William Cole (antiquary)

William Cole (3 August 1714 – 16 December 1782), was a Cambridgeshire clergyman and antiquary.

Cole was born in Little Abington, Cambridgeshire, the son of a well-to-do farmer. He was educated at Eton, where he developed a lifelong friendship with Horace Walpole, and Cambridge University, first at Clare College and then at King's College. Having inherited a substantial estate on his father's death, Cole was not obliged to earn a living and stayed for 18 years at King's College, collecting historical information on the county of Cambridgeshire. He visited nearly all the churches in the county, making sketches of them and taking notes of monumental inscriptions and coats of arms (as well as local gossip); he made extensive transcriptions of the registers of the Bishops of Ely, court rolls, registers of wills, and other manuscripts relating to the county. He made a six-month voyage to Lisbon, Portugal, on his doctor's advice to recover his spirits following a disappointment, and also travelled to France, Flanders and Scotland.

In 1753 Cole became rector of Bletchley and turned his attention to the history of Buckinghamshire, but 13 years later he returned to Cambridgeshire and became curate of Waterbeach. In 1770 he left the church and moved to Milton, where he was to stay for the rest of his life. He rented a small farm from King's College and continued his work on the history of Cambridgeshire. Cole never married, but lived with his manservant Tom Wood, a maidservant, and a number of animals including 2 horses and a pony, a dog called Busy, a cat, and a parrot. He enjoyed entertaining and lived well. During his later years he suffered from gout.

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