Family and Education

s. of Robert Cole of Shrewsbury by Mary, da. of Evan Lloyd Vaughan. educ. Shrewsbury. m. (1) Alice, da. of Richard Sandford of Rossall, 3s.; (2) ?Margaret Plowden.1

Offices Held

Escheator, Salop 1588.

Biography

Cole came from an old Shrewsbury family and owed his return at Bishop’s Castle to his relative by marriage, Edmund Plowden^†.

Cole became involved in a long dispute between his wife’s family, the Sandfords, and their landlord, Francis Englefield, nephew and heir of the Catholic exile, Sir Francis Englefield^†. Apparently about 1588 Englefield had dispossessed Cole of some pastureland near Shrewsbury, and Cole paid him out by encouraging the Earl of Essex to obtain the confiscation of the Englefield estates by Act of Parliament in 1593. While Englefieid and his advisers had some sympathy for the Sandfords, ‘for Mr. Cole Mr. Englefield careth not. Mr. Englefield hath money, Cole is a beggar.’ Next, Cole quarrelled with the Sandfords, narrowly escaping imprisonment for contempt.2

Cole made a brief will 22 Jan. 1611, six days before his death, leaving everything including his property in Shrewsbury and Udlington to a younger son, Thomas, who stood bound for several of his debts and was made executor. Two days later, Cole’s other sons, an elder Thomas and Simon, conveyed their rights in the estate to their brother.3

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: Patricia Hyde

Notes

• 1. Vis. Salop (Harl. Soc. xxviii), 126-7, 433; Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 2), x.; H. Owen and J. B. Blakeway, Shrewsbury, ii. 467, 469, 471; C142/368/111.
• 2. Trans. Salop Arch. Soc. (ser. 2), ix.; lii. 179-90; DNB (Englefield, Sir Francis); CSP Dom. 1603-10, p. 629; C66/1095.
• 3. PCC 63 Wood.