ENTRY

William Cole (1638 or 1639–1694)

SUMMARY

William Cole served as a member of the governor’s Council (1675–1692) and as secretary of the colony (1690–1692). Cole served as an intermediary between Nathaniel Bacon and Governor Sir William Berkeley during the early months of Bacon’s Rebellion (1676–1677), but ultimately sided with the latter. As a councilor, Cole pushed for stronger governmental control on trade and helped crack down on piracy. Cole resigned as councilor, secretary, and customs collector in 1692, after Lieutenant Governor Francis Nicholson confronted him about a letter Cole wrote to Governor Francis Howard, baron Howard of Effingham, disparaging Nicholson. Despite Cole’s fall from power, he was the second man named in the College of William and Mary’s charter and a founding trustee of the institution.

Cole was born in 1638 or 1639, probably in Warwick River County (after 1643 Warwick County). He was most likely the son of William Cole, who arrived in Virginia from Essex County, England, in 1618 and in 1629 represented Nutmegg Quarter in the General Assembly. The name of his mother is uncertain, but she may have been the Francis (or Frances) Cole who came to the colony aboard the Susan in 1616. Nothing is known about Cole’s early life or education, but he studied law and was representing clients before the General Court by October 1670. By the spring of 1672 he was a lieutenant colonel in the county militia. In April 1671 Cole purchased from Frances Culpeper Stephens Berkeley and her second husband, Governor Sir William Berkeley, 1,350 acres of land in Warwick County, an estate later known as Boldrup or Bolthrope. Cole eventually acquired more than 2,400 additional acres in Elizabeth City, Warwick, and York counties.

On March 3, 1675, the governor appointed Cole and three other men, including Nathaniel Bacon, to the governor’s Council. Cole took the oath of office three days later. When Bacon’s Rebellion began in the summer of 1676, he criticized Bacon’s treatment of the Indians but acted as an intermediary between the governor and the rebel in June. The next month Cole joined the governor when he withdrew to the Eastern Shore, and Bacon subsequently enumerated Cole on his list of “wicked, and pernitious Councollors, aiders, and Assisters against the Commonalty.” The royal commissioners sent to suppress the rebellion and investigate its causes confirmed Cole’s loyalty and his position on the Council. In March 1677 Cole was one of six witnesses to Berkeley’s will.

On May 4, 1683, Cole and other Council members signed a letter recommending that the Lords Committee for Trade and Plantations improve the governance of the colony by restricting trade with the Indians to a few persons to be designated by the governor, accurately defining Virginia’s borders to cut off encroachments by Maryland and North Carolina, providing a sixty-man garrison for security, redirecting certain quitrents to the colonial government’s use, limiting tobacco production, and permitting a tobacco levy. Twice in the 1680s Cole assisted in the suppression of piracy. In June 1682 the Council ordered him to impress a vessel and collect a crew to pursue a pirate ship that had been raiding along the York River. Cole took testimony in June 1688 from Edward Davis and three other men for trial before the General Court in the last recorded piracy case before the formation of a court of vice-admiralty in the colony.

Cole augmented his income with the lucrative post of customs collector for the upper district of the James River, which he held until the summer of 1686, when the governor transferred him to the lower district. Three marriages also advanced his status and bound him more firmly into the tangled kinship networks of the colonial elite. With his first wife, whose name is unknown but to whom he was married by 1674, he had at least one daughter, who married Dudley Digges (d. 1711), a member of the Council and brother of Cole’s second wife. Sometime after the death of his first wife, Cole married Ann Digges, daughter of Edward Digges, who was governor in 1655 and 1656. They had at least two sons before her death on November 22, 1686. By mid-1689 Cole had married Martha Lear, daughter of the Council member John Lear. They had at least two daughters and two sons. After Cole’s death, his widow married Lewis Burwell, a Gloucester County planter.

On October 18, 1689, the president of the Council appointed Cole to the vacant office of secretary of the colony, an important and profitable post responsible for maintaining the official correspondence of the governor and Council, drawing up and recording all public documents, reporting the General Assembly’s proceedings, keeping the seal of the colony, and naming the county clerks. The king and queen granted him the office on January 17, 1690. Cole was one of four councillors appointed in May 1691 to a committee to accept a royal charter for a college in the colony. The second man named in the charter of February 8, 1693, establishing the College of William and Mary, Cole was a founding visitor, or trustee, of the institution.

