Re: Royal Ancestry of Robert Cole; Addition to Mr. Richardson's Plantagenet A...

[ToddWhi...@aol.com]

Brice~

The case for identifying Robert Cole's mother as Jane Mainwaring, a daughter
of Oliver Mainwaring (d. testate 1631), gent., of Windleshaw & Margaret
Torbock, was a result of explaining the relation between Robert Cole and Benjamin
Gill.

My tentative reconstruction of the Cole family involved in this
identification is:

1. Robert Cole of Lampton (in Heston), who seems to have died 1614-15.
m. (1) sister of George Evelyn (d. testate 1603), Esq., of Wootton,
Surrey.
Child (by ------ Evelyn):
a. George Cole, Gent., of Cliffords Inn (son & heir). Admitted to
Middle Temple 20 Feb. 1579.

m. (2) 14 Sep. 1559 Harrow-on-the-Hill to Alice Norwood (who was
repeatedly convicted for recusancy as late as 1616). She was deceased by 1625.
Children (by Alice Norwood):
b. Thomas Cole of Lampton (in Heston), who held his mother's property
jointly with his brother Robert in 1625.
Father of Thomas Cole who was christened 15 Dec. 1594 at Lampton,
and who married Jane*, & resided in Lampton.
Thomas & Jane~parents of Robert Cole of Maryland.
c. Robert Cole.


Robert Cole demanded letters of administration upon Benjamin Gill's estate
"as being next of Kinne," as shown in Archives of Maryland 41:90. This
description is broad enough as to be almost useless. But two other descriptions
that appear in the court proceedings help narrow the scope of the kinship. In
1656 Robert Cole "made it appeare to this Court that he is near alyed to the
Said Gill" (see Archives of Maryland 10:450). Mrs. Jane Clarke (wife of my
ancestor Robert Clarke), stated in 1658 that "Mr Benjamin Gill late of this
Prouince Deceased dyed att her howse att Portoback the 22th of Nouembr in the
yeare 1655" (see Archives of Maryland 41:169). She further stated that "Hee
[Gill] did bequeath to his Cozen Robert Cole fiue hundd pownds of Tob" (see
Archives of Maryland 41:173). The descriptions "near alyed" and "his Cozen"
are to two to which I'm referring. "near alyed" I take to mean related by
marriage, and "his Cozen" I take to mean his nephew. Combined I read them as
nephew by marriage.

If Cole's mother was a Gill or Gill's wife was a Cole, then Cole would have
been more than merely "near alyed." That leaves a possible family connection
between Cole's mother and Gill's wife. This is supported by the appearance
on the same Middlesex recusant roll dated 1622-23 of Benjamin Gill, chandler,
of St. Andrew Holborn, Middlesex, and Mary, his wife, with Jane, wife of
Thomas Cole, yeoman, of Heston, Middlesex (see Jacobean Recusant Rolls For
Middlesex: An Abstract in English, by John J. LaRocca, S.J., Catholic Record
Society, 1997, pp. 134-135).

So we have Mary (Mainwaring) Gill and Jane (----------) Cole, both convicted
recusants, appearing together, and later Robert Cole, son of Jane, being a
nephew by marriage to Mary's husband Benjamin Gill. Jane would also be
considered a likely family name by Margaret (Torbock) Mainwaring, since she was the
legatee of 100 marks in the will of her grandmother Jane Gerrard. This
would also place Robert Cole within the kinship network of Thomas Gerrard, Esq.,
of Maryland, within whose manor in St. Mary's County Cole was a freeholder.

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