William Poole (211)

William Poole (26 January 1729–6 April 1779) was a miller, astronomer, and public officeholder, and a member of the American Philosophical Society via his 1768 election to the American Society. He was born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, but relocated to Delaware at a young age. In adulthood, he oversaw the family mill on the Brandywine Creek. He also took an active role in public life, serving as Wilmington town clerk from 1758 to 1769 and as assistant burgess in 1760 and 1761. In 1773 he served on a committee charged with regulating the extension of wharves on Delaware’s Christiana River. The latter role made use of Poole’s mathematical and astronomical knowledge, as did his appointment by the APS to observe the Transit of Venus from Wilmington in 1769. His observations of the Transit were printed in the Society’s Transactions in 1771. During the American Revolution, Poole departed from the pacifist Quaker norm in taking the oath of allegiance without hesitation in 1778. He died a year later, bequeathing a number of scientific books to his sons and to the Wilmington Academy. (PI)