View source for Benjamin Cole (instrument maker)

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[[Image:Benjamin Cole06.jpg|thumb|<div style="text-align: center;">Mathematical<br />AND<br />Optical Instruments of all Sorts<br />Accurately made according to the Best & Latest Improvements<br />By Benjamin Cole<br />at the Orrery next the Globe Tavern in Fleet Street<br />LONDON</div>]]
'''Benjamin Cole''' (1695–1766) was an English [[surveying|surveyor]], [[cartographer]], 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.<ref>Oxford Figures: 800 Years of the Mathematical Sciences</ref>
== Works ==
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 drew up the ward maps for the first edition of the historian and topographer [[William Maitland (historian)|William Maitland]]'s (c.1693–1757) posthumous ''History of London from Its Foundation to the Present Time'' (1769).<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.brynmawr.edu/Library/speccoll/guides/london/history.shtml |title=Bryn Mawr College Library |access-date=1 July 2008 |archive-date=6 July 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080706031715/http://www.brynmawr.edu/library/speccoll/guides/london/history.shtml |url-status=dead }}</ref> (Cf. [[John Entick]]'s ''New and Accurate History and Survey of London'' of 1766.) His music engravings included a collection by [[John Frederick Lampe]] with a setting of the ''Entered Apprentice's Song''.<ref>[http://www.masonicpaedia.org/showarticle.asp?id=41 ''Entered Apprentice's Song'']</ref> In 1728/9, he published a copy of the ''[[Old Charges]]'' with speeches by two [[Freemasons]], [[Francis Drake (antiquary)|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 venture in 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 in 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.
[[File:Benjamin Cole02.jpg|thumb|<div style="text-align: center;">Map of [[City of Westminster]] 1755 by Benjamin Cole</div>]]
== Family ==
Cole started a 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.
== References ==
{{reflist}}
== 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 ==
{{Commons category|Benjamin Cole (instrument maker)}}
* [http://www.adlerplanetarium.org/research/collections/websters/ Websters' Instrument Makers Database] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071115222013/http://www.adlerplanetarium.org/research/collections/websters/ |date=15 November 2007 }}
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[[Category:1695 births]]
[[Category:1766 deaths]]
[[Category:English cartographers]]
[[Category:English surveyors]]
[[Category:British scientific instrument makers]]
[[Category:18th-century English scientists]]
[[Category:18th-century English engravers]]
[[Category:People from Oxford]]