Nathan Cole

Born: Farmington; February 15-1710/11
Died: Farmington; 1783

Entry by Bruce P. Stark

Nathan Cole, separatist, was a farmer and carpenter in Kensington, then part of Farmington, and author of the remarkable "Spiritual Travels." This document, part of a manuscript of two-hundred pages, provides an opportunity to study the impact of the Great Awakening on the life and thought of an obscure New Englander. After hearing George Whitefield preach at Middletown on October 23, 1740, Cole embarked on spiritual travels that led him through a conversion experience, separation from the church at Kensington in 1747, helping to organize a Separatist church there in 1750, joining a Separatist church in Middletown in 1764, and finally becoming a Baptist in 1778. Nathan Cole's description of going to hear George Whitefield, written many years after the event, evokes the spirit and impact that the dynamic Anglican priest had on New England in 1740:

Now it pleased God to send Mr. Whitefield into this land...I longed to see and hear him, and wished he would come this way...then on a Sudden, in the morning about 8 or 9 of the Clock there came a messenger and said Mr. Whitefield...is to preach at Middletown this morning at ten of the Clock, I was in my field at Work, I...ran home to my wife telling her to make ready quickly...then run to my pasture for my horse with all my might.... When we came within about half a mile or a mile of the Road...I saw before me a Cloud or fogg rising; I first thought it came from the great River, abut as I came nearer the Road, I heard a noise something like a low rumbling thunder and presently found it was the noise of Horses feet coming down the Road and this Cloud was a Cloud of dust made by the Horses feet...and when I came within about 20 rods of the Road, I could see men and horses Sliping along in the Cloud like shadows and as I drew nearer it seemed like a steady Stream of horses and their riders, scarcely a horse more than his length behind another, all of a Lather and foam with sweat, their breath rolling out of their nostrils every Jump; every horse seemed to go with all his might to carry his rider to hear news from heaven for the saving of Souls, it made me tremble to see the Sight...and when we got to Middletown old meeting house there was a great Multitude it was said to be 3 or 4000 of people Assembled together.... When I saw Mr. Whitefield come upon the Scaffold he lookt almost Angelical; a young, Slim, slender youth before some thousands of people with a bold undaunted Countenance, and my hearing how God was with him...put me into a trembling fear before he began to preach; for he looked as if he was Cloathed with Authority from the Great God... And my hearing him preach, gave me a heart wound; By Gods blessing: my old Foundation was broken up, and I saw that my rightousness would not save me.

For Further Reading

Crawford, Michael J. "The Spiritual Travels of Nathan Cole." The William and Mary Quarterly, 33 (January 1976), 89-126.

* Entry under revision.