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- Samuel Cole (c. 1597–1666/67) was an early settler of Boston in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, arriving with the Winthrop Fleet in 1630. He was an innkeeper and confectioner, and in 1634 established the first house of entertainment in the colony, called Cole's Inn and referenced by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his play John Endicott as the Three Mariners. Born by 1597, Cole and his family arrived in New England with John Winthrop in 1630, and established themselves on the Shawmut Peninsula, which soon became the town of Boston. He and his wife Ann were among the earliest members of the Boston church, having joined in the autumn of 1630. He opened the first tavern in the area on 4 March 1634 in what later became downtown Boston, but in 1645 relocated his business to the future Merchants Row between State Street and Faneuil Hall. Cole's establishment was a center of social and political life in Boston, and Governor Henry Vane had brought the Narragansett Indian sachem Miantonomoh, with his retinue, for a meal there. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow included Cole and his house of entertainment in his play John Endicott set in the early 1660s. As a member of the Boston Church, Cole was caught up in the Antinomian Controversy that shook the young colony between 1636 and 1638. He signed a petition in support of the minister John Wheelwright who was banished from the colony, and after being threatened with losing his weapons, he signed a remission, calling his support of Wheelwright an error. While during the early days of the colony Cole was considered well off, and contributed to various causes, by 1661 he was suffering financial losses and in June of that year was granted 300 acres of land for being a respected and useful member of the community. Cole was married three times, and had at least four children, all with his first wife, Ann. His son, John, married Susanna, the only person to survive the massacre killing her famed mother, Anne Hutchinson, and many of her siblings. Cole wrote his will in December 1666, and died in Boston shortly thereafter, with his will being proved the following February. (en)
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