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John Cole,
Cole Pottery founder (1807‑1897)

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This page is about John Cole who started the Cole Pottery in Tottenham – also known as the White Hart Lane Potteries. It describes John Cole's early life, his working and married life, his wife's Colley ancestry, his children and how their futures, too, were linked to pottery.

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by the webmaster from family recollections and research

According to information passed down the family, the person who started the Cole Pottery in Tottenham was John Cole (1807-1897). At that time, the pottery was called The White Hart Lane Potteries, as that was the road where its entrance was. The name stuck for years, overlapping with Cole Pottery or Cole Potteries.

How John Cole started the Cole Pottery

Starting a pottery requires a great deal of money and that was doubtless provided from the inheritance from his father, Daniel Cole.

But starting a pottery also requires business acumen and skill which John must have had in abundance. I therefore find it sad that I have been able to find out so little about him. I am hoping that someone reading this may be able to help. In particular, I would love a photo or portrait.

Although no photographs of John are known to have survived, portraits of all the owner/directors of the White Hart Lane Pottery once hung in the Pottery office. Do you know what happened to them?

Memorabilia

Fortunately, one piece of memorabilia does exist: John's spectacles, which are in the family of the descendants of his son, John Thomas Cole. The spectacles are shown in the following photograph. The inscribed date of 1894 indicates that they were probably a present to mark his diamond wedding anniversary.

Spectacles belonging to John Cole

Spectacles belonging to John Cole

The spectacles look expensive in the norms of the time. I wonder what sort, if any, eye test was done before prescribing them or if he had to choose what suited him best from a selection. Remember this was 1894.

Early life of John Cole

According to the IGI, John was born on 14 October 1807 to Daniel and Ann Cole in Islington and was baptised at the local church of St Pancras on 17 April 1808. The birth location of Islington is confirmed by census records. However, anecdotal evidence within the family suggests that John's place of birth was Tanners End, a suburb of Edmonton, a few miles away in North London. Certainly, John's father, Daniel, was recorded as living at Tanners End at some stage. Whatever, John must have spent his early years in Islington and then the Tile Kilns.

Married life

On 20 January 1834, at All Hallows Church, Tottenham, John married Mary Colley, daughter of James Sharp Colley, a potter at the Tile Kilns.

Children of John Cole and Mary Colley

John and Mary had five sons and six daughters. It is to John's credit that, by the standards of the time, all were well educated, particularly as there was no free schooling at the time. That money was in the family was self-evident.

In summary, the following is a list of their children with key known events in their lives.

The working life of John Cole

The birth certificates of John's children, together with census data, show that he moved around the London area. He worked as a stable-keeper, tile kiln labourer and burner of pottery, and then back to the Tile Kilns as a potter. By the time of the 1871 census he had founded a pottery as he was documented as the proprietor of what later came to be known as the Pettit Pottery at Walthamstow. However, he gifted or sold it to his Pettit nephews, sons of Mary’s dead sister, and moved on.

At the time of the 1881 census, when John was 73, he was living at 7 Prospect Place, Tottenham, a flowerpot maker, with Mary, aged 68. By the time of the 1891 census, though, John and Mary were in the pottery house Tentdale at the White Hart Lane Pottery - later known as the Cole Pottery in Tottenham. John was listed as a retired potter, aged 83, with the family of his son E.G.Cole who was the formal owner.

Deaths of John Cole and Mary

Looking for family graves

Looking for family graves in Tottenham Cemetery. E.G's. is on the left and John and family are on the right.

John's wife, Mary, died on 4th February 1896 aged 82, and John survived her until the following year, when he died on 29 October 1897, aged 90. They were living at the pottery house Tentdale at the time. They were both buried in the same plot in Tottenham Cemetery, which had been bought by their son E.G.Cole.

Colley ancestry and James Sharp Colley (c1787-1863)

The ancestry of the Colley family, like that of the Coles, is embedded in pottery. Colleys lived and worked among the Cole family and married with them.

James Sharp Colley (c1787-1863) was an ancestor of most of the family involved with the Cole Pottery in Tottenham, being the father of Mary Colley, who married John. James Sharp Colley was also the father of Ann Colley (or Anne Colley) who married William Pettit of the Pettit Potteries at Higham Hill in Walthamstow. This page gives an ancestry chart for James Sharp Colley.

Ancestry of James Sharp Colley

James Sharp Colley's known ancestry on his father's side goes back to Barnaby or Barnabas Colley who married a Mary. Their son, John Barnabas Colley, baptised 5 February 1766, was James Sharp Colley's father.

James Sharp Colley's known ancestry on his mother's side goes back to Whitley Martin, whose daughter, Patty Martin, was James's mother.

Ancestry chart for James Sharp Colley

Ancestry chart for James Sharp Colley

James Sharp Colley's parents, John Barnabas Colley and Patty married on 16 April 1786 at St Mary's Lambeth, one of the early pottery areas. They had the following known children:

My uncle, E.G.Cole II, wrote that the Martin connection was kept for many years and James Reedman Cole exchanged visits with cousins of his, named Martin, who lived in Bristol. (There is more on the Cole Bristol connection on another page.) E G Cole II, remembered being sent as a child, to show an elderly lady Martin visitor to the wooden cottage where John, the founder of the Cole Pottery was reputed to have been born.

One wonders at the Sharp middle name given to the first two sons. The Sharps were potters too. Presumably there was a Colley Sharp marriage somewhere back in time.

Children of James Sharp Colley and Ann Chaney

James Sharp Colley married Ann Chaney on 2nd October 1804 at St Pancreas Old Church. There were the following children:

Death and will of James Sharp Colley

James Sharp Colley died at the Tile Kilns on 20th May 1863. He left £600 (a significant sum in those days) equally between his children.


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