By that time, however, Cole had blundered and toppled from power. Without the knowledge of the other councillors, in April 1691 he sent an indiscreet letter to Governor Francis Howard, baron Howard of Effingham, then in England, in which he “very highly taxed and abused his Honor the Lieut Govr,” Francis Nicholson. On June 23, 1692, Nicholson produced a copy of the letter during a Council meeting and confronted Cole, who immediately submitted his resignation as councillor, secretary, and customs collector. In an effort to save face, he cited not his embarrassment but rather his rapidly declining health, “as he is lately much decayed in his body & Strength, and by reason of a deepe Melancholly that hath Seized him.” Cole died on March 4, 1694, and was buried at his Boldrup plantation in Warwick County.

MAP
TIMELINE
1638 or 1639
William Cole is born in Warwick River County. He is most likely the son of William Cole, who arrived in Virginia from Essex County, England, in 1618. His mother may have been the Francis (or Frances) Cole who came to the colony aboard the Susan in 1616.
October 1670
By this time, William Cole is representing clients before the General Court.
April 1671
William Cole purchases 1,350 acres of land in Warwick County from Frances Culpeper Stephens Berkeley and Governor Sir William Berkeley. The estate becomes known as Boldrup or Bolthrope.
Spring 1672
By this time, William Cole is a lieutenant colonel in the Warwick County militia.
1674
By this year, William Cole has married his first wife, whose name is unknown. They will have at least one daughter.
March 3, 1675
Governor Sir William Berkeley appoints Nathaniel Bacon, James Bray, William Cole, and one other man to the governor's Council.
June 1676
William Cole acts as an intermediary between Nathaniel Bacon and Governor Sir William Berkeley.
June 1682
The governor's council orders William Cole to impress a vessel and collect a crew to pursue a pirate ship that had been raiding along the York River.
May 4, 1683
Members of the governor's Council sign a letter to the Lords Committee for Trade and Plantations that makes recommendations for improving the governance of the colony.
November 22, 1686
William Cole's second wife, Ann Digges Cole, dies. They had at least two sons before her death.
June 1688
William Cole takes testimony from Edward Davis and three other men for trial before the General Court in the last recorded piracy case before the formation of a court of vice-admiralty in the colony.
Mid-1689
By this time, William Cole had married Martha Lear. They will have at least two daughters and two sons.
October 18, 1689
The president of the governor's Council appoints William Cole to the vacant office of secretary of the colony.
January 17, 1690
The king and queen grant William Cole the office of secretary of the colony.
April 1691
William Cole sends an indiscreet letter to Governor Francis Howard, baron Howard of Effingham, then in England, in which he "very highly taxed and abused his Honor the Lieut Govr," Francis Nicholson.
May 1691
William Cole and three other councilors are appointed to a committee to accept a royal charter for a college in the colony.
June 23, 1692
During a meeting of the governor's Council, Lieutenant Governor Francis Nicholson confronts William Cole about a letter Cole wrote to Governor Francis Howard, baron Howard of Effingham, in which Cole defamed Nicholson. Cole immediately submits his resignation as councilor, secretary, and customs collector.
February 8, 1693
William Cole is the second man named in the charter establishing the College of William and Mary. He is a founding visitor, or trustee, of the institution.
March 4, 1694
William Cole dies at his Boldrup plantation in Warwick County, where he is later buried.
FURTHER READING
  • Billings, Warren M. A Little Parliament: The Virginia General Assembly in the Seventeenth Century. Richmond: Library of Virginia, 2004.
  • Billings, Warren M. “Growth of Political Institutions in Virginia, 1634 to 1676.” William and Mary Quarterly, 3d ser., 31 (1974): 225–242.
  • Julienne, Marianne E., and Sara B. Bearss. “Cole, William.” In the Dictionary of Virginia Biography, Vol. 3, edited by Sara B. Bearss et al., 355–356. Richmond: Library of Virginia, 2006.
  • Rice, James D. Tales from a Revolution: Bacon’s Rebellion and the Transformation of Early America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
  • Tarter, Brent. “Bacon’s Rebellion, the Grievances of the People, and the Political Culture of Seventeenth-Century Virginia.” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 119, no. 1 (2011): 2–41.
CITE THIS ENTRY
APA Citation:
Julienne, Marianne & Dictionary of Virginia Biography. William Cole (1638 or 1639–1694). (2020, December 07). In Encyclopedia Virginia. https://encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/cole-william-1638-or-1639-1694.
MLA Citation:
Julienne, Marianne, and Dictionary of Virginia Biography. "William Cole (1638 or 1639–1694)" Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Humanities, (07 Dec. 2020). Web. 06 Dec. 2023
Last updated: 2021, December 22
Feedback
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.