Coles Point takes its name from the pioneer settler, Richard Cole. He called his estate, touching on Machodoc Creek and the Potomac River, Salisbury Park. While he patented other lands, among them a portion which was to eventually become Wakefield Plantation. Cole was conspicuous, if not illustrious, among the early settlers. Unfortunately irasible, outspoken as well as jovial was Richard Cole. He directed that his body be buried on his plantation in a coffin of black walnut, that over it be placed a gravestone of black marble and that it be inscribed:
"Here lies Dick Cole, a grevious sinner,
That died a little before dinner
Yet hopes in Heaven to find a place
To satiole his soul with Grace."
Salisbury Park eventually passed into the possession of the Barnes family.
It was just off Salisbury Park, that Thomas H. Jenkins of Coles Point, in November, 1932, in a small skiff and with crab for bait, caught with a hand line a black drum weighing 110 pounds, establishing a world's record for a hand line.
