He was the son and heir of Philip Cole (1539–1596) of Slade by his wife Jane Williams (died 1633), second daughter of Thomas Williams of Stowford. He was a descendant of the Cole family of Nethway in the parish of Brixham in Devon (about 19 miles south east of Slade), one of whom was John Cole (born c.1376), twice a Member of Parliament for Devon, in 1417 and 1423 and Sheriff of Devon 1405–6.History of Parliament biography His distant cousins were the Cole family elevated to the peerage of Ireland successively as Baron Mount Florence (1760), Viscount Enniskillen (1776) and Earl of Enniskillen (1789), descended from Cole of Nethway and Slade,The Genealogie or Pedegree of the Right Worshipfull and Worthie Captaine Sir William Cole of the Castell of Eneskillen in the Countie of Ffermanaugh in the Kingdom of Ireland, Knight, by Sir William Segar, Garter, and William Penson, Lancaster; Copied from the Original Roll, published 1870
