Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Poole, Joshua
POOLE, JOSHUA (fl. 1640), was admitted a subsizar at Clare Hall, Cambridge, on 17 Jan. 1632, and was placed under the tuition of Barnabas Oley. He graduated M.A., and for some time had charge of a private school kept in the house of one Francis Atkinson at Hadley, near Barnet in ‘Middlesex,’ as he describes it in ‘The English Parnassus.’ Poole, who died before 1657, published: ‘The English Accidence, or a Short and Easy Way for the more Speedy Attaining to the Latine Tongue,’ 4to, 1646; reprinted 1655, and, with a slightly different title, 1670. ‘The English Parnassus, or a Helpe to English Poesie,’ 8vo, 1657 (reprinted 1677), though a posthumous publication, has a dedication to Francis Atkinson, in whose house it was compiled, signed by Poole, who has also prefixed ten pages of verse addressed to ‘the hopeful young gentlemen his scholars.’ He also wrote and prepared for publication a work on English rhetoric, but it does not appear to have been printed.
[Information kindly supplied by the master of Clare College; the English Parnassus; Addit. MS. 24491, f. 325.]