William Pole

Sir William Pole (1561–1635) of Colcombe House in the parish of Colyton, and formerly of Shute House in the parish of Shute (adjoining Colcombe), both in Devon, was an English country gentleman and landowner, a colonial investor, Member of Parliament and, most notably, a historian and antiquarian of the County of Devon.

Career Pole was baptised on 27 August 1561 at Colyton, Devon, the son of William Pole, Esquire (c.1514 – 1587), MP, by his wife Katherine Popham (died 1588), daughter of Alexander Popham of Huntworth, Somerset by his wife Joan Stradling. Katherine was the sister of John Popham (1531–1607), Lord Chief Justice. In 1560 his father had purchased Shute House, near Colyton and Axminster, Devon.

He entered the Inner Temple in 1578, was placed on the Commission of the Peace for Devonshire, served as Sheriff of Devon in 1602–3, and was MP in 1586 for Bossiney, Cornwall. He was knighted by King James I at Whitehall Palace on 15 February 1606. He paid into the Virginia Company, and was an incorporator of the third Virginia charter.

Antiquarian works During his life Pole wrote many unpublished manuscripts containing his researches into the history and antiquities of Devon and the descents of that county's ancient families, their landholdings and heraldry. These documents laid the foundation not only for future historians of the county but also for his contemporaries, such as Tristram Risdon (died 1640) who acknowledged the help he had received from Pole's compilations. Pole stated that he used as his sources "Records out of ye Towre, the Exchecquer & such deedes & evidences which in my searches I have founde". The Tower of London was one of the main repositories of legal and governmental deeds and other historical documents, until the opening of the Public Record Office in 1838. His work was enlarged by his son Sir John Pole, 1st Baronet, "who was much addicted also to this ingenuous study". However some, maybe many, of his manuscripts were destroyed at Colcombe Castle during the Civil War. A folio volume of deeds, charters, and grants compiled in 1616, a small portion of which was printed privately by Sir Thomas Phillipps under the title "Sir William Pole's Copies of Extracts from Old Evidences", Mill Hill, c.1840. A thin folio volume containing heraldry, etc. A volume of deeds and grants to Tor Abbey Pole's collections were used as source material for their own historical writings by among others, Tristram Risdon (d.1640), John Prince (d.1723) (Worthies of Devon), and the brothers Daniel Lysons (1762–1834) and Samuel Lysons (1763–1819),

Assessment His contemporary and fellow researcher into the history of Devonshire Tristram Risdon (d.1640), wrote as follows of Pole:

Today, Pole's collections are considered to be valuable records of otherwise lost documents, though as Youings wrote in 1996: "being a man of his time, the material was largely concerned with the genealogy and landed possessions of Devon's aristocracy and gentry, and he found no place for the rest of society". eldest son, who predeceased his father, as is stated on the mural monument to his mother in the Pole Chapel in Colyton Church. Sir John Pole, 1st Baronet (c.1589–1658), eldest surviving son and heir. Peryam Pole, 2nd eldest surviving son, who founded the Irish branch of the family and whose descendant William Pole (died 1771), of Ballyfin, died without issue and bequeathed his estates to his wife's great-nephew William Wesley (1763–1845), who thereupon adopted the surname Wesley-Pole (Anglicised later to Wellesley-Pole) and became later 3rd Earl of Mornington, and was an elder brother of the 1st Duke of Wellington William Pole (1593–1674), triplet, baptised 4 December 1593 at Shute. and of Whiteway, Kingsteignton; secondly in 1606 (as his first wife) to Francis Courtenay, Elizabeth Pole (1588–1654), 3rd daughter, like her brother William Pole emigrated to America, and played a prominent role in the foundation and incorporation of Taunton, Massachusetts in 1639–40, where she died on 21 May 1654 Ann Pole (born 1589), 4th daughter, married in 1611/12 Eleanor Pole (born 1597), 5th daughter, wife of Anthony Floyer of Floyer Hayes in the parish of St Thomas, Exeter.

His second marriage was to Jane Simmes (died 1653), daughter of William Simmes (or Symes) of Chard, Somerset, and widow of Roger How, merchant of London. The marriage was childless.

Death and burial Pole died on 9 February 1635, aged 73, at his home Colcombe Castle, in the parish of Colyton, to which he had retired leaving Shute for the occupation of his son John. He was buried in the west side of the chancel in Colyton church, in the floor of which exists a simple ledger stone, with an inscription now much worn.