Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pote, Joseph
POTE, JOSEPH (1703?–1787), bookseller, born in 1702 or 1703, long carried on business at Eton, and also kept a boarding house for Eton boys, Lord-chancellor Camden having been one of his boarders. At the same time he was well known as an editor and publisher, and his editions of classical works brought him into close relations with Zachary Grey [q. v.] and other scholars. Works compiled and published by him include: 1. ‘Catalogus alumnorum e collegio regali B. Mariæ de Etona,’ 1730. Much use was made in this work of the names cut by pupils, before leaving Eton, on the oaken pillars that supported the roof of the under-school. 2. ‘History and Antiquities of Windsor Castle and the Royal College and Chapel of St. George, with the Institutions, Laws, and Ceremonies of the most noble Order of the Garter,’ 1749. The work was subsequently abridged and published under the name of ‘Les Délices de Windesore, or a Pocket-Companion to Windsor Castle,’ which was very popular and went through six editions. An appendix to the original work was compiled and published by Pote in 1762. It contained an alphabetical list of all the knights of the Garter from the institution of the order to 1762. 4. ‘The Lives of Leland, Hearne, and Wood,’ 1772. 5. ‘Registrum Regale Præpositorum utriusque Collegii regalis Etonensis et Cantabrigiensis,’ 1774. Pote died at Eton on 3 March 1787, aged 84, leaving two sons; the younger, Thomas, who succeeded to his father's business at Eton, was master of the Stationers' Company. A daughter married John Williams, publisher of Wilkes's paper ‘The North Briton.’
[Nichols's Literary Anecdotes; Gent. Mag. 1787, vol. lvii. pt. i. p. 365; British Museum Catalogue; Maxwell-Lyte's Hist. of Eton College.]