Thomas COLE (c1793 - ?) tile maker of Lewisham and Tottenham

  

Thomas Cole was a tile maker whose son's family worked alongside my Cole ancestors at the Tile Kilns. He was almost certainly the son of Daniel Cole. This page gives known genealogical data for Thomas and his immediate descendants in the hope that today's descendants may know more and get in touch. There is an additional section on his son Daniel Thomas Cole who went on to work at the Tottenham Tile Kilns and another on his namesake who may or may not have been related.

 

Thomas Cole son of Daniel Cole

Thomas Cole was almost certainly the son of our earliest confirmed Cole ancestor, Daniel Cole (1770 - 1840). We do not know Thomas's date of birth but it looks likely from other records to have been around 1793. This would also fit well with his having been conceived in the period between Daniel's marriage and his departure for the navy. My first 'introduction' to Thomas came from the parish records of St Mary, Lewisham for 4 March 1821 when he and his wife Sarah, born Sarah Lear Maggison, baptised their son Daniel Thomas Cole. Fortunately the parish record noted that Thomas was a tile maker living at Loam Pit Hill, Lewisham which is how his profession can be linked with 'our' Cole line. Daniel Thomas later went on to work at the Tile Kilns which further supports the link.

It was possible to piece together that the Thomas and Sarah were married on 3 Jan 1814 at the Old Church, St Pancras, the local church at that time for the Cole potters and brickmakers of Islington. The IGI shows various children born to a Thomas and Sarah baptised at St Pancras, but the names are so common that there is no guarantee that they belong to this particular Thomas and Sarah. The St Pancras baptisms were:

  • Thomas Reuben Cole, born on 20 Jan 1818 and baptised much later at St Pancras to Thomas and Sarah on 30 June 1822.
  • Susan Cole, born on 27 Mar 1819 and baptised at St Pancras to Thomas and Sarah on 7 Jul 1819.
  • Thomas Cole, born on 23 Oct 1820 and baptised at St Pancras to Thomas and Sarah Leer on 20 Dec 1820. (A definite because Sarah's second name of Leer was documented.) In the 1841 census he was a tile-maker at the Tile Kilns, married to an Elizabeth.

After Lewisham, Thomas and Sarah must have moved to Tottenham to the Tile Kilns because there are the following records of their children there:

  • John Cole, born on 20 Apr 1822 at Tottenham (almost certainly the Tile Kilns) and baptised at St Pancras to Thomas and Sarah on 30 Jun 1822, ie on the same day as his eldest brother.
  • Any unknown children born in intervening years between 1822 and 1828.
  • Catharine Cole (twin), born on 31 Mar 1828 at Tile Kilns, Tottenham and baptised at All Hallows, Tottenham to Thomas and Sarah on 1 Apr 1828. 
  • Anne Cole (other twin), also born on 31 Mar 1828 at Tile Kilns, Tottenham and baptised at All Hallows, Tottenham to Thomas and Sarah on 1 Apr 1828. 
  • Caroline Cole, born 6 July 1830 at the Tile Kilns, Tottenham and baptised at All Hallows, Tottenham to Thomas and Sarah on 15 Aug 1830.

Thomas and Sarah do not seem to appear in any census, and since they would have been still only in their 40s, they either both died tragically or emigrated. I suspect emigration along with Thomas's younger brother Daniel (1809 -?) whose records along with those of his wife and daughter similarly disappear before 1841.

Neither has not been possible to trace any of Thomas and Sarah's descendants, other than the Daniel Thomas (see below). They seem to be missing from all the censuses, although they may be in later ones under married names. It is always possible that they all emigrated, along with their parents for whom no obvious records exist after the birth of Caroline.

Daniel Thomas Cole and his descendants

Daniel Thomas Cole was baptised on 4 March 1821 to Thomas Cole and Sarah Lear Maggison and he went on to work at the Tile Kilns. Consequently it was possible to learn more about him and his family. If dates of census records are to be relied on, he may have been up to a year old when he was baptised at St Mary's Lewisham. He was certainly born in Lewisham and probably between 29 Mar 1819 and 4 Mar 1821. He married Esther Sharp on 3 Jun 1838 at Parish Church of All Hallows, Tottenham; in presence of Sarah Sharp. (The Sharps were a pottery lineage with whom the Coles and the Colleys had had previous genealogy links and whose families were strongly evident in the census records for the Tile Kilns.) At the time of his marriage, Daniel Thomas was probably already working there, as he appeared there in the 1851 census, a tile maker age 31 with his wife and children. He stayed at the Tile Kilns for many years. His last census entry there was as a widow in 1881 as a widow.  Esther had died two years before in the winter of 1879. He was probably the Daniel Cole who died in December quarter  of 1890 aged 72 registered at Edmonton.

