John de la Pole, 6th Baronet

John de la Pole in the library of New Shute House. He holds the blueprints in his hand. Painting by Thomas Beach, 1794

Sir John William de la Pole, 6th Baronet (born June 26, 1757 , † November 30, 1799 ) was a British nobleman and politician .

origin

John de la Pole came from the Pole family , an old family of the Gentry of Devon . He was born John Pole as the only son of Sir John Pole, 5th Baronet and his first wife Elizabeth Mills . After his father's death in 1760, he became the heir to his father's possessions and the title of Baronet , of Shute House in the County of Devon. Already an orphan when his mother died in 1767, he was raised by guardians and above all by his aunt Elizabeth Anstis . From 1771 to 1772 he attended Blundell's School in Tiverton , then Winton College in Bournemouth . From 1776 he studied at Corpus Christi College in Oxford.

Political activity

Pole served as sheriff of Devon from 1782 to 1783 . In the general election in 1790 he was elected as a member of Parliament for the borough of West Looe in Cornwall , supported by his friend George Boscawen, 3rd Viscount Falmouth and the Buller family . In the House of Commons , he supported the government of William Pitt , although this did not give him any of the local offices for which he ran. To this end, he campaigned for the reforms of British prisons proposed by John Howard . From 1794 he was an officer and from 1796 in command of the Yeomanry of East Devon , in addition he was Lieutenant Colonel of the Militia of East Devon. In the general election in 1796, he did not run again.

Anne Templer, the wife of De La Pole. Painting by George Romney from 1786

Others

Pole was considered an enlightened, educated gentleman and horse connoisseur who was proud of his parentage. In 1788 he acquired the old Shute House family estate , which had previously been leased for more than 200 years, and on October 13, 1789, he officially changed his family name to de la Pole . Through further acquisitions such as possessions in Whitford , he enlarged his property to over 40 km ² . In Shute he had New Shute House , a new mansion built in the Adam style. In 1791 he published the writings his ancestor Sir William Pole had written about Devon at the end of the 16th century, and he also acquired Colcombe Castle, which has now been destroyed . Before he could start rebuilding the ruin, however, he died.

Family and offspring

Pole had married Anne Templer, a daughter of James Templer of Lindridge , Devon , on January 9, 1781 . With her he had two sons and a daughter, including:

• Sir William Templar Pole, 7th Baronet (1782–1847)

Due to his extensive acquisitions and construction work, he left a difficult legacy for his underage son William upon his untimely death.

Web links

Commons : Sir John de la Pole, 6th Baronet  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Sir John William De La Pole, 6th Bt. On thepeerage.com , accessed November 7, 2017.
• RG Thorne: DE LA POLE, Sir John William, 6th Bt. (1757-99), of Shute House, no. Axminster, Devon. (History of Parliament Online, Ref Volumes: 1790-1820)

predecessor	Office	successor
John Pole	Pole Baronet, of Shute House 1760–1799	William Pole