Cole, Robert (b. , d. ?)

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Text: 4 DEC 2002

Census: Date: 1850
Place: East Montpelier, Washington, Vermont

Note: Education: Brown University

BIOGRAPHY: A doubt has hung over the line of Tristam's family and different branches might contend for the honor of his name. The accurate compiler of the American Biographical Dictionary assumes that he was a descendant of Joseph(2), because he was born in Rochester. And the classical historian of Cape Cod conectures that he was a descendant of Thomas(2), of Newport, because he was a representative in Congress from Rhode Isalnd. But though born in Rochester and though he flourished in Rhode Island, the records show, the he was in the line ofJohn(2). of Yarmouth. Besides, Madame Sarah Bartless, sister of Tristam, who still survives, testifies that Tomasina Bangs was her great-grandmother. But Thomasina Bangs, daughter of Jonathan, married Joseph Burgess(3) son of John(2) of Yarmouth.

At the Centennial celebration of Brown University, September 1864, the Hon. John H Clifford, in the course of an eloquent Address said, "The brilliant Burges, our Professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres, whose fame is bounded by no limits, before whose scathing retort in the Congress of teh United Statesm the Ishmaelite of Virginia Statesmen, Randolph of Roanoke, for the first time quailed and was forever silenced."

The New American Cyclopedia contains the following article. Tristam Burgesm and American stateman and orator, born in Rochester, Massachuttes, February 26, 1770, dieed in Providence, RI, October 13, 1853. His father, John BUrges, entered the army as a lieutenant in 1775, with the intention of remaining in it during the was; but a severe illness, from which he never fully recovered, obliged him to resign in a few months. He was a farmer of moderate meansm and in winter worked at his trade as a cooper. With a large family of three sons and five daughters and a period when schools, even in New England, were few, he was unable to give his children the advantages of an early education. Tritam, the youngest of the sons, was obliged to assist his father on the farm and in the cooper's shop. His eldest sister taught him to read, his father instructed him in writing and arithmetic, and from a friendly sea-captain he learned a little navigation. When fifteen years old he attended a school in the vicinity for six weeks, and again the next year for six weeks more. This was all the instruction he received from others until he reached the age of twenty-one. But he was a great reader, persuing every book within his reach, and devoting his leaisure hours to composition and other modes of self-improvement. At twenty-one, he commenced the study of medicine, and entered the academy at Wrentham, Mass., to prepare for college. A severe illness soon obliged him to leave this situation, but his determination to acquire a liberal education could not be repressed. He returned to the academy in the autumn, and was again called home by the death of his father.(1791) With rigid economy; and by teaching school a few months in the winter, he was enabled to return to Wrentham, in the spring of 1792. Here his fine oratorical powers were first cultivated by a course of self-discipline not unlike that which the great master of Grecian eloquence employed to remedy a defect of nature. Although very fluent in conversation, yet whenever he arose to speak at the school exercises he wold stammer and hesitate to such a degree that his friends deemed it impossible for him ever to aquire the power of oratory. But his energy and ambition were unconquerable. Near the village was a dense forest, within which he found a small cleared space, where in solitude he daily prcaticed declamation, carefully studying every tone and movement, until he had mastered his hesitation, and aquired a natural and easy style of delivery. In September, 1793, he entered Rhode Island College, now Brown University, at Providence, and graduated three years laterwith the first honors of his class. He then taught a school in Providence for more than a year, at the same time pursuing the study of law and was admitted to practice in 1799. The bar of Rhode Island at the time was eminent for the eloquence and legal ability of its membres. It was a trying field for the young advocate, and a fitting arena for the exercise of his noblest powers. He soon won the distinction which legal acumen and commanding eloquence cannot fail to confer. In 1801, he married a daughter of Welcome Arnold, an opulent merchant in Providence. Mr. Burgess soon became a leader of the federal party, and in 1811, was elected to a seat in the State Legislature. In 1815, he was made chief justice of the State. The triumph of the republican party the next year removed him from his important trust. He was shortly afterward made professor of oratory and belles lettres in Brown University, which place he filled with great success until his election as a representative in Congress in 1825. He took his seat in December of that year, and almost immediately achieved a national reutation by his splendid speech on the judiciary, which was pronounced by a vetrean member of the house to be "one of the greatest displays of eloquence ever heard in this hall." In 1827, he was re-elected without opposition. As chairman of the committee on military pensions he made a report and submitted a bill proposing a system of pensions for the survivng soldiers of the revolution, and including also the widows of those who had died before this national debt of gratitude was acknowledged. The woolen bill in 1828, initiated a series of debates upon the tariff whick lasted for five years. It was in the course of this protracted contorversy that Mr. Burges made many of his most brilliant efforts in defense of the American system; and it was in repelling the attacks made upon him by the opponents of protection that his luminous logic and his terrible sarcasm won for him an unrivalled reputation as a perfect master of the great art of intellectual gladiatorship. There was scarcely a question of any impotance, that arose during the ten years of his congresional career, which Me. Burges did not illustrate with his convincing logic, his persuasive eloquence, or his blighiting satire. In 1833, he was again elected, for the fifth and last time, at a period when the doctrine were fully and fearlessly expressed. It was the only point upon which he sustained the course of President Jackson. He opposed the compromise tariff bill of Mr. Clay, when it came down to the house, with a vehemence natural to his character. This opposition, doubtless, caused his defeat iin 1835, when the democratic republican party obtained the power in Rhode Island. He never again took part in public affairs, but cultivated his farm near Providence until his death, which occurred in the 84th year of his age. In the style of his writings and speeches Me. Burges was ornate and peculiar. The richness of his classical and scriptual illustrations was beyond that of his compeers. The acuteness of his logic was felt and admitted by his opponents. He is better remembered for his unequalled sarcasm, prboably because that was a sphere in which he had many copetitors, and wherein he was usually the victor. But the brilliancy of his scholarship, the beauty of his allusions, the exquiste ornamentation of his more finished efforts, these are points that give him a far higher title to rememberance than the deadly thrusts of satire in which he had no equal.

