Israel Cole

!Birth: In Eastham Records, printed in N. B. Shurtleff, Records of the Colony of New Plymouth, Vol. 8, pg. 15, reads: "Israell, the sonof Daniell Cole, borne the 8th of January, 1653.". Also in [MD 5:23] 24 Jun 1690: Freeman at Barnstable Co. court 3 Mar 1691: Granted 6 acres at Bound Brook (in consideration of the "badness" of his lot at Pamet), Truro. 17 Jun 1703: Survey of Pamett Great River shows land of Israel Cole (with John Cole and Constant Freeman). Representative of Eastham, 1698-1702 (4 yrs) [Freeman 2:413] !Will: Dated 20 Jan 1724, proved 23 July 1724. Barnstable Twp., Mass. Names: Son Israel Cole executor (land in Eastham/Harwich); Grandchildren: Israel, Theodor, Ichabod, and Samuel Higgins (land in Truro, Eastham, Harwich); Negro man servant Backary (given to son Israel). Mentions land purchased from Samuel Crosby and from Benjamin Hopkins. Signed Israel Cole. Witnessed by John Annable, Ruben Blush, and John Bacon. !Inventory: 23 July 1724 at Barnstable and 27 July 1724 at Eastham & Truro. He is said to have been the wealthiest man in Eastham at the time of his death, and his funeral was reported in both the New England Courant and the Boston News Letter, viz: "In return for his father's extraordinary frugality in his life and good will at his death, Israel Cole Jr., ordered themost magnificent internment for him that has been known in New England, which was peformed in the following manner: The corpse being enclosed in a beautiful coffin was decently laid in a sled, and drawn to the grave by a yoke of oxen, who not withstanding they supplied the place of potters and pall bearers, and had neither gloves, scarves nor rings for their trouble, yet 'tis not doubted but this neglect is entirely owing to the traders in these parts, who deal in such funeral ornaments as are fit only for humane beings. The heir attended the funeral without anything of mourning apparel which must be attributed to a generous scorn of the deceitful pomp and glory of hypocritical mourners, and not to any narrowness of spirit in him, whose spacious soul extends to the uttermost bounds of his land and to the very bottom of his chests." The paper concluded with this epitaph: "Here lies Old Cole, but how or why He lived, or how he came to die, His son and heir may best declare it, Who's doubly blest with his Father's spirit, And who, when'er he comes to breath all, His useless breath away, and leave all, To such another son and heir He may be thrown ... but God knows where, Perhaps in some black chymist's dark hole, Where out of wood he extracts charcoal."