Thomas Pole

He was born in Philadelphia, the youngest son of John Pole (1705–1755), a native of Wiveliscombe, Somerset, who emigrated to New Jersey.

In 1777 he studied medicine with Dr. Joseph Rickman at Maidenhead, went on to Reading as student, and in 1780 moved to Falmouth, becoming assistant to Dr. J.

Pole spent time on ministerial work in the Society of Friends, and took part in philanthropic schemes.

Bernard Barton, the Quaker poet, paid tribute in 1826 to Pole's wide sympathies and tolerant views.

In 1790 he published Anatomical Instructor (1790), an illustration of the modern and most approved methods of preparing and preserving the different parts of the human body for purposes of study, with copperplates drawn by himself.

[4] Despite a strictness then prevalent in the Society of Friends, he made many water-colour drawings of landscape and architecture, in monotints and silhouettes.