Family and Education

b. c.1592, 1st s. of Sir Henry Poole* and his 1st w. Griselda, da. of Edward Neville of Newton St. Loe, Som.2 educ. G. Inn 1611.3 m. (1) settlement 8 Dec. 1612,4 Frances (d. 25 June 1638),5 da. of Sir Henry Poole† of Sapperton, Glos., 2s.;6 (2) 3 July 1639,7 Margaret, da. and h. of John Newman of Bellington, Worcs., wid. of Richard Delabere* (d.1636) of Southam, Glos.,8 s.p. kntd. 15 Jan. 1613;9 suc. fa. 1632, aged 40.10 d. by 29 June 1661.11

Offices Held

J.p. Wilts. 1616-26, 1633-43,12 dep. lt. by 1631-at least c.1642;13 commr. sewers, Glos. and Wilts. 1635;14 sheriff, Wilts. 1636-7;15 commr. oyer and terminer, Western circ. 1638,16 assessment, Wilts. 1643-8, sequestrations 1643, levying money 1643, execution of ordinances 1644, defence 1644, militia 1648, 1660.17

Biography

Poole was named after his mother’s family but showed no inclination to adopt their religion. The estate of Poole Keynes was settled on him at his marriage. Returned for Malmesbury on the family interest in 1614, he thereafter sat for one or other neighbouring boroughs whenever his father was representing the county. In the Addled Parliament he was named only to the committee for a Gloucestershire Catholic’s estate bill (9 May).18 Between 1616 and 1619 the Wiltshire bench was riven with faction fighting over which town should host the midsummer sessions, during which time Poole dutifully supported his father, who favoured Devizes.19 His father sat for Malmesbury in 1621, and Poole did not sit again until 1624, when he was returned for Cricklade. He was named to three private bill committees in the last Jacobean Parliament, including one promoted by his father’s old enemies, the Seymours (10 March).20 Neither Poole nor his father sat in the first Caroline Parliament, but in 1626 Sir Henry was again returned for Wiltshire, and Poole replaced his brother-in-law, Henry Poole, at Cirencester, four miles from Poole Keynes. On 18 Apr. he was added to the committee for considering a bill to empower his kinsman Sir Thomas Neville to make a jointure for his wife.21 He made no recorded speeches in Parliament but by the autumn of 1626 he had been removed from the bench, suggesting that he had supported the impeachment of Buckingham.

As a Ship Money sheriff, Poole was over £2,000 in arrears with his collections,22 and in 1639 he refused to contribute to the expenses of the war against the Scots.23 Returned for Malmesbury at both elections in 1640 he favoured episcopacy but supported Parliament in the Civil War.24 He made his will on 24 Jan. 1654, and presumably died shortly before 29 June 1661, when it was proved.25 He was buried in the parish church of Oaksey in Wiltshire.26 His elder son Edward had joined him in the Long Parliament as Member for Wootton Bassett, and sat for three other Wiltshire boroughs until his death in 1673, the last of the family to sit in Parliament.

Ref Volumes: 1604-1629

Author: Alan Davidson

Notes

• 1. Secluded at Pride’s Purge, 6. Dec 1648. Readmitted 21 Feb. 1660.
• 2. J.R. Dunlop, ‘Pedigree of the Pooles of Sapperton and Coates, Glos. and of Poole and Chelworth, Wilts.’, Misc. Gen. et Her. (ser. 5), iii. 213-14.
• 3. GI Admiss.
• 4. Abstracts of Wilts. IPMs ed. G.S. Fry and E.A. Fry (Brit. Rec. Soc. Index Lib. xxiii), 148-50.
• 5. GL, ms 6673/2.
• 6. Dunlop, 214.
• 7. Glos. Par. Regs. ed. W.P.W. Phillimore, iii. 87.
• 8. F. Were, ‘Index to the heraldry in Bigland’s Hist of Glos.’, Trans. Bristol and Glos. Arch. Soc. xxviii. pt. 2, p. 349.
• 9. Shaw, Knights of Eng. ii. 152.
• 10. Wilts. IPMs, 148-50.
• 11. PROB 11/304, f. 349.
• 12. C231/4, f. 23; 231/5, p. 99; Harl. 1622, f. 85; Docquets of Letters Patent 1642-6 ed. W.H. Black, 94.
• 13. CSP Dom. 1631-3. p. 67; CCC, 1329
• 14. C181/5, f. 42.
• 15. List of Sheriffs comp. A. Hughes (PRO, L. and I. ix), 154.
• 16. C181/5, f. 94
• 17. A. and O. i. 95, 117, 151, 236, 450, 475, 542, 977, 1095, 1244; ii. 1445.
• 18. Procs. 1614 (Commons), 175.
• 19. A. Wall, ‘Faction in Local Politics 1580-1620’, Wilts. Arch. Mag. lxxii. 128.
• 20. CJ, i. 681a, 688a, 755b.
• 21. Procs. 1626, iii. 14.
• 22. CSP Dom. 1637, pp. 122, 574; 1638-9, p. 369; 1639, p. 246;
• 23. Historical Collections ed. J. Rushworth, iii. 915;
• 24. M.F. Keeler, Long Parl.
• 25. PROB 11/304, f. 349.
• 26. J. Aubrey, Wilts. ed. J.E. Jackson, 277.