[Hall's Chronicle; Dugdale's Baronage; Sandford's Genealogical History; Napier's Swyncombe and Ewelme; Letters and Papers of Richard III and Henry VII (Rolls Ser.); Ellis's Letters, 3rd ser. vol. i.; Calendars, Venetian, vols. i. and ii., Henry VIII, vols. i–iv.; Busch's England unter den Tudors, vol. i.; Journal of Philippe de Vigneulles, in Bibliothek des literarischen Vereins in Stuttgart, vol. xxiv. A pamphlet by F. des Robert (Un pensionnaire des Rois de France à Metz), published at Nancy in 1878, is full of inaccuracies, but of some value in local matters.]
POLE, THOMAS (1753–1829), quaker and physician, born on 13 Oct. 1753 in Philadelphia, was youngest son of John Pole (1705–1755), a native of Wiveliscombe, Somerset, who emigrated to New Jersey. His mother's maiden name was Rachel Smith of Burlington. Thomas was brought up as a member of the Society of Friends. In 1775 he visited his relatives in England, and, with the object of attending Friends' meetings, he travelled some 6,650 miles through England and Wales, chiefly on horseback, during the next two or three years. In 1777 he studied medicine with Dr. Joseph Rickman at Maidenhead, thence passed to Reading, for the same purpose, and in 1780 removed to Falmouth, on becoming assistant to Dr. J. Fox. He settled in London in 1781, was admitted a member of the College of Surgeons there, and received the degree of M.D. from St. Andrews University in 1801. In 1789 he was made a member of the American Philosophical Society, of which Benjamin Franklin was then president. His practice was mainly confined to obstetrics and to the diseases of women and children. He lectured on midwifery, and, being a skilful draughtsman, recorded instructive cases in sketches, which were engraved.
In 1790 he published his valuable ‘Anatomical Instructor’ (1790), an illustration of the modern and most approved methods of preparing and preserving the different parts of the human body for purposes of study, with copperplates drawn by himself. A new edition appeared in 1813. Pole removed to Bristol in 1802, and soon acquired an extensive practice. There he continued his medical lectures, among his pupils being James Cowles Prichard [q. v.], and he also lectured on chemistry and other sciences.
Pole throughout his life devoted much of his time to ministerial work in the Society of Friends, and took part in many philanthropic schemes. He helped William Smith in 1812 to establish the first adult schools for poor persons of neglected education in England, and wrote in their support in 1813. In 1814 he issued an account of their origin and progress, for which James Montgomery wrote a poem. Bernard Barton, the quaker poet, bore testimony in 1826 to Pole's wide sympathies and tolerant views. Despite the strictness then prevalent in the Society of Friends, a love of art remained with him to the last, and found expression in many water-colour drawings of landscape and architecture, in monotints and silhouettes. He died at Bristol on 28 Sept. 1829. In 1784 he had married Elizabeth Barrett of Cheltenham; four children survived him.
Besides the works noticed, Pole published ‘Anatomical Description of a Double Uterus and Vagina,’ 4to, London, 1792.
[Pole's manuscript journals, diaries, and correspondence; private information.]
POLE, Sir WILLIAM de la, called in English William atte Pool (d. 1366), baron of the exchequer and merchant, was second son of Sir William de la Pole, a merchant of Ravenser Odd (Ravensrode) and Hull, who is described as a knight in 1296 and died about 1329, having made his will in December 1328. The father married Elena, daughter of John Rotenheryng, ‘merchant of Hull,’ by whom he had three sons, Richard, William, and John.
The eldest brother, sir Richard de la Pole (d. 1345), was, in 1319, attorney for the king's butler at Hull (Close Rolls, Edward II, p. 67), and a mainpernor for certain merchants of Lübeck (ib. pp. 170, 180). He was collector of the customs at Hull in 1320 (Palgrave, Parl. Writs, iv. 1305), and was M.P. for that town in the parliaments of May 1322 and September 1327 (Return of Members of Parliament, pp. 66, 79). Through the influence of Roger Mortimer he became the king's chief butler in 1327, and, in conjunction with his brother William, obtained the office of gauger of wines throughout the realm for life on 22 May 1329, and a similar grant of the customs of Hull on 9 May 1330 (Patent Rolls, Edward III, 1327–30, pp. 391, 518, 1330–4, pp. 29–41). The two brothers are frequently mentioned as advancing money for the king. After the fall of Mortimer they lost the post of gauger of wines, but Sir Richard continued to be chief butler until 1338 (ib. pp. 70, 434, 511). He was a guardian of the peace for Derbyshire, and served on a commission of oyer and terminer in Leicestershire in 1332 (ib. pp. 304, 391). About 1333 he seems to have moved to London, and in his will and elsewhere is styled a citizen of London. He was knighted in 1340, and, dying on 1 Aug. 1345 at his manor of Milton, Northampton-
