William Pole (antiquary)

Sir William Pole (1561–1635) of Colcombe in the parish of Colyton, and formerly of Shute House in the adjoining parish of Shute, 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.

Pole was baptised on 27 August 1561 at Colyton, Devon, the son of William Pole, Esquire (1515–1587), 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.

Pole married twice. His first marriage was to Mary Peryam (1567–1605), one of the four daughters and co-heiresses of Sir William Peryam (1534–1604), of Fulford House, Shobrooke, Devon, a judge and Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer. Mary Peryam's first cousin was Jane Peryham (a daughter and co-heiress of Sir John Peryam (1541 – c. 1618), brother of Sir William Peryam (d.1604)) who married the diarist Walter Yonge (1579–1649) of Great House in the parish of Colyton (in which parish also lived Sir William Pole at Colcombe Castle). Thus the wife of the famous Devon historian Sir William Pole was the first cousin of his near neighbour, the famous Devon diarist Walter Yonge; the sons of both men were created baronets. In future the Yonge and Pole families long competed with each other to win one of the two Parliamentary seats of the nearby Rotten Borough of Honiton, of which borough the Yonges were patrons, an electorate which expected to be bought by generous bribes which over time proved exorbitant to candidates. By Mary Peryam he had six sons and six daughters including:

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