Joseph Cole, Sr. and Freelove Mason were my 7th Great-Grandparents and parents of Joseph Cole Jr. who married Freelove Cole Thomas. I discovered the Cole ancestors when researching my Mayflower connections. I have multiple Cole ancestors – a surname closely associated with Plymouth and the Mayflower descendants and this creates a challenge for reseaching the Cole families. For more on this family, see my stories about Joseph Cole Jr., son of Joseph Cole Sr. and Freelove Mason: A Difficult Fresh Start for the Cole Families and Tribute to Capt. Joseph Cole Jr. – Revolutionary War Ancestor.

Joseph Cole Sr. was born on 3 May 1716 in Swansea, Bristol County, Massachusetts Colony in British Colonial America. He was the son of Hugh Cole III and Martha Luther. (Hugh Cole III was the third Cole in a line that was named Hugh, as you might have guessed!) Martha Luther also came from a very interesting family too with quite a few characters and I hope to write more about the Luther’s later! Her father was the Reverend Samuel Luther.

Freelove Mason was also born in Swansea on 14 November 1720 and she was the daughter of Joseph Mason and Elizabeth Barney. She and Joseph Cole Sr. married on 1 May 1738 in Swansea. A 1738 land record shows the Joseph’s father, Hugh Cole III, sold the newlyweds 10 acres with a shop in Swansea. However, in 1751 Joseph had land in Swansea that he sold to Martin Luther for 850 pounds as Joseph moved his family to Providence, Rhode Island in about 1749. The family moved again to Scituate, RI about 1758 when he was admitted as a freeman there. Land records show on 1 May 1758, he bought 65 acres in Situate but that land was later sold.

The Cole’s were of the Baptist Faith and their next move was to Poughkeepsie, Dutchess Co., New York Colony where a branch of Swansea’s Baptist Church had been formed. They resided in the New Paltz area of Ulster County, New York. Sometime between 1771 and 1774, Joseph Sr. and his wife and children journeyed by boat down rivers with families and relatives, including others of the Cole clan, from New York City to a remote corner of Virginia, bordered by Kentucky and North Carolina, to the Washington County area.

There is a story regarding the migration of the Cole family to Virginia that was carried down through the generations. When the relatives were getting aboard the boat at New York to sail for Virginia (probably Norfolk VA), one of the party, Dorcas Cole, was very much alarmed by the sight of so much water, and cried out, “We will all be drowned, we will all be drowned!” (she was a Baptist). Her brother Eleazer Cole (who was a Methodist Minister), remarked to her, “Stick to your faith; if you are born to be drowned you will be and if not, you will not.” That was the Baptist doctrine. Below, a map gives an idea of the long journey they embarked on!

The Joseph Cole Sr. family and their children settled in Washington County VA and on the South Fork of the Holston River. This area of the Holston River was known as Sinclairs or St. Clair Bottom, named after an English Settler, Charles Sinclair, who was granted the first patent issued to anyone in that region by the Governor of Virginia. Until 1776, the entire area of Virginia Colony west of the Blue Ridge Mountains to the border of Kentucky was known as Fincastle County. By 1776, this county was dismembered and three new counties were made of the area including, Washington, Montgomery and Kentucky Counties. Charles Sinclair died about 1776 and land was passed to his sons who conveyed a large portion of this land to Joseph Cole Sr. and his son, Joseph Jr., in multiple transactions over the years.

Besides acquiring lands, Joseph built a Grist Mill, called Loves Mill. Amazingly, this mill was still in operation in 1962! It was rebuilt around 1837 and the photo below is the rebuilt mill. It is in the town of Loves Mill in Washington County VA near Chilhowie.

Now we are coming up to the time of the Revolutionary War and Joseph served as Corporal in the 4th Regiment of Virginia. He is a DAR Ancestor (#A203135) and recognized for his service to the country. Joseph served on the Grand Jury in Washington County also. As mentioned above, the Coles were of the Baptist faith and in Virgnina, they participated in establishing a Baptist congegation of which the Coles were the principal communicants. As a matter of fact, in 1792, their son, Joseph Cole Jr., donated by deed the land on which a church house was built and cemetery established in St. Clair Bottom. This was the beginning of the Primitive Baptist Church and Cemetery in St. Clair Bottom.

Joseph and Freelove raised possibly nine or ten children. Children I found named were: Lydia, Joseph Cole Jr, Susanna, Zacheus, Urania, Hannah, Sampson, Hugh, Joanna and Elizabeth. Some records also include a John Cole as a son and some records do not name Susanna or Hannah.

Joseph Cole Sr. died on 22 April 1785 in Chilhowie, Smyth County, VA. By this time, Washington County was also divided and part of it became Smyth County. Freelove Mason Cole died in 1792 and it is believed that Joseph and Freelove are buried in St. Clair’s Bottom Primitive Baptist Cemetery in the back under a pine tree. A memorial gravestone was later erected to honor Joseph Cole Sr. in the Baptist Cemetery for his military service.

Joseph Cole’s will, dated 22 april 1785, left everything to his surviving wife, Freelove, and upon her death, the children would each inherit land or money. His will did note that his son Hugh was deceased at the time of the will and other children mentioned in the will were Joseph Jr, Samson, Elizabeth, Urania, Lydia, and Zacheus. Not mentioned in the will were Susanna, Hannah and Joanna and John.

Sources:

Find A Grave.com, Joseph Cole

Redmond Cole, Mayflower Briefs

Descendants of James Cole of Plymouth, by Barbra Frisby Thompson, Mountain View CA, 2000

Luther Family Genealogy by George Luther

U.S. Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783, Ancestry.com database

Summers, Annals of SW Virginia, part 2, p. 1124

Washington County Will Book 1, page 103

U.S. & International Marriage Records, 1560-1900; Database on Ancestry.com

Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915; Database, FamilySearch