William Pole (politician, 1561)

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Portrait of Sir William Pole from around 1620

Sir William Pole (* before August 27, 1561 - † February 9, 1635 or 1636 in Colcombe Castle ) was an English nobleman and politician who was once elected as a member of the House of Commons . Because of his studies of Devonian history , he was referred to as a Devonian antiquarian .

Origin and education

William Pole came from the Pole family , an old gentry family with extensive estates in eastern Devon . He was the eldest son of William Pole and his second wife Katherine Popham . He was baptized in Colyton on August 27, 1561 . Pole is believed to have attended Exeter College , Oxford. In February 1579 he began his studies at the Inner Temple in London, where his father had already studied.

Political activity

With the support of his father-in-law William Peryam , Pole was elected in the 1586 general election as a Member of Parliament for Borough Bossiney in Cornwall . In the general election in 1588 and in the subsequent elections, he did not run again. Pole held various other local offices, including serving as justice of the peace from 1591 and from 1602 to 1603 as sheriff of Devon. On February 15, 1606, he was beaten by King James I at Whitehall Palace to Knight Bachelor . He made a stake of over £ 37 in the Virginia Company and in 1612 issued the company's third charter .

Activity as an antiquarian

After his father's death in 1587, he inherited his estates, including Shute House and Colcombe House, which he had converted into his main residence. In addition to his political activities, he devoted himself increasingly to the history of Devon, but he himself did not publish his work. In 1608 Ralph Brooke of the York Herald published excerpts from his writings. Probably around 1617 Pole had completed two folio volumes, which were published in 1791 by his descendant Sir John de la Pole, 6th Baronet . Earlier, John Anstis , a relative of his descendants, had made a copy of Poles manuscript, which was then copied. In another, 622-page manuscript, Pole had recorded numerous title deeds, this script served as a template for the historian John Prince for his work Danmonii orientales illustres , published in 1701 . Sir Thomas Philipps had a small excerpt of the manuscript printed for himself as Sir William Pole's Copies of Extracts from Old Evidences around 1840. These works testify to the Poles' eagerness to capture deeds and documents of the Gentry of Devon. As a result of Poles work, copy books of Tavistock and Newenham Abbey that have otherwise been lost have come down to us. Numerous other Pole writings were destroyed during the English Civil War when Colcombe Castle was burned down.

Family and offspring

On July 20, 1583, Pole married Mary Peryam , daughter of Sir William Peryam of Crediton, in Shobrooke . Together with her sisters, she inherited her father's fortune in 1604. With her he had six sons and six daughters, including:

His wife died in May 1606 after a fall. He then married Jane, the wealthy widow of Roger How from London, for the second time. She was a daughter of William Simmes (also Symes) from Chard in Somerset. This marriage remained childless. After his death he was buried in Colyton Church. His heir became his second but oldest surviving son, John Pole.

Works

  • Collections towards a description of the county of Devon , London 1791.
  • Sir Wm. Pole's copies of, and extracts from old Evidences, chiefly in the West of England. , Middle Hall, around 1840.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ian Maxted: Pole, Sir William (bap. 1561, d. 1635). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004
  2. ^ History of Parliament Online: EDGCUMBEPOLE, William II (1561-1636), of Shute, Devon. Retrieved January 16, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Pole, William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pole, Sir William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English nobleman, politician and antiquarian
DATE OF BIRTH before August 27, 1561
DATE OF DEATH February 9, 1635 or February 9, 1636
Place of death Colcombe Castle