Henry Poole (1590-1645) was an English politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

variously between 1624 and 1640.

Biography

Poole was the son of Sir Henry Poole of Sapperton, Gloucestershire, former MP for Gloucestershire, and his wife Anne Wroughton, daughter of Sir

William Wroughton Sir William Wroughton (1509/10–1559), of Broad Hinton, Wiltshire, was an English politician. He was a Member (MP) of the Parliament of England for Wiltshire in 1547 and April 1554. He built the present parish church of St. Peter Ad Vincula-Bro ...

of Broad Hinton, Wiltshire. He matriculated at

Merton College, Oxford Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is one of the Colleges of Oxford University, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the ...

on 10 July 1607 and was a student of the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

in 1609.W R Williams ''Parliamentary History of the County of Gloucester''
/ref> In 1616 he inherited an estate worth over £2000 a year from his father. He was a Deputy Lieutenant for Gloucestershire by 1624. Poole served as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

for

Cirencester Cirencester (, ; see below for more variations) is a market town in Gloucestershire, England, west of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswolds. It is the home of ...

, of which he was the patron, in 1624 and 1625. In 1626 he gave his interest in the seat to his cousin

Neville Poole Sir Neville Poole (died 1661) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons variously between 1614 and 1648. He supported the Parliamentarian side in the English Civil War. Poole was the son of Sir Henry Poole of Cirencester and Oa ...

. His opposition to various measures

Charles I Charles I may refer to: Kings and emperors * Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings * Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily * Charles I of ...

adopted to raise money, such as the 'forced loan' and

Ship money Ship money was a tax of medieval origin levied intermittently in the Kingdom of England until the middle of the 17th century. Assessed typically on the inhabitants of coastal areas of England, it was one of several taxes that English monarchs cou ...

led to occasional imprisonment and suspensions from sitting as a

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

. In April 1640 he again sat for Cirencester in the

Short Parliament The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that was summoned by King Charles I of England on the 20th of February 1640 and sat from 13th of April to the 5th of May 1640. It was so called because of its short life of only three weeks. Aft ...

. Despite his earlier opposition to the king's financial measures, he supported Charles I in the civil war, although his support may have been less than wholehearted. His reward was to be knighted. Following Poole's death in 1645 his son William compounded for delinquency and in 1647 was fined £1494. The Pooles had argued that father and son were forced to comply with the

Royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governme ...

party and had never acted against parliament. The family's fortunes never fully recovered from the effects of the civil war, and their estate at Sapperton was sold by his grandson Henry in 1661.

Family

Poole married Hon. Beatrix Brydges daughter of

William Brydges, 4th Baron Chandos William Brydges, 4th Baron Chandos (ca. 1552 – 1602) was an English peer and politician. He was the younger son and heir of Edmund Brydges, 2nd Baron Chandos and Dorothy, the youngest daughter and child of Sir Edmund Braye, 1st Baron B ...

and had three children: *William (d. 1651) married Meriel (d. 1644), daughter of Robert Tracy, 2nd Viscount Tracy *Anne married

James Livingston, 1st Earl of Newburgh James Livingston, 1st Earl of Newburgh (c. 1622 – 4 December 1670) was a Scottish peer who sat in the House of Commons of England from 1661 to 1670. He supported the Royalist cause in the English Civil War. Livingston was the only son of Sir ...

*Beatrice married Thomas Pope, 3rd

Earl of Downe Earl of Downe was a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created on 16 October 1628 for Sir William Pope, 1st Baronet. He had already been created a Baronet, of Wilcote in the County of Oxford, in the Baronetage of England on 29 June 1611 an ...

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Poole, Henry 1590s births 1650s deaths Alumni of Merton College, Oxford English MPs 1624–1625 English MPs 1625 English MPs 1640 (April)