Holbrook line: John Cole of Maryland 1669-1746

I've put off writing about John Cole.  It's not because I don't like him, but because he is so confusing.  Is he one man, or two men, or three?  Which set of parents are really his?  And there are other questions.  So I'm going to proceed here with caution.  Please understand that this may not be entirely correct, and it could be entirely wrong.  I am following primarily (when I have a question) the work of Robert Barnes, who is a noted genealogist and who is relatively error free.  He is also an expert in Baltimore County, Maryland, genealogy.  I'm not.

John Cole was born in or about 1669, based on various court testimonies he gave.  All the records I have seen list his birth place as Anne Arundel County, Maryland, which was formed from St. Mary's County prior to the time of John's birth.  (So his parents may have been found in St Mary's County prior to the division).  I've seen several listings for John's parents, some with a bit of reason to them and some not.  But Robert Barnes lists his parents as John Cole and Mary Beedle, so we'll go with that while acknowledging that further analysis or new records could result in a different understanding.

We are reasonably sure that John Cole married Johanna Garrett, daughter of Dennis and Barbara (last name not found) Garrett about 1690.  He was a witness to and therefore testified in the trial of John Oldton (who is our distant relation as he was married to a Gorsuch), who was charged with the murder of Dennis Garrett.

Sometime within the next 10 years, John moved his family to Baltimore County, in the area of the Gunpowder Meeting, where he owned at least two pieces of land and probably more.  There are indications that John was or became a Quaker, or at least that other members of his family were members of the Society of Friends.  I haven't been able to verity that.  However, it does show that they were in the area and he would have possibly been influenced by their beliefs, even if he did stay a member of the Church of England.

John and Johanna had at least seven and possibly as many as ten children.  Barnes lists seven.  Johanna died probably about 1715 and John next married Dinah Hawkins, in 1716.  He had at least three children with her, so Dinah must have been at least a few years younger than John.

John was a planter.  His crops would have included tobacco, so that likely means that he owned slaves, or at the least, had indentured servants.  I haven't located records yet that indicate the status of his farm laborers, but he would have needed help and most if not all families had either slaves or indentured servants, or both.  Yes, in this time period some Quakers had slaves, too.

John wrote his will in 1745 and it was presented on November 3, 1746.  It named his wife, Dinah, and their three, or three surviving, children.  His children with Johanna were all adults and presumably he had given them land or other assets earlier, since the will was not contested.  The value of his inventory was just short of 100 pounds.

It's a pretty scanty sketch of a man in our ancestry and in our genes, but it is what we have, at the moment.  I think it's important to at least mention these men and women who built America, especially since so many of our ancestors were from New England.  We have Southern and almost Southern roots, too.

The line of descent is

John Cole-Johanna Garrett
Sarah Cole-Charles Gorsuch
Hannah Gorsuch-Thomas Stansbury
Rachel Stansbury-Alexis Lemmon
Sarah Lemmon-Abraham Hetrick
Isaac Hetrick-Elizabeth Black
Mary Alice Hetrick-Louis Stanard
Etta Stanard-Loren Holbrook
Gladys Holbrook-Richard Allen
Their descendants