Person:William Cole (95)

Note of Caution: William Cole, husband of Elizabeth Doughty, and William Cole, husband of Eunice "Goody" Cole aka Hampton's Witch, MAY not be the same individual.

They are not the same individual. See GDMNH 157-58.

--jaques1724 01:04, 6 June 2020 (UTC)

• cos 1776 Note - Records in review. Analysis welcome. Although published articles and genealogies state that this William Cole married both Elizabeth Doughty and Eunice SNU, a problem arises in the overlap of records between the years 1645 (when Eunice Cole appears in a court record) and 1655 (when Elizabeth (Doughty) Cole appears in court stating she is a widow). The case is still open.
• Randy Cole discussed this issue 6 Dec 2012:COLE Family of Wells, ME and vicinity - Brick Wall & y-DNA

Possible Record Matches

• possible baptism posted to rootsweb 25 Oct 2012 by vegcousin: William Cole, bap. 27 Sep 1601, St. Werburgh's in Bristol, son of Wm Cole and Alice Gines of Northway, Gloucestershire who were m. 25 Nov 1594 at Ashchurch. Brother John bap. 7 Dec 1595 in the same location. Needs follow up.
• possible land purchase posted to helenesgenes.com date unknown: From The Pioneers of Maine and New Hampshire by POPE, page 42-43: COLE, William, carpenter, Boston; had an allotment of 2 acres Feb. 20, 1637, at MT Wooaston. Removed to Exeter, signed the combination 5 (4) 1639. Rem. to Hampton; proprietor in 1640. Sold land 17 Oct. 1656.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} William Cole, in Colonial Society of Massachusetts. Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts. (Boston, Massachusetts: The Society, 1895-1951)
   10:261-76.

   [Vol 10]
   p 264 - ... but he was in serious trouble nevertheless, for his sister Elizabeth, executrix of his father's estate, having in the meantime been married to William Cole of Sutton, Chew-Magna [parish], Somersetshire, came here also, with her husband, and entered suit for a considerable amount, which she claimed her brother owed her, in equity, if not in law, from the settlement of her father's estate. ...
   
   p 270 - ... Meantime trouble arose again from Mrs. Cole. She and her husband seem to have gone to Wheelwright's settlement at Exeter, New Hampshire, but in 1644 they were again in Boston, petitioning the General Court to reopen their case, and on 29 May, William Cole her husband having lately died, Mrs. Cole so far prevailed that she was " alowed a bill of reveiw in the action . . . whereby her deede that was cancelled may be made good ...
   -----
   [Identifies William Cole as the husband of Francis Doughty and that he had died sometime prior to her 29 May 1644 court case.]
   [cos1776 note: Something is amiss here. According to Burrage, William Cole died 16 May 1662 in Hampton, NH. Needs further review. Task: locate, review, transcribe original records.]

2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8} William Cole, in Burrage, Henry Sweetser; Albert Roscoe Stubbs; and George Thomas Little. Genealogical and family history of the state of Maine. (New York, New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, c1909)
   2:749.

   ...(I) William Cole was born about 1580 and was past midlife when he arrived in America. He was probably a follower of Rev. Wheelwright and very likely accompanied him on the journey to this continent. He is found of record as early as January 23, 1627, where he had a grant of a house lot of two acres at Mount Wollaston, near Boston. He was in Exeter, New Hampshire in 1639, and the next year in Hampton, New Hampshire. In June of that year he was granted forty acres in the last-named town and had one share of the commons there in 1646. He seems to have removed to Wells, Maine, while still retaining his ownership in Hampton. He appears to have been constable in Wells in 1645 and subscribed to the oath of allegiance to the Mass. Colony in 1653. He returned to Hampton in his old age and died there May 16, 1662, in his eighty-second year. His first wife was Elizabeth, daughter of Francis Doughty, of England. No record shows her death. He had a second wife, Eunice, who was a reputed witch and who survived him until October, 1680. His children included: John, Nicholas, William, and undoubtedly several others. ...
   -----
   [cos1776 20130503 Note: Information in question. Possibility of 2 William Coles under investigation.]

3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} Eunice Cole Again, in Dow, Joseph. History of the town of Hampton, New Hampshire: from its settlement in 1638, to the autumn of 1892. (Salem, Massachusetts: L.E. Dow, the Salem Publishing and Printing Co. , 1893).

   p 68 - ... While Eunice Cole was lying in prison after her trial for witchcraft in 1656, her husband, William Cole, on the third of November, 1659, sent a petition to the General Court, in which he represented that he had, on some former occasion, made over his estate to his wife, "to keep her from going away from him;" that he was not able himself to perform the labor that was needful to gain a subsistence from this estate, and that, as he could not make payment from it to any persons whom he might wish to employ to assist him, he had sometimes come near perishing, and had been obliged to call upon the town for aid, which had been furnished; but that the town could recover nothing for the assistance rendered, without having recourse to a lawsuit. He therefore prayed the court to provide some relief in the case.
   
