COLE, Thomas (1622-81), of Liss, Hants.

Cole claimed to be a distant cousin of Edward Cole, registrar to the bishop of Winchester, who sat for the city in 1601 and 1604. His grandfather, however, was a Londoner who married into the Dering family, and from them his father bought Liss, four miles from Petersfield, in 1612. Cole was appointed to the county committee in 1645, held local office throughout the Interregnum, and sat for Hampshire in 1656. At the general election of 1660 he defeated the republican Thomas Muspratt at Winchester, but chose to sit for Petersfield, thereby leaving a seat vacant for Lord St. John (Charles Powlett I). He was an inactive Member of the Convention. He made no recorded speeches, but may have been appointed to two unimportant committees, though on both occasions his name ways mis-spelt. After his second marriage he resided principally in Northamptonshire, and Lord Montagu of Boughton hoped that he might stand for Stamford in the country interest in 1679. However, he was not removed from local office before his death. He was buried at Liss on 4 Mar. 1681, the only member of this branch of the Cole family to sit in Parliament.Misc. Gen. et Her. ii. 240-1; VCH Hants, iv. 85; CSP Dom. 1663-4, p. 386; Add. 29557, f. 91.