Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cole, Charles Nalson

1320239Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 11 — Cole, Charles Nalson1887Thompson Cooper

COLE, CHARLES NALSON (1723–1804), lawyer, was son of Charles Cole, rector of North Crowley, Buckinghamshire, who was the son of an apothecary of Ely (Addit. MS. 5865, f. 172 b). He was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, which he left after taking his B.A. degree in 1743, and became a student of the Inner Temple, where he was called to the bar (Cantabrigienses Graduati, ed. 1787, p. 90). Afterwards he became registrar of the Bedford Level Corporation, and published 'A Collection of Laws which form the Constitution of the Bedford Level Corporation, with an Introductory History thereof,' London, 1761, 8vo. He also prepared the second edition of Sir William Dugdale's 'History of Imbanking and Drayning of divers Fenns and Marshes, both in Foreign Parts and in this Kingdom,' London, 1772, fol. His next publication was an edition of the 'Works of Soame Jenyns,' with a sketch of his life, 4 vols. 1790, 12mo (Nichols, Lit. Anecd. iii. 129). He died in Edward Street, Cavendish Square, London, on 18 Dec. 1804, aged 81 (Gent. Mag. lxxiv. pt. ii. p. 1248).

[Authorities cited above; also Nichols's Illustr. of Lit. i. 161, iv. 718, viii. 549; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. ii. 695, iii. 128, v. 280.]