POOLE, Sir Francis, 2nd Bt. (c.1682-1763), of Poole, Cheshire and The Friars, Lewes, Suss.

Poole came of an ancient Roman Catholic family. His father, who was arrested for high treason in 1690 but released on bail a few months later, is shown on a register of Roman Catholic non-jurors compiled under an Act of 1715 as being at that date ‘beyond the seas’.CSP Dom. 1689-90, pp. 521, 527; E. E. Estcourt J. O. Payne, English Catholic Non-jurors in 1715, p. 22. Under the same Act Poole registered himself as a Roman Catholic non-juror, but he must have conformed before 1723, when he was married by the bishop of Chichester at St. Giles-in-the-Fields to Frances Pelham, first cousin to the Duke of Newcastle. Some years after his marriage he left Poole Hall in Cheshire to establish himself at Lewes, for which he was brought into Parliament by Newcastle in 1743. ‘A good-humoured, downright, hearty John Bull’,Horsfield, Sussex, i. 211. he was a faithful follower of the Pelhams, to whom he owed much of his income. His estate brought in only about £800 p.a.,Thos. Pelham to Hen. Pelham, 25 Dec. 1722, Add. 33084, ff. 201 et seq. but when he came to live in Lewes, Pelham, then paymaster general of the forces, made him deputy paymaster of the forces in Minorca (£550 p.a.), which was supplemented on his return to Parliament by a secret service pension of £200 p.a., subsequently increased to £300.Hen. Poole to Newcastle, 3 May 1759, Add. 32890, f. 460. His office was transferred to his eldest son, Henry, in 1747, when under the Place Act of 1742 it became incompatible with a seat in the House. He died 15 Feb. 1763 at the age of 81.Suss. Arch. Colls. xxxiv. 166.