Poole family

Places and Professions

Reaching back at least into the 1600’s and up until the early 1800’s all records uncovered so far are of farmers and yet more farmers lining the banks of the river Vyrnwy within the parishes of Llansanffraid-Ym-Mechain, Llanymynech and Llandysilio.

Eventually one of them, Thomas Poole (1802-1851), strayed over the border to Cardeston Park Farm near Shrewsbury. Although Thomas owned the family’s Trefnanney Bank farm back in Wales, he let this to a tenant and was a tenant himself at Cardeston. After his premature death at the age of 48, his son, also Thomas Poole (1835-1905) took the reins until 1867 when he moved lock stock and barrel to the beautiful Aston House Farm in Aston-on-Clun, as his diary records:

“Packing goods to send off” Mar 18, 1867

“At sale at Aston on Clun. (snow 10 inches deep a bad day to get home same night reached Cardiston at midnight” Mar 19

“Drove from Cardiston to Aston on Clun, called at the Grange, Chilton & had tea at Church Stretton on the way” Mar 28

“Margaret, Janet Vaughan, & servants helping to put up things in house a very busy awkward time. I bought at the sale stock & other things to the amount of 130..0..0” Mar 30

“My sheep came here by rail & the cattle walked here” 22nd April

After being widowed, Thomas senior’s wife Emma née Evans, had moved to Grange Farm, Bicton, near the Montford Bridge with her middle son John. Some of you have driven past it many, many times and some still do. These pictures of the property were found in the inside cover of an 1833 family Pocketbook:

Further back… our Pooles’ ancestral heartland

Probing back into the 1600s, properties and locations produce a who’s who list of obscure welsh messuages (Google it!) : Cefn-y-coed, Llanerchkela, Clawdd-côch, Careghofa, Sychtyn, Haughton, Burgedin, Sarnau, Trefnannau/Trefnanney, Wern Cottage, Hendreboeth, Llwyntidman…

Wait until we get to our oldest traceable parish township Lanerkylan, Llanerkyla, Lanerkeela, Lanerch-kela, Lanerch-celli, Lanerchcila… but that is for a future Research Post.

Cefn-y-coed…

Cefn-y-coed lies within the township of Llanerkeela in the parish of Llansanffraid-ym-Mechain (subject of a future post). The reference to it in the Pocketbook relates to Jeffrey Poole (1703-?1740). But we have records of one or two older Jeffrey Pooles also of Llanerkeela and so possibly living in this farm also. Families did not move far, and this tiny parish township and its pungent pastures likely generated most of the Poole clan primordial soup from which we slithered. It’s good to see that this Jeffrey imported some more exotic DNA in the form of Miss Jane Nightingale from across the Vyrnwy and the Llanymynech parish township of Careghofa. There was a Jane Nightingale in my first year at university… I digress.

Clawdd-côch…

Last will and testament of Jeffrey Poole (1733-1801)

Clawdd Côch was the principle address of the next generation’s Jeffrey Poole (1733-1801). The farm is back across the river Vyrnwy in Careghofa township, so it looks as if this Jeffrey moved into his mother’s family territory. However he had 5 estates at the time of his death and may still have owned Cefn-y-coed. This Jeffrey is our pantomine villain who deprived us nearly two centuries later of our rightful lands, bogs, and sheep (as explained in the Research Post “The Importance of Being Jeffrey“.

Backgrounder box:

Parish records are the primary source of information when it comes to digging up past generations in the UK. People generally did not stray far from home and once the correct parish is identified a picture of a family takes shape as you go page by page deciphering illegible handwriting, water damaged originals and to cap it all… latin! Each parish was made up of ‘Townships’ which are a further aid to pinpointing specific ancestors.

A mixture of parishes and townships in 1851

Were they all farmers…

From 1800 onwards a few more strings were added to the Poole employment repertoire, and with the dawn of the railways some of us even strayed further afield than Oswestry:

• John Poole (1809-1850), rector of St Tysilio Church, Llandysilio. Initially the curate, John studied theology at Cambridge University before returning to become rector. Reportedly there is an engraved stone inside the church to his memory. Keeping to the religious theme, his daughter Emily Poole married Charles Thornes Roberts who was ‘Chaplain Curate to the Bishop of Bedford’ before ending his days as rector of St Vedast Church across the road from St Paul’s Cathedral in London. An 1891 census shows they lived at 26 Royal Crescent, London, which I now drive past on the school run.

• Jeffrey Poole (1807-1854) was an apprentice ’druggist’ in Oswestry for 7 years before setting up his own establishment in Brentford, London. Click here to see his fabulous apprenticeship papers. He and his wife Anne (née Powell) are buried in Chiswick cemetery. Their descendants are now a sizeable enclave in Australia. I believe the 1833 pocketbook crammed with family research findings was originally his; he even features in it after his own demise.
• Jeffrey Poole (1863-1940) great nephew of the above, also trained as a ‘chemist’ in Oswestry, but had only 4 years of apprenticeship to endure. We have his original apprenticeship paperwork as well. On September 13^th 1888 his father Thomas notes in his diary “Margaret & Emma went to Birmingham to get house ready for Jeffrey to start in business for himself as a chemist at 13 Great Hampton Street (late Snape & Son)”. Being the eldest, Jeffrey inherited and then sold the last owned farm estate of this line of Pooles; Trefnanney Bank. He and his wife Mary Jane were childless and he bought his niece, my grandmother, Iliffe Poole and her husband Morley Davies their family home ‘Corndon’ in Newport Shropshire. His nephew, Harold Poole, inherited the chemist business in Birmingham.
• Jeffrey’s brother Bernard entered into an entirely new profession for the family, and his son Humphrey would inherit his place in the Shropshire auctioneering firm Morris, Marshall, Poole… which became Morris, Barker, Poole in Humphrey’s day.

Below is a page from the Llansanffraid-Ym-Mechain parish register for 1666-1711. It features the earliest original record I have found to date of our direct Poole ancestors. Jeffrey and Anne Poole were buried a week apart in March 1679-80 (see ‘The Importance of Being Jeffrey’ for an explanation of ‘1679-80‘). Jeffrey and Anne are my generation’s 8x Great Grandparents who in all probability lived through the execution of Charles I and the English Civil War.

And here the story pauses… for now. This page is intended to be a backdrop to all future research on the Pooles. Keep an eye on the Research Posts which are filtered by ‘Pooles’ on the right hand side of this page, and will also appear with all posts on the home page.

Please feel free to fire me any questions, question anything and make comments on the site. If you want to starting digging around in the past for yourself, fantastic, I’d be delighted to help.

Below is the Poole ‘Family of Families’ from which we are descended. Watch out for research into each branch in the months, years… decades… ahead.

Poole Research Posts