Hannah Wood
ODNB; CCEd
Likely born in Lincolnshire, little is known of Thomas Cole's early life. He was headmaster of Maidstone School from 1546, commenced his MA at Oxford around 1550, and proceeded DTh at Cambridge in 1564. Arrested as a "freewiller" and forced to renounce his errors in 1551, Cole was one of the Marian exiles who fled to Frankfurt and then Geneva shortly after Mary's succession. Upon his return to England, Cole was instituted rector of High Ongar, Essex in 1559, collated to the archdeaconry of Essex and prebend of Rugmere in St. Paul's in 1560, appointed dean of Bocking the same year, and instituted rector of Stanford Rivers in 1564. An accomplished preacher, Cole was chosen by the lord mayor and aldermen of London to preach the city's Spital sermons in 1566. Cole died of quinsy in 1570, survived by his wife Susan.