History of the state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations: Biographical

NY: The American Historical Society, Inc. 1920

source: http://theusgenweb.org/rigenweb/articles/170.html

WASHINGTON LEVERETT COLE  —  The name of Cole has been identified with the history of Rhode Island since the early years of the struggle of the little colony for existence.  The heraldic arms of the Cole family is as follows:

Arms – Quarterly, 1 and 4 argent, a bull passant gules, armed or, within a bordure sable bezantee, 2 and 3 gules, a lion rampant argent.
Crests – 1st – A demi-dragon holding an arrow or, headed and feathered argent.
              2nd – A demi-lion rampant argent, gorged and chained or.
Motto – Deum cole, regem serva.  (Worship God, protect the king).

The symbolic arms of the Cole family is as follows:

The shield is divided into four parts, the 1st and 4th being the armorial bearing of the husband and the 2nd and 3rd that of the wife.  1st quarter, the background is silver – silver in heraldry signifies wisdom, joy, peace and sincerity.  The black border (called bordure) was formerly a mark of difference, to distinguish one branch of a family from the other.  Its bezants (roundlets of gold), so called from the ancient gold coin of Byzantium, now Constantinople, denote that the ancestor had been to the Holy Land, very likely at the time of the Crusades (1200).  The bull denotes strength and usefulness.  Red (the color of the bull) in heraldry denotes fortitude, fire, victorious strength, triumph and power.  The dragon (the crest on the left) is deemed the emblem of viciousness and envy.  In armory it is properly applied to tyranny or the otherthrow of a vicious enemy.  The arrow denotes the knighthood received for bravery in battle or otherwise, also swiftness and activity.  The second quarter is showing a silver lion rampant (aggressive) in a red field.  Red denotes fire – ‘a burning desire to spill one’s blood for God or country’.  The lion is the symbol of strength, courage and generosity.  The chain attached to its neck means that the life of the bearer of these arms was a continuous chain of brave and meritorious deeds.

The motto: Deum cole, regem serva, means translated: ‘Worship God, protect the king’, and was no doubt selected, outside of its appropriate and reverent meaning, as an allusion to the name.

The family which was founded in Rhode Island by James Cole, is a branch of the English Coles, one of the most ancient and honorable of early English houses.  The Coles owned land in Essex, Wiltshire, Devonshire and Derbyshire under Edward the Confessor.  In 1616, James Cole, progenitor of the Rhode Island Coles, lived at Highgate, London; he was a lover of flowers, and a great horticulturist, and married the daughter of de Lobel, the celebrated botanist and physician of James I., from whom the plant Lobelia is named. The Cole family owned lands on the ridge of hills called Highgate, near the Kingston line.  James Cole subsequently came to America, settling in Rhode Island, where he founded the family of which the late Washington Leverett Cole was a member.

In 1667 the town of Swansea, Mass., was incorporated, including an expansive territory out of which later came several towns, among them Warren, R. I. In 1669, Hugh Cole, with others, purchased from King Philip, the Indian sachem, five hundred acres of land in Swansea, on the west side of Cole’s river (named for Hugh Cole, son of James Cole).  At the outbreak of the Indian war two of Hugh Cole’s children were made prisoners by the Indians and were taken to Philip’s headquarters at Mount Hope.  Philip, through a long standing friendship for their father, sent them back with the message that he did not wish to injure them, but in the event of an uprising might not be able to restrain his young braves.  Philip advised that they repair to Rhode Island for safety.  Hugh Cole removed immediately with his family, and had proceeded but a short distance when he beheld his house in flames. After the war he returned and located on the east side of Touisett Neck, on Kickmuet river, in Warren.  The farm and well he made in 1677 are yet in possession of his lineal descendants.  The friendship of the Indian warrior Philip for Hugh Cole is one of the few romantic and touching stories which come down to us from the whole revolting history of King Philip’s War.

Washington Leverett Cole was born in Providence, R. I., August 10, 1841, a descendant of the founder, James Cole, through his son, Hugh Cole, and son of Samuel Jackson and Frances (Sessions) Cole.  He traced a maternal ancestry as distinguished as that of the Cole family.  Samuel Jackson Cole was a man of means and position in Providence in the early part of the nineteenth century, a gentleman farmer, and the owner of a large estate, located in the section between Irving avenue and the Pawtucket line, and what is now the Blackstone Boulevard.  He married Frances Sessions, member of a prominent old family of Providence.

Their son, Washington Leverett Cole, was educated in the private school of Samuel J. Austin, in Providence, and on completing his studies, became interested immediately in the management of his father’s large property and of his farm, eventually succeeding him in the control of the estate.  He devoted his entire life to bringing this farm to a high standard of efficiency and excellence, purely for the love of the work, and for his deep interest in agriculture and dairying.  The farm was famous for its herd of one hundred high grade cows, which was the pride of its owner.  Mr. Cole conducted a large business in dairy products.  He was widely known in Providence, and highly respected for the stern integrity and consistent justice of his life and of his business policies.  Although he maintained a deep interest in public issues, he kept strictly aloof from political circles, and was independent of party restriction in casting his vote.  He was in accord with the policies and principles of the Republican party on national issues, however.  He was a member of the Episcopal church.

On December 28, 1872, Mr. Cole married Martha Stalker, who was born in Greenwich, R. I., daughter of Duncan and Lucy (Spencer) Stalker, her father a native of Glasgow, Scotland, and her mother of Warwick, R. I.  Mrs. Cole survived her husband until November 15, 1916, when she passed away at the Cole home on Cole avenue, opposite Sessions street, in Providence.  The Cole home has been preserved in as nearly as possible the form in which it was when early members of the Cole family entertained Washington and Lafayette, and contains among other relics of that day the chair in which the commander-in-chief sat.  Mr. and Mrs. Cole were the parents of the following children:  1.  Francis Sessions, manager of the Cole farm.  2.  Jessie Leverett, who resides in the old homestead.  3.  William Marchant, a contractor; married Ella Grahan Gulnac; issue:  Janet, and William M., Jr. 4.  Jackson Lanksford, ordained to the Episcopal priesthood in St. Paul’s Cathedral Church at Fond Du Lac, Wis., by the Rt. Rev. Reginald Heber Weller, D. D. and L.L. D., bishop, on June 2, 1918, and assumed charge of St. Andrew’s Mission at Kenosha, Wis.  Washington Leverett Cole died at his home in Providence, March 17, 1911.