Biographical Directory of the American Congress, 1774-1949
Biographies
B page 917
BURGES, Tristam (great-great-uncle of Theodore Francis Green), a Representative from Rhode Island; born in Rochester, Mass., February 26, 1770; attended the common schools; studied medicine at a school in Wrenthem; upon the death of his father he abandoned the study of medicine; was graduated from Rhode Island College (now Brown University), Providence, R.I., in 1796; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1799 and commenced practice in Providence, R.I.; member of the State house of representatives in 1811 and was prominent as a member of the Federal Party; appointed chief justice of the supreme court of Rhode Island in May 1815; unsuccessful candidate for election to the same in 1816; professor of oratory in Brown University; elected to the Nineteenth and to the four succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1825-March 3, 1835); unsuccessful candidate for reelection; unsuccessful Whig candidate for Governor in 1836; resumed the practice of law; died on his estate, "Watchemoket Farm" (now a part of East Providence, R.I.), October 13, 1853; interment in North Burial Ground, Providence, R.I.

Note: This patriotic woman, since the rupture of the rebel war, hasknit three hundred pairs of socks, which have been distributed to the loyal soldiers by the Sanitary COmmision. A civil officer presented a pair of these socks to the President of the United States, who wrote the following beautiful and appropriate note.

Executive Mansion
Washington, May 5, 1864
Mrs Abner Bartlett
My dear madam; - I have received the very excellent pair of socks of your own knitting, which you did me the honor to send. I accept them as a very comfortable article to wear; but more gratefully as an evidence of the patriotic devotion, which at your advanced age, you bear to our great and just cause. May God give you yet many happy days.
Yours truly, A Lincoln

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Text: 4 DEC 2002

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Note: 1870: Census, Peru, Oxford, Maine

1880: Census, Pine, Oxford, Maine

Occupation: Date: 1860
Place: Perth, Oxford, Maine

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Text: 4 DEC 2002

Note: DEATH: Name: Samuel BURGESS County: Barnstable Town:Harwich Death Date: 14 Mar 1844 Age: 72y -m -d Place of Death: Harwich Alms House Volume: 8 Page: 7 Condition: M/ Cause: Consumption Father/Husband: Unknown Mother: Unknown Place of Birth: Harwich

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Text: 4 DEC 2002