Daniel and Ann Cole

Buried: 18/10/1840, aged 68
Plot no: 44 | Section: J07 / C4

Daniel Cole was born in 1771. He married Ann Moss at their parish church, St Pancras, on 15 May 1792.  His next appearance in the official records is in February 1796, aged 24 at number 826 on the books of HMS Defiance a modern 74-gun ship of the line, launched in 1783.

Daniel's wife Ann and two children (one boy, one girl) are recorded, against their address - The Brill, St Pancras Parish, Middlesex.  Immediately above Daniel's record is that of John Boulton of St Pancras Parish, Middlesex, also a married man with a wife, Jane and children (also one boy, one girl).  It may be just coincidence, but perhaps the two men were friends or workmates who joined up together.

Both John and Daniel were rated 'landsman' and appear to have been volunteers.  For all the tales of brutality and the Press Gangs, the Navy did hold some attractions for volunteers, not least the fact that they would be given two months' wages in advance, plus some protection against creditors.  Also, as they were about to see active service in the war against France, there was the possibility of a share of prize money. A quarter of the value of any vessel captured in action would be distributed among the crew.

On 1 March 1797 Daniel made a will, completing the standard form issued by the Admiralty. Should he die while serving in the Navy his wife Ann, 'resident at the Brill, in the Parish of St Pancras near London Middlesex', would receive all his wages and worldly goods.  The will was witnessed and signed by the Captain, Theophilus Jones.

By 1801 Daniel Cole had progressed to the rank of Able Seaman. On 2 April that year HMS Defiance was part of Nelson's fleet at the Battle of Copenhagen. It was a hard-fought action.  Nelson received the signal to withdraw but held the telescope to his blind eye and, affecting not to have seen the signal, carried on the fight and won the day.  Defiance suffered many casualties but Daniel survived.   After this crushing battle there was a lull in hostilities and many seamen were laid off.  Daniel headed home to his wife and family, back in The Brill, St Pancras, 'near London'.

What, or where, was 'The Brill'?  An area of land to the north of the New Road (modern-day Euston Road), the fields around Brill Farm had provided a suitably remote location for the smallpox hospital, shown in Horwood's Plan (below).  But the fields were rapidly being developed for housing as London's population moved northwards. The Plan dates from around 1792-9 and gives an idea of the area as Daniel and Ann Cole would have known it. St Pancras Old Church had stood for centuries (probably since Saxon times) and survives today, but most of the early development of what became known as Somers Town was swept away among brick fields and tile kilns as new streets were laid out.  Within their lifetime, although they had moved away from Somers Town by the 1820s, Daniel and Ann would hear of the arrival of the London and Birmingham Railway at Euston, which entirely changed the face and character of Somers Town and the Parish of St Pancras.

 In October 1801 Daniel returned to his ship. Discharged from HMS Defiance he went back to sea aboard HMS Narcissus, a newly-commissioned 32-gun frigate.  Under Captain Ross Donnelly, the ship was active in the Mediterranean, joined Nelson's fleet blockading Toulon harbour, escorted a convoy homeward bound from Oporto and voyaged to Quebec.  The war was gathering pace again after a period of relative peace. Daniel was promoted to second gunner in March 1802, and saw action in a variety of skirmishes against pirates, privateers and assorted French vessels.  

HMS Defiance at Copenhagen, 2 April 1801. Image By Peltro William Tomkins, after John Thomas Serres.

On 11 June 1805 Daniel was discharged to sick quarters from Narcissus while serving in the Mediterranean. He was treated for a broken leg at the Navy's shore base at Malta. The leg did not heal sufficiently well for Daniel to remain in active service and left him with a permanent limp. At the age of 34, he returned to England and was discharged from the Navy on 13 September 1805, a month before the Battle of Trafalgar.  After 10 years' service he was awarded an annual pension of £7, paid quarterly, as recorded in the out-pension Pay Book of the Greenwich Hospital.

While Daniel had been at sea, Ann had given birth to twins, daughters Catherine and Sarah, who were baptised at St Pancras Church on 1 August 1802.  Their father probably saw them for the first time in the autumn of 1805, when he returned home to settle back into civilian life.  Two years later on 14 October 1807 Ann gave birth to a son, John, who was baptised on 17 April 1808 at St Pancras Church. 

There are records that suggest Daniel set up a pottery firm at Tile Yard Road, Islington: he was certainly later working at a tile kiln in the vicinity of White Hart Lane, Tottenham.  London was riddled with potteries and kilns during these years of expansion.  Many were quite small operations and when the clay ran out, they would have been closed down and the workers moved on to another site.  At White Hart Lane there was a rich source of a type of blue clay which proved particularly suitable for flower pots, which became a speciality of the firm.

Daniel Cole died on 12 October 1840 of 'natural debility', at the age of 68.  He was foreman of the Tile Kilns, Tottenham, which is the address given on his death certificate.  His daughter Catherine (Cole) Dean was present at her father's death.  Daniel was buried at Abney Park Cemetery on 18 October 1840. Daniel died five months after Abney Park was opened, and the Cole grave is one of the first 50 in the Cemetery.  There is no longer any visible memorial at the site. 

(Above) Plot number 44 is in the area between the sapling and to the immediate left of the headstone on the right side of the image.

Section of the plot map for section J07. The headstone shown above is grave number 60738.

Ann Cole was living with her son John and his family at Barn Street, Stoke Newington at the time of the 1841 census.  She survived her husband by a few years, dying on 1 February 1847, aged 79.  She died of acute bronchitis of one week's duration, in the Edmonton Union Workhouse in Bull Lane, set in open country to the north of White Hart Lane. She may have been an inmate of the Workhouse for some time or, having become seriously ill while living with her family, removed to the Workhouse hospital for care during her last days.  She was buried at Abney Park Cemetery on 7 February 1847. The site of the old Workhouse is now occupied by the North Middlesex University Hospital, bordering on the North Circular Road.

 Daniel and Ann's legacy lived on in the pottery works.  Their son John developed the business into Cole's Tottenham Potteries which functioned from 1856 until the mid-1950s.  The firm specialised in pots for the nurseries and market garden trade which flourished in the area for many years.  In 1886 Samuel South took over Cole's firm from John Cole's son.  The company specialised in hand formed flower pots, growing to become one of the largest horticultural pot makers in Britain, producing up to 100,000 hand-made pots a week in its heyday.  After business had ceased the site finally closed in October 1960, the soft drinks company Idris acquired it for development. (Records relating to the Tottenham potteries can be found at the Bruce Castle Museum, Haringey Archive Service.)