Jacob Poole (11 February 1774 – 20 November 1827) was an Irish antiquarian.

Biography

Poole was the son of Joseph Poole and his wife Sarah, daughter of Jacob Martin of Aghfad, co. Wexford, was born at Growtown, co. Wexford, 11 February 1774. His parents were members of the

Society of Friends Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

, and he was seventh in descent from Thomas and Catherine Poole of Dortrope,

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

. Their son, Richard Poole, came to Ireland with the parliamentary army in 1649, turned quaker, was imprisoned for his religion at Wexford and Waterford, and died in Wexford gaol, to which he was committed for refusing to pay tithe in 1665. Jacob succeeded to the family estate of Growtown, in the parish of Taghmon, in 1800, and farmed his own land. He studied the customs and language of the baronies of

Bargy Bargy is a barony in County Wexford, Ireland. From the 12th century Bargy and the surrounding area, including the barony of Forth, saw extensive Anglo-Norman settlement following the Norman invasion of Ireland. A distinctive Anglic language, ...

and

Forth Forth or FORTH may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''forth'' magazine, an Internet magazine * ''Forth'' (album), by The Verve, 2008 * ''Forth'', a 2011 album by Proto-Kaw * Radio Forth, a group of independent local radio stations in Scotl ...

, on the edge of the former of which his estate lay. The inhabitants used to speak an old English dialect, dating from the earliest invasion of the country, and he collected the words and phrases of this expiring language from his tenants and labourers. This collection was edited by the Rev. William Barnes from the original manuscript, and published in 1867 as ‘A Glossary, with some pieces of verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy.’ The glossary contains about fifteen hundred words, noted with great fidelity. The dialect is now extinct, and this glossary, with a few words in Holinshed and some fragments of verse, is its sole authentic memorial. Poole completed the glossary and a further vocabulary or gazetteer of the local proper names in the last five years of his life. He died 20 November 1827, and was buried in the graveyard of the Society of Friends at Forest, co. Wexford. He married, 13 May 1813, Mary, daughter of Thomas and Deborah Sparrow of Holmstown, co. Wexford, and had three sons and three daughters. A poem in memory of Poole, called ‘The Mountain of Forth,’ by Richard Davis Webb, who had known and admired him, was published in 1867, and it was owing to Mr. Webb's exertions that the glossary was published.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Poole, Jacob 1774 births 1827 deaths Irish antiquarians 18th-century antiquarians 19th-century antiquarians People from County Wexford