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Author: Cole, William

Biography:

COLE, William (1757-1812: ODNB)

He was baptised at Attleborough, Norfolk, on 17 Mar. 1757, the third of about thirteen children of Rev. Denny Cole (1716-90) of Sudbury and later of Wickham Market, Suffolk, and Anne Garrod (1732-1808), who had married in 1753. He was educated at Eton (1767-75) and King’s College, Cambridge (matric. 1775, BA 1780, MA 1783, Fellow 1778-89), and was ordained deacon (1784) and priest (1786) in the established church. He published at Cambridge A Key to the Psalms (1788). He was presented to the college living of Broad Chalke, Wiltshire (1788-1812), from where he published To the Feeling Heart (1789), relating the execution of Sophia Pringle for forgery following her refusal to accept a pardon in return for incriminating her lover. He married Maria Ann Willard in Sussex in 1790. They obtained a licence at Lewes on 20 Sept. 1790.  They lived in Yoxford, Suffolk, for several years where he held a curacy. Four sons and a daughter were born there 1793-1798.  He also held the curacy at Theberton. He wrote a novel, The Contradiction (1796) in this period. He moved to Maidstone around 1799 from where he published A Loyal Poetic Gratulation (1799) and A Tear of Regret (1799). He later moved to London and died at Baker Street, Westminster, in Dec. 1812. His wife, Maria, died in 1844 at Norfolk Square, Brighton, aged 76. A manuscript note in the British Library copy of To the Feeling Heart (11631.f.7) by the Suffolk antiquarian Elisha Davy first identified him. (ODNB 3 Dec. 2023; DNB; Copsey, 1: 119-20 ; ancestry.co.uk 3 Dec. 2023; findmypast.co.uk 3 Dec. 2023; CCEd 3 Dec. 2023; R. A. Austen-Leigh, The Eton College Register 1753-1790 [1921], 115; OUCH 26 Dec. 1812; GM Dec. Supplement 1812, 675; LES 17 Apr. 1844; Edwin H. Dunkin, Calendar of Sussex Marriage Licences 1772-1837 [1917]; Sussex Monumental Inscriptions, Eastbourne St. Mary) AA

 

Other Names:

  • the Rev. W. Cole, Maidstone
 

Books written (4):

Salisbury: [no publisher: printed by R. Wilks], 1789
Maidstone/ London: printed by J. Blake/ Cadel[l] and Davies, and G. Wilkie, 1799