John Cole

John Cole (17151777) was a lawyer who became the 12th Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, serving from 1764 to 1765. Following his short tenure as Chief Justice, he became a Providence legislator, and Speaker of the Rhode Island House of Deputies. In this role he was on a committee to draft instructions to Providence citizens in regards to protesting the egregious Stamp Act passed by the British parliament to tax the American colonists. During the lead up to the American Revolutionary War Cole was privy to the plan and execution of the burning of the British revenue schooner Gaspee that ran aground near Pawtuxet, Rhode Island. He was deeply complicit with Stephen Hopkins and other leading Providence citizens in withholding evidence from the British commission of inquiry that was established to find the instigators of the Gaspee Affair. After a year of collecting testimonies, the court dissolved, having failed to indict a single person. In 1775 Cole became the Advocate General of Rhode Island's Vice Admiralty Court, but died of smallpox just two years later. Early life John Cole was the oldest of seven children born to Elisha Cole and Elizabeth Dexter. His paternal grandmother was the former Indian captive Susanna Cole who was the only survivor of a massacre in New Netherland. He was a great grandson of Boston's first innkeeper, Samuel Cole and also of the famed religious heretic, Anne Hutchinson. Cole's father Elisha was a lawyer, and the family had fairly substantial financial means, but during a trip to London to handle a lawsuit in 1729, Elisha died, leaving his wife with many children, all of whom were minors. Though only 14 at the time, John was still able to get a good education, learning Latin and Greek from a private tutor. As a young man Cole studied law under Daniel Updike, the colony's Attorney General, and on 17 January 1759 married Updike's daughter, Mary, in Providence.