   The petition having been considered, the court ordered: "That the town of Hampton should take into their possession all the estate belonging to the said Cole, or his wife--as was pretended--and out of said estate, or otherwise, as they should see cause, supply the said Cole's and his wife's necessities during their lives, and afterward account for what should remain unspent--if anything--after being paid for their trouble."
   
   The town, in compliance with this order of the General Court, had taken possession of Cole's estate, and in consequence had become liable for his own and his wife's maintenance, though she was still a prisoner in Boston. In 1662 [*], Goody Cole herself prayed the court for release, pleading pathetically her own age and weakness, and the infirmities of her husband, "being 88 yeeres of Age," and needing the care which none but his wife could render. Petitions were also presented by the inhabitants of Hampton and the keeper of the prison, and the court ordered that she pay "what is due on arrears" to the keeper, and "depart wthin one month after her release, out of this jurisdiction, & not to returne againe on poenalty of hir former sentenc being executed against hir." At the time of Marston's arrest by Salter, William Cole was dead. The towne continued to maintain his widow at the prison several years afterward at an expense of eight pounds a year. ...
   -----
   [*cos1776 note: In 1987 Carol F. Karlsen in "The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England" stated that this document, "The humble petition of Unice Coles", was undated, and she disputed the 1662 date given to it. She believed it to have been earlier, sometime within the first year after Eunice's imprisonment in Mar 1657 which would make William Cole approximately 5 years older.]

4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2} Eunice Cole, in Karlsen, Carol F. The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England (W.W. Norton & Co., 1987).

   p 52 - ... Eunice Cole was first tried for witchcraft crimes in Boston in the fall of 1656. It was not her first court appearance; she had been brought before local magistrates in Essex and Norfolk counties on several occasions for lesser crimes, the first time in 1645, when she was charged with making "slanderous speeches."(19)
   
   (19) Essex Court Records 1:88, and see also 129, 143, 238, 313; Essex County Quarterly Court File Papers, Works Progress Administration Transcripts, 75 vols. (Essex Institute, Salem, Mass.), 1:doc.93 (hereafter cited as Essex Court File Papers); Records of the Quarterly Court, Ipswich, 1645-1663 (manuscript volume, Essex Institute, Salem, Mass.), doc. 12; Norfolk Court Records, 1648-1678 (manuscript volume, Essex Institute, Salem, Mass.), docs. 30, 50.

5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2} 35 William Cole, in Noyes, Sybil; Charles Thornton Libby; and Walter Goodwin Davis. Genealogical Dictionary of Maine and New Hampshire. (Portland, Maine: Southworth Press, 1928-1939)
   157.

   35 William Cole, Wells. Lived on the farm which had been Wm. Wentworth's. The ownership of this farm between Wentworth and Harlark. Symonds, who sold it to Tho. Kimball shortly bef. 1660, is unasc., but he must either have owned or hired it. See Nicholas(23), who occup. it in 1658. … Constable 1645. Jury 1647. 'Goodman Cole and Goodman Rawbone' appraisers 1648. … In June 1648 Mr. Ezekiel Knight, John Wadloe, Wm. Cole and John White were sued for using Mr. Francis Raynes's canoe. This may refer to the s. Wm., but the f. is not afterwards ment. and must have d. bef. 1652. Kn. ch: Nicholas, b. ab. 1626. William, b. ab. 1627.

6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1 6.2} William Cole, in Helenesgenes.com website.

   [Last accessed 20130503. Last updated 16 Jan 2013]
   
   His wife Eunice was accused in 1656 of witchcraft; tried, convicted, sentenced to receive corporal punishment be imprisoned for life. She petitioned in 1662 to be set at liberty after suffering so much punishment, chiefly pleading the needs of her husband "88" years of age, and the ruin of their small property which she had helped to collect during 20 years. [Mass. Arch.10,281.] Her petition was granted on condition of her departing from the jurisdiction; but she could not avail herself of the decision because she could not pay arrears or give bonds, and she remained in prison several years longer.
   
   He d. 26 (3)1662, "aged 81 years". Will dated 26 May 1662, probated 14 (2)1663, beq. to wife Unice her clothing which was left with him; all the rest of his "free" estate he gave to Thomas Webster on condition of his keeping him comfortably during his life.
   A deed was present in court, dated 7 Nov. 1656, conveying all his estate to his wife Eunice. The court ordered the selectmen of Hampton to take charge of the property, pay debts, and take care of the widow.
   -----
   [Will source/location not given.]

7. ↑ Exeter, Rockingham, New Hampshire, United States. Exeter Combination. (Exeter, Rockingham, New Hampshire, United States).
   
8.   Savage, James. A Genealogical Dictionary of the First Settlers of New England: Showing Three Generations of Those Who Came Before May, 1692, on the Basis of Farmer's Register. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co, 1860-1862)
   1:430.