Richard Cole

Richard Cole (1568 – 19 April 1614) of Bucks (anciently Bokish, Buckish, Bochewis, Bokeishe etc., now represented by Bucks Mills and Bucks Cross) in the parish of Woolfardisworthy in North Devon, and of Slade in the parish of Cornwood, South Devon, was a member of the Devonshire gentry whose large monument with effigy survives in All Hallows Church, Woolfardisworthy. Certain modern sources link him (without much justification) to Old King Cole in the synonymous Nursery rhyme. Origins He was the son and heir of Philip Cole (1539–1596) of Slade by his wife Jane Williams (died 1633), second daughter of Thomas Williams of Stowford. He was a descendant of the Cole family of Nethway in the parish of Brixham in Devon (about 19 miles south east of Slade), one of whom was John Cole (born c.1376), twice a Member of Parliament for Devon, in 1417 and 1423 and Sheriff of Devon 1405–6. His distant cousins were the Cole family elevated to the peerage of Ireland successively as Baron Mount Florence (1760), Viscount Enniskillen (1776) and Earl of Enniskillen (1789), descended from Cole of Nethway and Slade, still extant today. Career Builds harbour at Bucks Few records of his life survive. His near contemporary the Devonshire historian Tristram Risdon (died 1640) (whose grandfather lived nearby at Bableigh, Parkham, miles to the south-east of Bucks) stated of him: "Richard Cole, the last of that family that dwelt at Bokish, erected a harbour in his land, there to shelter ships and boats". This is now known as the Old Quay at Bucks Mills, and was built after he had blasted out the rock with gunpowder to leave a sandy inlet known as "The Gut" or "Gutway". Remains of the quay are visible at low-tide. It was built at about the same time as his near neighbour George Cary (1543–1601), lord of the manor of Clovelly, Sheriff of Devon in 1587, built a harbour wall at Clovelly surviving today, 3 miles further west along the coast from Bucks, described by Risdon as "a pile to resist the inrushing of the sea's violent breach, that ships and boats may with the more safety harbour there". Clovelly's main export product was herring fish, which formerly appeared at certain times of the year in huge shoals, close off-shore in the shallow waters of the Bristol Channel, and such a harbour wall was a great benefit to the village fishermen, tenants of the Cary lords of the manor.