Poore baronets

The Poore Baronetcy, of Rushall in the County of Wiltshire, is a title in the Baronetage of Great Britain. It was created on 8 July 1795 for John Methuen Poore, with remainder, failing heirs male of his own, to his brother Edward Poore and the heirs male of his body.

Sir Edward died in November 1893. On 4 January 1894, the following article was published in The West Australian, under the heading "Extraordinary Career of a Baronet":

A recent issue of the [Melbourne] Age gives the following account of a miner who died on board the steamer Adelaide at Fremantle, recently, and whose papers and effects showed him to be Sir Edward Poore, Bart.

When the steamer Adelaide on her last trip to West Australia reached Fremantle, one of the saloon passengers, a miner, who gave the name of Edward Poore, died in his cabin suddenly of heart disease. He had sufficient warning of his approaching end to call the steward to bring him pen, ink and paper, and to write down an address in Victoria to which the news of his death should be sent, but he had barely finished when he fell back dead. No one knew the man, and the authorities buried him in Fremantle.

When the news of Poore's death reached his friends in Melbourne his papers and effects were examined, and they showed beyond all doubt that the deceased was Sir Edward Poore, baronet, of Rushall, in the county of Wiltshire, England. He was the third baronet, and succeeded his father on the 13th of October, 1838, being then only 12½ years of age, as he was born on 6 March 1826. When he was 18 years of age he was appointed an ensign in the Scotch Fusilier Guards, a crack regiment, but he retired four years later. Shortly before he attained his 25th year he married Miss Frances Elizabeth Moody, daughter of the Rev. Henry Riddell Moody, rector of Chatham [sic for Chartham], Kent. In the following year he made a voyage to Canada, and a son [who later became the 4th baronet] was born to him there. In 1860 he was in France, as is shown by a passport which bears his signature, a singularly striking one, and showing little or no alteration from autographs which he executed not many weeks ago. In 1863 a son, Herbert, was born to him, and subsequently there were two daughters, Elsie and Catherine; but since then Burke's Peerage is silent to the family history - chiefly, it may be presumed, because Poore exiled himself from England about that period. Some time in the early part of the seventies he appeared in Australia. As he admitted afterwards to others with whom he had become confidential, but never to the extent of disclosing his real identity, he had left England because he had abandoned his wife and children, and thrown in his lot with a woman with whom he was infatuated.

His early days in Australia were devoted to a lavish expenditure of money, no luxury being too gross for him. Thousands of pounds were squandered in jewellery, especially diamonds, for which, right through his colonial career, he manifested an insatiable passion. One single diamond that he carried in a ring was of such value that a pawnbroker in the city readily advanced £100 upon it. This sort of life soon exhausted his supply of ready cash, so he embraced the contracting business. His early military training had imbued with a certain amount of knowledge of the business of bridge building, so in his contracting efforts he confined himself almost entirely to that class of work. He threw off entirely the grandiose air of an English aristocrat, and assimilated himself to the conditions of his new life. A photograph of himself, taken on one the bridges he was erecting, shows him with a slouched hat and moleskin trousers, and under the picture, in his own handwriting, is written, "Ned, the Pile Driver." There appears to have been a stress in his money matters which stopped his contracting career and he became an ordinary day labourer, but he again emerged from that state into affluence. Money flowed in plentifully, and he then sought out as a confidential man, Mr. Adolphus Dunn, of Malvern, and through him the greater part of his future business was contracted. Hotel keeping was his next hobby, and he took the Armiadale Hotel, at Armadale [Malvern and Armadale are both suburbs of Melbourne], but the venture cost him about £5,000. Better luck attended him whilst he had the Grace Darling Hotel, in Elizabeth-street [Melbourne], which he bought into after leaving Armadale; but he only made both ends meet, so he gave it up and took the New Brighton Hotel, at Lady Robinson's Beach, Sydney, and in six months, by dint of terrible bad management and extravagance, he lost £2,000. That was his last venture as a publican. For all his 68 years he was very energetic, and the news of the gold finds at Coolgardie allured him to West Australia. As usual, he adapted himself with great facility to the circumstances in which he found himself, and was soon as much a miner as the hundreds that surrounded him. He went out to the gold-fields and prospected. He discovered a reef, hastened to Perth, took up a mineral lease, and then left for Melbourne to form a company which would supply machinery and work the claim. All the speculators to whom he put the matter required too large a share in the mine for Poore's tastes, so he bought machinery himself, and left by the Adelaide for Perth on the 14th November, taking the machinery with him, but he died as already stated on the 23rd November, just as the Adelaide reached Fremantle.

In all his dealings with people in the colonies Poore never disclosed his rank, except to one person, his medical adviser, Mr. Fitzgerald; but of late years he had taken to impressing his crest, a cubit arm, grasping in the hand an arrow, upon all cheques which he signed. One occasion on which Poore was recognised is mentioned by a friend of his, who was with him one day in Collins-street [Melbourne]. The friend whilst talking to Poore met a third party, whom he introduced to Mr. Poore. The stranger looked straight at the man to whom he was presented, and said, "Ha, Mr. Poore ! Only Mr. Poore?" The latter replied, "Yes; isn't that enough? What more would you want?" Then in reply to questions by the stranger Poore said that he had never been in England, and that he did not know Chartham in Kent - the town, it will be remembered, of which his father-in-law was rector.

Among the papers of the deceased is a diary of his life, which has not yet been looked into, but there are evidences among the collections of articles in his trunks that he had given unbridled scope to his passions, and to that alone he owed his many reverses. It is not at present clear how Poore raised the money of which he got possession from time to time, but it is believed by Mr. Dunn, his confidential man, that he disposed of some of his estates. It is not known whether Lady Poore is living [she was, and lived on until 1926], or whether she obtained a divorce when her husband left her. The deceased made a[n incorrect] statement on one occasion that his eldest son Richard, who would have been his heir, died some years ago, but there is no certainty about it. Should it prove correct, the heir, according to Burke's Peerage, would be his son Herbert who was born in 1863, and he will succeed to the title and what is left of the estates [but Richard, being still alive, became the 4th baronet]. If the mine in West Australia proves of any value then the new baronet may be able to rehabilitate the estates.

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