6^th Great Grandfather - FFMMMFMF¹

Dinah Cool, Samuel Leonard the Elder’s wife, was the daughter of Robert Cool. I believe Robert was born in Yate to Robert and Joan Cole, and moved to the Hanham area as an adult.

I have inferred this based on the fact that a Robert, son of Robert Cole was baptised on 11^th July 1675 at St Mary, Yate². As I will show later 3 of his daughters, while they were born in Hanham, and married men from Hanham were actually married at St Mary, Yate. Why would they do that unless there was a family connection. And I believe that the connection was that their father was Robert, son of Robert Cole.

I have not been able to find a definitive marriage entry for Robert, but 5 of his 6 daughters were baptised in Hanham. There is one possible marriage entry in the Bitton Parish Register, but it is a bit of a stretch. On 9^th April 1699³ Robert Pooll was married to Joan Fry at Hanham⁴. While the entry is clearly Pooll, the priest could have mis-heard or even just made a mistake when entering the name. The timing is perfect as this marriage takes place 5 months before the baptism of the first daughter Mary, who was baptised 29^th” September 1699⁵.

My 5^th great grandmother Dinah was next being baptised on 16^th March 1700/01⁶. Amey the third daughter was baptised 10^th May 1702⁷, Grace was baptised on 20 February 1703/04⁸ and Sarah, who later married my 5^th great granduncle Robert Leonard was baptised on 25^th Feb 1704/05⁹.

Interestingly, both Grace and Sarah’s entries in the register are also entered as Pooll, but we know that Robert had two daughters named Grace and Sarah from his will¹⁰, so this is corroborating evidence for the marriage, discussed above. It appears that Robert was referred to as Robert Cool and Robert Pooll interchangeably.

Robert had one other daughter that can be inferred from his will, Hester.

Robert died in 1746, and his will was proved 14^th October 1746. He left most of his Estate divided between 4 of his 5 daughters still living and the children of his deceased daughter, my 5^th great grandmother Dinah. The remaining two properties he left to his grandchildren Grace and Charles Cool, the children of his daughter Grace’s first marriage to George Cool.

I have found no actual record of his burial and no record of his wife Joan’s burial, but she must have predeceased him as she is not mentioned in his will.

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