Benjamin Cole (instrument maker)

Benjamin Cole (1695-1766), was an English surveyor, mapmaker, instrument maker, engraver and bookbinder living in Oxford. His sons William and Benjamin were also instrument makers in London, while another son, Maximilian, was an engraver in Oxford. [Oxford Figures: 800 Years of the Mathematical Sciences]

Benjamin Cole had a long-standing interest in freemasonry and engraved the frontispiece to the 1756 "Book of Constitutions" after succeeding John Pine in 1743 as official engraver to the Grand Lodge. Cole started a remarkable dynasty of engravers to the Freemasons. His son Benjamin (1725-1813), was apprenticed to his father in 1739. Another son, William, worked as engraver to the Bank of England, and took over control and production of the freemasons' engraved lists in 1767. William’s son, John, founded a ‘Masonic Printing Office’ in London.

Cole drew up the ward maps for the first edition of the historian and topographer William Maitland's (c.1693–1757) posthumous "History of London from Its Foundation to the Present Time" (1769). [ [http://www.brynmawr.edu/Library/speccoll/guides/london/history.shtml Bryn Mawr College Library] ] His music engravings included a collection by John Frederick Lampe with a setting of the "Entered Apprentice's Song" [http://www.masonicpaedia.org/showarticle.asp?id=41] . In 1728/9, he published a copy of the "Old Charges" with speeches by the Freemasons Francis Drake and architect Edward Oakley. His illustrations appeared in books ranging from fables for children to manuals of military drill, a notable work being a collaboration with Edward Oakley, "The Magazine of Architecture, Perspective, and Sculpture" which provided an introduction to Palladian architecture.

Cole made a wide range of instruments that are to be seen museums throughout Britain. He was apprenticed to Thomas Wright and was free in the Merchant Taylors' Company. The firm of "Wright & Cole" operated until 1748 when Cole succeeded Wright. "Cole & Son" conducted their business between 1751 and 1766 from the "Orrery" adjoining the "Globe Tavern", in Fleet Street, London.This address became 136 Fleet Street about 1760 and 200 Fleet Street in later years. The business was taken over by John Troughton in 1782, surviving as "Cooke, Troughton & Sims" in the twentieth century.

John Entick's New and Accurate History and Survey of London (1766)

References

Bibliography

*Loftus, Ernest Achey - "A history of the descendants of Maximilian Cole of Oxford, who flourished in the 17th century", London / Adlard & Son, Limited (1938)

External links

* [http://www.adlerplanetarium.org/research/collections/websters/ Websters' Instrument Makers Database]