of a second child. He lived in Baldwin's Gardens, Gray's Inn Lane, whence most of his works were published. He was the adopted son of the astrologer, William Lilly, who constantly makes reference in his works to Coley's merit as a man and as a professor of mathematics and occult science. He is best known by his celebrated work, 'Clavis Astrologiæ Elimata; or a Key to the whole Art of Astrology, new filed and polished,' which was first published in 1669 (not in 1663, as stated by Selby), and of which a second and enlarged edition was published in 1676. The first number of his celebrated almanack or Ephemeris was published in 1672, and Lilly on his death in 1681 bequeathed to him his still more celebrated almanack, which had then reached its thirty-sixth year of publication, entitled ' Merlini Anglici Ephemeris, or Astrological Judgment for the Year,' which from this date (1681) was issued by Coley 'according to the method of Mr. Lilly.' Coley had acted as Lilly's amanuensis since 1677, when the latter was stricken with the illness of which he afterwards died. The editor of Lilly's 'Autobiography' tells us: 'His judgments and observations for the succeeding years till his death were all composed by his directions, Mr. Coley coming to Hersham the beginning of every summer, and stayed there till by conference with him he had despatched them for the press; to whom at these opportunities he communicated his way of judgment and other "Arcana."' Even after the death of Lilly, Coley continued to publish his predictions, as for instance, 'The great and wonderful Predictions of that late famous Astrologer, William Lilly, Mr. Partridge, and Mr. Coley concerning this present year 1683.' Coley attained considerable distinction as a mathematician. We are told by his almanack that he taught 'arithmetic, vulgar, decimal, and logarithmical, geometry, trigonometry, astronomy, navigation, the use of the celestial and terrestrial globes, dialling, surveying, gaging, measuring, and the art of astrology in all its branches,' at Baldwin's Gardens. He corrected and enlarged Joseph Moxon's 'Mathematics made easy' (London, 1692), and also Forster's 'Arithmetic, or that useful art made easie' (London, 1686). He was alive in 1694, and after 1695 we cannot trace any issue of his almanack. He therefore probably died in this year.
[Selby's Occult Sciences; Kendal's Χρονομετρία; Coley's Works; W. Lilly's Autobiography.]
COLFE or CALF, ABRAHAM (1580–1657), divine, son of the Rev. Richard Colfe, D.D., prebendary of Canterbury, by his first wife, whose maiden name was Thorneton, was born at Canterbury, 7 Aug. 1580, of a family that had settled at Calais, and had come to England after the capture of that town [see Colfe, Isaac]. He was educated in the free grammar school attached to the cathedral, and thence went to Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated in arts. He was punished by George Abbot [q. v.] for supporting the Earl of Essex in 1601. He became curate of Lewisham, Kent, in 1604. On 30 Jan. 1609 he was presented by the dean and chapter of Canterbury to the rectory of St. Leonards, Eastcheap, London, but continued to live at Lewisham, and on the death of Saravia in 1610, succeeded him in the vicarage on the presentation of James I. In or about 1612 he married Margaret, daughter of John Hollard, smith, and widow of Jasper Valentine, tanner, of Lewisham. During 1614 and 1615 he was much occupied in helping his Lewisham parishioners to defend their rights over Westwood common, and he has left a short account of the course and successful issue of the suit. While Colfe seldom discharged the duties of hisnLondon parish in person, his preaching is said to have been acceptable to the religious part of the congregation there. He was one of the earliest members of Sion College, and was a benefactor to the library. About 1644 some of the Lewisham people, 'at the instigation,' he writes, 'of their impudent lecturer,' tried to turn him out of that living by proceeding against him before the committee for plundered ministers. In March of the same year he lost his wife, whom he describes on her tombstone as having been 'above forty years a willing nurse, midwife, surgeon, and in part physitian, to all both riche and poore.' In 1646 or 1647 he was forced to give up his London living to Henry Rodborough, one of the scribes to the assembly of divines, but kept Lewisham till his death. Although his father had not left him any land, and he had bestowed 420l. on his brothers, Colfe as early as 1626 determined to buy land to found and endow charitable institutions, and in 1634 proposed to convey certain land he had acquired to the Company of Leathersellers for pious uses. In 1652 he founded and opened a free grammar school at Lewisham. He died 5 Dec. 1657, in his seventy-eighth year. He had no children, and by his will, dated 7 Sept. 1656, left all his property for charitable purposes. In 1662 his trustees built almshouses at Lewisham in accordance with his directions, and in 1664 the Wardens and Society of the Leathersellers of London were by act of parliament constituted owners and governors of his charitable institutions. Among Colfe's foundations is a library for the use of
