Author: Poole, Edward Richard
Biography:
POOLE, Edward Richard (1803-84: ancestry.co.uk)
He was born on 10 Mar. 1803 at Lawrence Lane, City of London, and baptised on 14 Aug. at St. Lawrence Jewry, the eldest son of John Poole and Anna Maria Dyke, who had married at Shoreditch, London, in 1791. The family later moved to Great Ormond Street, Bloomsbury. Nothing is known of his early education but he proceeded to Trinity Hall, Cambridge (Pensioner 1823, matric. 1824, Scholar 1825, BA 1828). He was articled to a solicitor in May 1821 and also entered the Inner Temple on 24 Jan. 1823. On 8 Aug. 1825, he was appointed High Bailiff of the liberty and franchise of the Savoy, under the patronage of the crown. He was ordained deacon (1829) and priest (1830) and was appointed curate of St. Michael’s, Crooked Lane, London, in 1829. He then became curate of Preston cum Hedon, Yorkshire (1834-5); Finningley, Nottinghamshire (1835-6); Boulton, Derbyshire (1836-8 and perpetual curate 1838-84). He was also curate of nearby Alvaston (1840-6 and perpetual curate 1846-84). He early established a reputation as a bibliophile and book-collector with The Classical Collector’s Vade Mecum (1822) and The Bibliographical Retrospective Miscellany (1830). He was on good terms with the noted bibliographer Thomas Frognall Dibdin. He married Sophia Lane, the youngest daughter of Rev. Theophilus Lane, prebendary of Hereford, on 12 Nov. 1829 at St. George the Martyr, Queen Square, Bloomsbury. They had two sons, Edward Stanley Poole (1830-67) and Reginald Stuart Poole (1832-95), both of whom shared their mother’s interest in Arabia. Sophia Poole is now better known than her husband, from whom she appears to have separated. She seems to have remained in London and later lived with her brother, the distinguished Arabic scholar, Edward Lane. She was the author of the highly regarded The Englishwoman in Egypt (1844-6, modern edition ed. Azza Kararah 2003). Poole died on 18 June 1884 at Alvaston and was buried the same day but with an incorrect age of 74 recorded. (ancestry.co.uk 25 Sept. 2023; findmypast.co.uk 25 Sept. 2023; ODNB [Sophia Poole, Edward Lane] 25 Sept. 2023; CCEd 25 Sept. 2023; MH 11 July 1823; New Times 17 Aug. 1825; Derby Daily Telegraph 19 June 1884) AA