The children of Daniel Thomas and Esther were:

  • Daniel James Cole, baptised on 18 January 1843 at St Giles, Cripplegate. He appears to have been the second son to have born the name, the first having died. He was born at Kentish Town, Middlesex and he grew up at the Tile Kilns. In 1867 at St Pancras he married Mary Ann Luckhurst, the daughter of Robert Luckhurst, a farmer from Bonington, Kent. Known children were: 
    • Martha Cole, born between about 1860 at Tottenham, presumably at the Tile Kilns and 
    • Daniel Cole, born about 1868.
  • Esther Cole, born between about 1845.
  • David James Cole, born on 13 Sep 1849 at Tottenham and baptized on 14 Oct 1849 at All Hallows, Tottenham. No record of any marriage appears to exist. Up until my last record in 1881 he was single, working alongside his father at the Tile Kilns.
  • James Cole, born in 1860 at Tottenham. He grew up at the Tile Kilns and married a Betsy. The couple appeared in the 1901 census at 188 Seaford Road, Tottenham. He was a general labourer. Known children were:
    • James Cole, born between about 1882 at Tottenham, a chair fitter
    • Albert Cole born about 1885 at Tottenham
    • Ruby Cole was born about 1886 at Tottenham, a dressmaker
    • Esther Cole, born about 1889 at Tottenham.
  • William Cole, born in 1862. He grew up at the Tile Kilns and married Emily Amelia Fordam at Edmonton in March quarter 1886. In 1901 census the couple were at 33 Stanley Road, Tottenham. He was a potters labourer age 39. Known children were:
    • William Cole,  born about 1886 at Stoke Newington
    • David Cole, born c1889 at Stoke Newington but died in 1891
    • George Cole, born about 1890 at Tottenham
    • Harry Charles Cole, born about 1894 at Tottenham
    • Emily Esther Cole born about 1897 at Tottenham.

Another Daniel Thomas Cole

There was another Daniel Thomas Cole, a few years younger than 'our' Daniel Thomas living in the general area of the Tile Kilns at about the same time and born in Islington, an area inhabited by 'our' Coles in the time of our earliest confirmed Cole ancestor, Daniel Cole (c1772 - 1840). His life is worth examining because of these coincidences and because he also linked with the Plume family who in turn linked with 'our' Coles. So perhaps the two Daniel Thomases were related through an individual before the time of Daniel. Unfortunately, though, there is no way of tracing this far back, and it may of course be that the Plume connection is no more than coincidence anyway. The available information on this Daniel Thomas Cole is as follows.

Daniel Thomas Cole was born 1827 in Islington to unknown parents. In the September quarter of 1860 he married Caroline Harrison Taylor in Islington. In 1861 he was at 43 commercial clerk St Nav Comp [sic], possibly 'Steam Navigation Company', living at Appleby Row Hackney with Caroline H, 29 from Stock, Essex and a servant. In 1871 Daniel was 44 a clerk in a public company living in Norfolk Road St John Hackney with Caroline H 41 from Stock and Hephzebath Cole 24 servant born Bethnal Green (another pottery area.). In 1881 Daniel was 54 a commercial clerk born at Islington living at corkwerde<?> Road St.John Hackney with Caroline 57 born at Stock and a charwoman servant. In 1891 he was at 91 Powerscroft Road living on own means with Caroline and two servants. In 1901 Daniel Thomas Cole 74 was again living on his own means at 91 Powerscroft with Susanna M Plume 60 housekeeper born at Stock Essex and a servant Alice C Childs born at Braintree. Daniel died 21 Sept 1905, leaving the administration of his will to Susanna Martha Plume spinster.

Clearly this Daniel Thomas was better off financially than 'our' Daniel Thomas, in that he had servants, could live on his own means and had enough of an estate to merit leaving a will.