Cole, William

Cole, William an English clergyman and an eminent antiquary, was born at Little Abington, Cambridgeshire, August 3, 1714. He was educated at SaffronWaldeni, Eton, and. Clare Hall, Cambridge, where he was admitted to one of Freeman's scholarships in April, 1734. During 1736 and 1737 he travelled in Flanders and Portugal. In 1739 he was made commissioner of peace in the county of Cambridge. He was ordained deacon in 1744, and was for some time curate to Dr. Oakes, rector of Wethersfield, in Suffolk. He was admitted to priest's orders in 1745, and elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1747. He went to France in 1768, after having been rector for some years of Bletchley, in Buckinghamshire, which place he resigned March 20, 1767. He then removed to Waterbeche, and from thence to Milton, near Cambridge, where he died, December 16, 1782. Among his works are Grose's Antiquities: — Bentham's Ely: — Life of Cardinal Pole: — Collection of Poems, and some Sermons, which he left to Cambridge University. See Chalmers, Biog. Dict. s.v.; Allibone, Dict. of Brit. and Amer. Authors, s.v.