John Griffith Cole
(1805-1865)
2 July 1862

Volume 8, page 163, sitting number 10,274.

Born at Gulval in Cornwall on 29 April 1805, John Griffith Cole and his widowed mother Jane appear on the 1851 census living with three servants at 8 Charles Street, Mayfair. Mr Cole, who was unmarried, gave 'Landholder' as his profession. 

In 1861 they were living with three servants at Marazion in Cornwall. John now described himself as a 'Landowner.'

John Griffith Cole 'of 8 Charles-street Berkeley-square in the County of Middlesex' died on 14 May 1865 'at Marazion in the County of Cornwall.' He left an estate valued at £50,000. 

According to a report in the Cornish Telegraph (17 May 1865), 'The town of Marazion and the neighbourhood generally have sustained a loss by the death, at the age of 60, of John Griffith Cole, Esq., a gentleman whose amiability had endeared him to a wide circle of friends, and whose liberality in his own neighbourhood and in Penzance was well known and much appreciated. Mr Cole had been an invalid for some years - indeed it seemed to us that he had no sooner ended the filial attentions he so assiduously paid an aged mother, for many years, than he himself needed the aid and sympathy he had so well imparted. Notwithstanding his illness he was almost daily seen in Penzance, and it was hoped his life would have been spared for some years, the more so as his medical advisers did no expect an immediate demise. Last week he was quite well as usual, but on Sunday morning, at six o'clock, had a sudden attack of paralysis, but not so severe as to prevent his summoning assistance and partaking of medicine and some tea. At half-past 10 he was dead. Marazion is indebted to the family of Mr Cole for its School, and his name was found on the list of our charitable institutions, while his private benevolence was still more widespread and showed his kindness of nature.'

[Many thanks to Ralph Jelbart of Marazion for providing Cole's exact date of birth, as inscribed on his tomb in Marazion.]