The Green Diary of Abraham Cole 1811-1885
By Brian Sewell
This article was originally published in the December 2000 edition of Soul Search, the journal of The Sole Society.
The following comments on Abraham Cole's diary have been obtained by our member Brian Sewell from Miss Jane Cole of Wivenhoe, Essex, and are reproduced with her kind permission. Jane Cole is a descendant of Abraham Cole who married Sarah Sewell in 1773 at White Colne, Essex, and not Halstead as the diary states. The Abraham Cole in the heading is the grandson of the above. Samuel Sewell, who died in Kentish Town in 1821, was Sarah's brother.
Although his father did not die till 1855 most of these notes are prefaced "so Mrs. Bedo Hobbs told me". She was his father's cousin and had lived, probably since her husband's death in 1854 in Crouch Street, Colchester. The details of Samuel Sewell's Will were taken from her Pocket Book. Moreover, interested as he appears to have been in family history he is not able to give the date of his Grandparents deaths or the reason for his fathers adoption by an Uncle.
These notes are copied exactly from the diary:
Samuel Sewell, Esquire, Gentleman, of 171 Mansfield Place, Kentish Town, London.
Administration, with the Will and Codicil annexed of the Unadministered Effects of the said Samuel Sewell, Deceased.
Extracted by Mr Nathaniel Robarts Proctor, Doctor's Commons, Bank Register K.L. 3302. GCB.
His executors were Sameul Sewell, a Carriage Painter and James Epps, Esquire, Gentleman, both nephews.
His Solicitor, was Thomas Jones Esquire, of Millman Place, Bedford Row.
Codicil made February 10th 1821. Attested Copy.
The aforesaid Samuel Sewell, was Uncle to my Father, being his Mother's Brother. He was a private Gentleman and Kept his Carriage. Mrs. Bedo Hobbs told me that he Married a Lady who was the Natural Child of King George the Second of Great Britain and she, Mrs Hobbs, was in possession of a portion of the late King's wearing apparel. He Died with a handsome Property which he left to his Nephews and Nieces, share and share alike, having I believe survived his Wife.
My Grandfather, Abraham Cole, formerly occupied The Blue Gates farm at Capel St. Mary, near Ipswich, Suffolk and was at the same time Land Steward for the Tendring Hall Estate, Stoke by Nayland in the county of Suffolk, then the Property of Sir William Rowley, Bart.
He married on the 18th May 1773 at the Parish Church of Halstead, Essex, Miss Sarah Sewell. They spent their Wedding Day at Kelvedon, Essex and a Mr Green and also a Mr Barnard, dined with them, one of whom Mrs. Hobbs remembered, lived at Bures Hall, Essex.
He subsequently became the Tenant of Top Hill Farm, Speldhurst in the county of Kent (500 acres) where my Father was Born the 31st Dec 1780. (A copy of birth certificate in 1831 says 1778). My father died at Colchester 7th Oct 1855. My Grandfather died in London and was interred at St. George's Church, Bloomsbury (scratched through by Alfred Cole and Bermondsey, London put afterwards).
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