William Pole (d.1587)

William Pole (1515-1587), Esquire, was a lawyer and speculator in church lands following the Dissolution of the Monasteries who served as MP for Lyme Regis in 1545, Bridport in 1553 and for West Looe in 1559. He acquired lands in East Devon and was the founder of the influential and wealthy Pole family of Shute, Devon. He was the father of the famous Sir William Pole (1561-1635), the antiquary, historian of Devon.

He was the only son of William Pole by his second wife Agnes Drake, daughter of John Drake of Ash in the parish of Musbury, Devon, an eminent and ancient Devon family. His full pedigree, showing his descent from the ancient family of "Pool" of Pool Hall, Wirral, Cheshire is inscribed on a brass plaque on his monument erected by his son the antiquary in the Pole Chapel in Colyton Church in Devon:

"Here lieth the body of William Pole late of Shute, Esq., deceased who maryd Kateryn daught. of Alexander Popham of Huntworth, Esq. Ye said Wm. was sonne of Wm. & of Agnes daught. of John Drake of Ashe wch. Wm. was sonne of John & of Edith daught of Rychard Tytherleigh of Tytherleigh; wch. John was sonne of John and of Jone his wife da. of Robert Code of Cornwall; which John was sonne of Arture & of Johan, da. and heire of John Pole; which Arture was second sonne of Sr. Wm. Pole of Pole in Wirral in the county of Chester, knight, & of his wife da. of Sr. William Manwaring of Pyver(?). He hath left behind only on sonne named William & on daught. names Dorothie maried to Thomas Erle of Charbrough, Esquier. He dyed the XVth of August A(nn)o 1587 beinge of the age of lxxii yeares and vi dayes".

Thus on his paternal side he was descended from the Pole family of Cheshire, into which family was married his great-great grandmother Johan Pole, the heiress of the Poles of Ford in the parish of Musbury, Devon, which were unrelated families bearing different armorials: The Poles of Cheshire bore: Azure seme of fleurs-de-lys a lion rampant argent, whilst the Devon Poles bore: A buck's head gules. The senior line of the Cheshire Poles had held the manor of Pool since the 13th century and remained seated there until the early 1820s. Pool Hall, demolished in about 1938, was a Tudor house re-built by Thomas Pole in about 1574, as indicated by that date having been carved on the hall fireplace. The east front of the house faced the River Mersey, and the site was purchased by Bowater Mersey Mills Paper Limited, paper manufacturers, which constructed a factory on the site in 1921, now known as "North Road, Ellesmere Port". In the 1840s the house was described by W. Mortimer as "the finest ancient manor house in Cheshire". The house, which had long been derelict, was destroyed to allow for later expansion of the works. The clock which once occupied a gable of the house was saved and is now situated in the Boat Museum of Ellesmere Port.

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