COLE, WILLIAM (d. 1653), provost of Enniskillen, was descended from the ancient house of Cole in Devonshire and Cornwall, mentioned in a deed of William the Conqueror. He was the only son of Emanuel Cole, third son of Thomas Cole of London, and Margaret, daughter of Mr. Ingram, and aunt of Sir Arthur Ingram, who was knighted in 1629. He was the first of the family who settled in Ireland, and early in the reign of James I fixed his residence in the county of Fermanagh. On 10 Sept. 1607 he was made captain of the long boats and barges at Ballyshannon. On 16 Nov. 1611 he received an assignment, as undertaker of the northern plantation, of the property of Dromskeagh in Fermanagh, containing a thousand acres of escheated lands, at the crown rent of 81. English, to which were added 320 acres in the same county. On the incorporation of the town of Enniskillen he was elected the first provost. On 5 Nov. 1617 he received the honour of knighthood (Calendar Carew Manuscripts, 1603-24, p. 385). On 21 Sept. 1623 he received a grant of the castle together with two-thirds of the islands of Enniskillen by lease for twenty-one years at a yearly rent of five harps (State Papers, Irish Series, 1615-25, p. 285). On the muster-roll of 1618 he appears as supplying twenty-four men, six muskets, eight culvers, ten pikes, and twenty-two swords. In 1639 he was chosen to represent Fermanagh in parliament. He was the first to give notice to the government of the rebellion of 1641, and on its outbreak received the commission of colonel of five hundred foot, most of whom were raised in Fermanagh, and was named governor of Enniskillen. He specially distinguished himself during the war, and when, in January 1643, his regiment was in need of provisions, fed the men at his own expense. In 1644 he was accused by Sir Frederick Hamilton of having traitorously concealed his knowledge of the intended outbreak in Ireland above a fortnight after he had obtained his information, and of having assumed the command of nine companies while he had only received a commission for five, but he was acquitted of the charges. He died in October 1653, and was buried in St. Michan's Church, Dublin. He was twice married : first to Susanna, daughter and heiress to John Croft of Lancaster, relict of Lieutenant Segar of the castle of Dublin, by whom he had two daughters ; and second to Catherine, eldest daughter of Sir Lawrence Parsons of Birr, King's County, by whom he had two sons. 