The Cole family in England
From "Cole Genealogy" written by James Edwin Cole, Barrister,
London, in 1867:
"It has been asserted that this family derives its name from Coel,
the founder of Colchester, one of the Kings of Brittain. Yet without claiming
as its patriarch wither this renowned descendant of Caractacus, or the
Justice Cole who lived in the reign of Kind Alfred, or the valiant General
Cole who in command of the united forces of Devon, Somerset, and Dorset,
defeated at Pinhoe in 1001 Sweyne, the savage chieftain of the Danes, its
high antiquity and rank amongst the magnates of the land in Saxon times
are attested by Domesday Book, and by this deed of King William the Conqueror,
which was written in the Saxon tongue, 1070, and was put in English, 1587,
in the 27th year of Elizabeth, and remains in the Bishop of Winchester's
custody:
"William King greetes Walkesein Bishop and Hugon de Port, and Edwards Knighte,
Steward and Algeiusure and Symon and Allfus, Porveiour and Cole and Ardene
and all the Barons in Hampshire and Wiltshire friendly, and know ye that
I give unto Peter and Walcholyne(there appears to be an omission here)
with all the convent to as free as Bishop Alsynie was in the days of King
Edward."