Samuel Sheldon Poole (March 25, 1751 – October 7, 1835) was a judge and politician in

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

. He represented Yarmouth Township in the

Nova Scotia House of Assembly The Nova Scotia House of Assembly (french: Assemblée législative de la Nouvelle-Écosse; gd, Taigh Seanaidh Alba Nuadh), or Legislative Assembly, is the deliberative assembly of the General Assembly of Nova Scotia of the province of Nova Scotia ...

from 1785 to 1799, from 1806 to 1811 and from 1814 to 1835. Samuel Sheldon Poole was born in

Reading, Massachusetts Reading ( ) is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, north of central Boston. The population was 25,518 at the 2020 census. History Settlement and American independence Many of the Massachusetts Bay Colony's original settler ...

, the son of Jonathan Poole and Mary Sheldon. He was educated at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and

Yarmouth Yarmouth may refer to: Places Canada *Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia **Yarmouth, Nova Scotia **Municipality of the District of Yarmouth **Yarmouth (provincial electoral district) **Yarmouth (electoral district) * Yarmouth Township, Ontario *New ...

. In 1775 he married Elizabeth Barnes. In 1785, he was named 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 ...

for Queen's County. Poole later was named a justice in the Inferior Court of Common Pleas for

Shelburne County Shelburne County is a county in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. History Shelburne County was founded in 1784 shortly following the influx of Loyalist settlers evacuated from the newly independent United States of America. It was originally ...

and a judge in the probate court. He also served as

custos rotulorum ''Custos rotulorum'' (; plural: ''custodes rotulorum''; Latin for "keeper of the rolls", ) is a civic post that is recognised in the United Kingdom (except Scotland) and in Jamaica. England, Wales and Northern Ireland The ''custos rotulorum'' is t ...

and was the first teacher for the Yarmouth Grammar School, established in 1811. After the death of Samuel Marshall, Poole was elected again to the provincial assembly in an 1814 by-election. In 1826, he was referred to as the "father of the house" by Governor

James Kempt General Sir James Kempt, ( – 20 December 1854) was a British Army officer, who served in the Netherlands, Egypt, Italy, the Peninsula, and British North America during the Napoleonic Wars. He led a British brigade at the Battle of Waterloo and ...

. He appealed his loss to Reuben Clements in the 1830 general election and regained his seat in the assembly the following year. Poole died in office at the age of 84.

References

Campbell, JR ''History of the County of Yarmouth'' (1876)
* ''A Directory of the Members of the Legislative Assembly of Nova Scotia, 1758-1958'', Public Archives of Nova Scotia (1958) * 1751 births 1835 deaths Harvard University alumni Nova Scotia pre-Confederation MLAs Colony of Nova Scotia judges {{NovaScotia-MLA-stub