Thomas Pole papers

The Thomas Pole papers consist of three bound manuscripts, a letter case with silhouettes, an annotated map, and a collection of papers related to American-born Quaker physician, Thomas Pole (1753-1829).

The first volume in this collection is a spiritual and medical biography by Thomas Pole about his sister, entitled Short Memoirs of the Life of Ann Pole, with a full account of her last illness, she died 4mo. 9th 1798. Ann Pole was born in Philadelphia in 1751 and was educated by Philadelphia abolitionist Anthony Benezet. Pole notes that his sister “always spoke of her worthy tutor in terms which evinced a sincere affection & friendship” (p. 2). Despite an obvious affection for his sister, Pole criticized her fondness for “dress & amusements & what is improperly called ‘enjoying life.’” (p. 3) Ann Pole traveled extensively in America before coming to England in 1792. Pole noted that his sister also traveled in England, but was constrained by a “deficiency in Remittances from America, where she had the principal part of her property, and which had been previously reduced by the events of the late American War.” (p. 15).

Taken ill at her brother’s house, Ann Pole received visits from various members of the Society of Friends, including Philadelphia Quaker William Savery (1750-1804), an abolitionist and defender of Native American rights. The biography also includes testimony from Jenny Fry on Ann Pole’s spiritual state during her final illness and Fry’s description of her funeral. The memoirs are bound in green morocco leather over card.

The second volume is a spiritual and medical biography of Thomas Pole’s son, entitled Memoirs of the life and last illness of John Pole student in medicine who died the fifteenth of the Eleventh Month 1803 In the nineteenth year of his Age Written by his Father Thomas Pole. M.D. With several Poems occasioned by his Death; also Letters and Abstracts from some of his Correspondents, and from various Persons to his near Relatives upon his Removal. Pole stated that the memoir was for “the information and satisfaction of those only, who were his intimate connections” to whom “ every little circumstance which respects his history, will be…interesting and desirable.” (pp. 1-3). Despite his medical expertise, Thomas Pole sought advice from other doctors when it became clear he could not save his son himself. Following John Pole’s death, his father described the depths of his despair: “His books, his botanical Specimens, the sketches of his pencil, his Minerals, and every thing which he called his, I viewed with a painful consciousness of the loss I had sustained; and even shed my Tears of Grief over the scraps of paper upon which he had written his name.” (p. 56)

Following the biography, Pole copied poems and letters received from friends and family members reflecting on the death of his son. These included poems from poet Elizabeth Bath, writer Charlotte Rees, and leading Manchester surgeon John Atkinson Ransome. The last letters copied in the volume were from Pole’s nephew and his wife, Joseph and Deborah Bringhurst of Wilmington, Delaware. The volume is bound in diced brown leather with a spine of black morocco leather. The covers are ruled in gilt and the volume features marbled pastedowns and endpapers and a title page in grey wash with facet lettering.

The third volume is entitled Memorials of valued friends deceased, by Thomas Pole M.D.. Pole created brief memorial entries for various friends and family members, beginning with his sister Anna Bringhurst (d. 1777) and ending with his daughter Mary Ann’s mother-in-law, Mary Fowler (d. 1824). The volume also includes memorials to Ann Leaver, William Cookworthy, Mary Lockey, Sarah Fox, Rebecca Wright, Edmund Hatcher, Charlotte Rees Lloyd, and Hester Bowly.

The longest entry (pp. 69-87) was for his grandchildren, Elizabeth and Amelia Duck, who both died of measles during the winter of 1821. Pole included a medical appendix on the measles and a poem by an anonymous author entitled “The Dying Infant.” This volume is bound in red morocco leather with gilt borders on the cover and spine. It features a title page in grey wash with facet lettering.

This collection also includes a letter case containing twelve silhouettes by Thomas Pole. The letter case is bound in red morocco leather with joints made from red silk and lined with blue wax paper. The date “1816” and name “T. Pole” are blind stamped on the inside of fold and sheer side of the case, respectively. Most of the silhouettes were executed in pencil on paper and exhibit varying degrees of detail. While a silhouette of Joseph Bringhurst consists only of the sitter’s profile, Sarah Romaine’s silhouette features a more detailed rendering of her kerchief, hair, and comb. The only finished drawing is done on card and is overworked with gouache and gilt. This silhouette is inscribed on the verso to Charles Tremayne. Some of the silhouettes are dated or include the sitter’s age. The dated silhouettes were executed between 1804 and 1811.

The Thomas Pole papers also include an engraved, hand-colored map of the British Isles with Pole’s inscriptions and markings. The map details Pole’s travels to various Quaker Meetings between 1775 and 1777. On this map, Pole drew a manicule at Lizard Point in Cornwall with a note, “the first land we made,” followed by a zigzag course of a ship labeled “Course of ye Brigg Two Friends.” A further manicule points to Dover with a note reading “where we landed ye 15 of ye 6 mo. 1775.” Pole marked the roads he traveled ink, showing a network of routes that took him all over England, into southern Wales, and over the English Channel into Calais, France, and perhaps beyond. By the map’s imprint information, Pole wrote “The Pen Marks are my Travels.”

The map is entitled Kitchin’s most accurate map of the roads of England and Wales: with the distances by the mile stones and other most exact admensurations between town and town and was published in London by Robert Sayer. The map was cut into six equal-sized pieces and laid on silk for folding. An inscription in the top right corner reads “Thomas Pole, Lancaster P 0/6.” It is unclear if this map was purchased in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, prior to his departure or in Lancaster, England, a stop on his journey.

The rest of the collection consists of approximately one hundred items, mostly letters and other documents pertaining to Thomas Pole and his extended family. During the 1810s and 1820s, Pole conducted extensive genealogical research on Pole family ancestors and descendants. He was aided in his research by several family members in both the United States and England, particularly his nephew’s wife, Deborah Bringhurst of Wilmington, Delaware. Bringhurst created genealogical charts of the Pole and Bringhurst families and gathered information from residents of Pennsylvania and New Jersey on the family of William Coate, a distant relation of Thomas Pole. There are also a several letters to Pole from Bringhurst and other relations that mingle genealogical information with family news and gossip. It appears that some of the genealogical materials were produced after Thomas Pole’s death, especially documents pertaining to the family of his daughter, Rachel Pole Duck (1791-1851).

Materials in this collection related to the Duck family of Bristol, England, include letters, indentures, birth certificates, and estate assessments dating from 1709 to 1881. Most of the letters were sent to Rachel Pole Duck’s daughter, Rachel Pole Duck Wedmore (1818-1886), by school friends in England and female relatives in the United States during the 1830s and 1840s. The indentures pertain to apprenticeships in the Duck and Wedmore families. A document from 1738 declared that John Duck had completed his apprenticeship and received his freedom papers from the City of London. The birth certificates relate to at least four generations of the Duck family, dating from 1709 to 1831. There are two photocopied sketches and one photocopied silhouette of members of the Duck family. It is possible that the originals were executed by Thomas Pole. Other materials from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries suggest that these papers descended through the Wedmore family.

Many of the legal documents among the Duck and Wedmore family materials highlight changes in record-keeping practices during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. All of the Duck family birth certificates feature a scalloped edge, also seen in period indentures, which matched a counterpart held by local church officials. The documents related to the administration of Rachel Pole Duck’s estate from 1851 include tax stamps and seals from the Exchequer of York and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Researchers can find other letters and silhouettes by Thomas Pole in MSS0684, Shipley-Bringhurst-Hargraves family papers.