JAMES COLE, butcher, of Westerham town, (1641-1713)

He was baptised in Edenbridge on January 10th 1641. He married Mary Burgat in Westerham on April 11th 1664. He is first mentioned as a ratepayer in Westerham town in 1664 and continues to 1699 when the record breaks off.

1667 Westerham paid £1-2s to James Cole for taking Bell's girl and for writing six indentures (Overseers' accounts).
1670 Overseer of Westerham Town.
1670 Paid to the widow Trott for the charges and expenses there when the travelling woman lay in at her house (19s 6d) and more for James Cole and for two limbs of mutton. Total £1-1s-2d (Overseers' accounts).
1676 Borsholder of Westerham Town.
1676-1712 James Cole paid £2 rent for the parish field. In 1682 the field was described as Homden land. A document of 1708 refers to "two fields called Farleys Crofts now in possession of James Cole of Westerham, butcher, which joins to Farleys Common on the west and to the schoolhouse on the north, which fields are given by one John Holmden to the vicar and churchwardens of Westerham for the use of the poor thereof for ever".
In 1678 James Cole was recorded as the tenant of Anthony Jackson and John Steers. In 1681 it was reported that Anthony Jackson had sold two tenements called the Flower in Westerham, quitrent 2s, to James Cole. (Westerham manorial rolls). The Flower is not listed as a licensed alehouse , nor is Anthony Jackson listed as a licensed victualler.
In 1680 John Steer sold certain lands to Thomas Weymark. "All those several parcels of arable or pasture ground commonly known as Conyard Hill " which abut to a parcel of land in the occupation of James Coale called Shooting Field to the west". Shooting Field was 7 acres, just to the north of Westerham town and not far from Farley Common.
1681 Paid James Cole 3s 6d for carrying a passenger to Tatsfield.
1682 James Cole of Westerham, butcher, indicted for selling infected meat and for selling meat on Sundays.
1687 James Cole was churchwarden. Also 1689, 1694, 1697, 1698.
1691 John Steere sold a parcel of land called Barne Meade formerly a meadow but now ploughed occupied by Gabriel Smith (a publican) and James Cole.
1695 Peter Pemmell paid rates as a tenant of James Cole.
1696 Sarah Ownsted apprenticed to James Cole the elder of Westerham, butcher (Apprenticeship Indenture). In 1696 the overseers of Westerham paid 3s 10d for shoes and mending for James Cole's girl.(Overseers' accounts).
1696-1713 James Cole, senior, butcher, recorded as a freeholder eligible for jury service ie worth over £10 a year.
1697 James Cole bought and then sold a messuage and parcel of land called the Red Lion in Westerham.
1698 Paid for a horse hire to go with James Cole to Sevenoaks and a horse for him about parish business. (Overseers' accounts).
1702 The Land Tax suggests that James Cole owned land in Sevenoaks.
1702 Further mention of Shootingfield, pasture ground, in the occupation of James Cole. James Cole junior was a freeholder eligible for jury service from 1710, so that he must by then have controlled some property. For this reason I assume that it was James junior who held Watercroft in 1713.

James Cole senior died in 1713 (buried date unknown, in Westerham). The heir to the freehold messuage with a quitrent of 16d was his son George. Widow Cole died in 1715 (buried March 3rd in Westerham.), probably his wife Mary.