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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 2004-04 > 1081338054


From: Tim Powys-Lybbe <>
Subject: Re: CP Addition: Richard Pole's 1st marriage to Alice Stradling
Date: Wed, 07 Apr 2004 12:40:54 +0100
References: <5cf47a19.0404052115.45e1f23@posting.google.com> <cbf7689b4c.tim@south-frm.demon.co.uk> <5cf47a19.0404070003.49300fb1@posting.google.com>


In message of 7 Apr, (Douglas Richardson) wrote:

> Dear Tim ~
>
> Today I reviewed a variety of records pertaining to the family of
> Geoffrey Pole (or Poole) (died 1479), of Medmenham, Buckinghamshire
> found on the online PROCAT catalog (http://catalogue.pro.gov.uk).
> I found five records pertaining to Geoffrey Pole himself, five records
> pertaining to his son, Sir Richard Pole (died 1504), and three records
> pertaining to Sir Richard's widow, Margaret Plantagenet, Countess of
> Salisbury. The records (which I have posted below) range in date from
> the 1430's to the 1530's. All thirteen records spell the family
> surname Pole. I found no instances of any of these people as Poole.
> I trust this answers your question as to when the family began using
> the spelling Pole for their surname.

I wish it did. (Thanks, by the way, for going to the trouble to look
up this catalogue.)

The problem, as you are well aware, is what you see on the site is the
cataloguer's abstract of the deeds. They may very well have used modern
spelling.

We will only find out when someone gets hold of the originals. And I
suspect then it will be ambiguous as multiple spellings will be found,
as was the custom of those times.

Meantime, we can be reasonably certain that the various editors of the
Visitation series determined to copy the verbal content and spelling on
the surviving documents and curiously these all use, universally, the
spelling of "Poole". Why did the originals (or even the copies of those
originals) have this if that spelling had died out at least sixty years
previously?


Has anyone got any suggestions of how to establish what Geoff Poole's
style was at the time of his death? Had he been knighted within the
six months between writing his will, when he was an esquire, and probate
being given? Was there an IPM?

--
Tim Powys-Lybbe
For a miscellany of bygones: http://powys.org

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