POLE, John (1649-1708), of Shute, Devon.

Pole was returned for Lyme Regis in 1685 as a court supporter, but left no record of his activities in James II’s Parliament. He was named mayor of Honiton by the King to secure the return of Sir Thomas Putt; the other Member for that borough was Pole’s cousin Edmund Walrond. In 1687 he gave the same evasive answers to the questions on the repeal of the Test Act and Penal Laws as his father, and apparently adhered to them, for he was deprived of local office. He was one of the first western gentlemen reported as joining William of Orange (17 Nov. 1688), and he was re-elected in 1689. Nevertheless he voted to agree with the Lords that the throne was not vacant. His only committee in the Convention was on the bill to naturalize Schomberg, and he probably missed the division on the disabling clause in the bill to restore corporations since he obtained leave of absence on 13 Dec. He lost his seat at the general election, but remained a Tory. He died and was buried at Colyton. He was succeeded by his son William, who sat for various west country constituencies between 1701 and 1734.G. Farquharson, Hist. Honiton, 37-38; Trans. Devon Assoc. xxxix. 264-5; CJ, ix. 736; Luttrell, i. 477.