in the possession of Milles, dean of Exeter. Pococke is described by Richard Cumberland (Memoirs) as a man of solemn air, ‘of mild manners, and primitive simplicity.’ In conversation he was remarkably reticent about his travels. Mrs. Delany, whom Pococke entertained when archdeacon of Dublin, found her host and his entertainments dull. Bishop Forbes, however, speaks of his geniality when on one of his Scottish tours. Pococke was a member of the Egyptian Club (Nichols, Lit. Anecd. v. 334) and of the Spalding Society, and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society on 11 Feb. 1741.
Pococke's collection of Greek, Roman, and English coins and medals was sold in London at auction by Langford on 27–28 May 1766. The ‘Sale Catalogue’ consists of 117 lots, including some ancient jewellery (priced copy in Department of Coins, Brit. Mus.). His collection of antiquities, and his minerals and fossils (partly collected in his Scottish travels), were sold by Langford on 5–6 June 1766. By his will Pococke left his property (which consisted partly of an estate at Newtown, Hampshire) in trust to the Incorporated Society for Promoting English Protestant Schools in Ireland for the purpose of endowing the weaving-school at Lintown ‘for Papist boys who shall be from 12 to 16 years old … said boys to be bred to the Protestant Religion, and to be apprenticed to the Society for seven years.’ His sister, Elizabeth Pococke, had a life interest in his property. Pococke left his manuscripts to the British Museum. Some of these were handed over on 9 May 1766, but several volumes were withheld and remained in private hands. The manuscript of the Scotch tours and two volumes of travels in England were bought by the British Museum at the sale of Dean Milles's library at Sotheby's on 15 April 1843 for 33l. Further volumes of travels through England were purchased by the museum at the sale of Dawson Turner's library in 1859. The original manuscript of the ‘Tour in Ireland in 1752’ is at Trinity College, Dublin. Among Pococke's manuscripts in the British Museum are the minutes and registers of the Philosophical Society at Dublin from 1683 to 1687 and in later years, with copies of the papers read. There are also manuscripts relating to his travels in Egypt (Prince Ibrahim-Hilmy, Lit. of Egypt, ii. pp. 124, 125).
Pococke's published writings are as follows: 1. ‘A Description of the East and some other Countries,’ 2 vols. London, 1743–1745 fol., with 178 plates. This is reprinted in Pinkerton's ‘General Collection of Voyages,’ vols x. and xv. There is a French translation, 7 vols. Paris, 1772–3, 12mo; a German translation, Erlangen, 1754–5, 4to; and a Dutch translation, Utrecht, 1776–86. 2. ‘Inscriptionum antiquarum Græc. et Lat. liber. Accedit Numismatum … in Ægypto cusorum … Catalogus, &c. By J. Milles and R. Pococke,’ [London], 1752, fol. 3. ‘Tours in Scotland, 1747, 1750, 1760,’ edited with biographical sketch by D. W. Kemp, 1887 (Scottish History Society Publications, vol. i.). 4. ‘The Tour of Dr. R. Pococke … through Sutherland and Caithness in 1760,’ ed. D. W. Kemp, 1888 (Sutherland Association Papers). 5. ‘The Travels through England of Dr. R. Pococke,’ ed. J. J. Cartwright, 1888, 4to (Camden Soc. new ser. xlii.). 6. ‘Pococke's Tour in Ireland in 1752,’ ed. G. T. Stokes, Dublin, 1891, 8vo.
[Memoir in Nichols's Lit. Anecd. ii. 157; Georgian Era, 1854, iii. 16 f.; Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Graves and Prim's Hist. of St. Canice, 1857, passim; introductions to the editions of Pococke's Travels, by D. W. Kemp, J. J. Cartwright, and G. T. Stokes; Brit. Mus. Cat. and authorities cited above.]
POE, LEONARD (d. 1631?), physician, whose family came originally, it is said, from the Rhenish Palatinate, was in 1590 in the service of the Earl of Essex. Essex, after many vain appeals to the College of Physicians, secured from that body on 13 July 1596 a license enabling Poe to practise medicine (Hist. MSS. Comm. 8th Rep. pt. i. p. 228). Although he was thereby permitted to treat venereal, cutaneous, and calculous diseases, gout and simple tertian ague, in all other fevers and in all severe diseases he was required to call to his assistance a member of the college (Munk, College of Physicians, i. 149). On 30 June 1598 he was ordered to be imprisoned and deprived of his license, but soon made terms with the college. Despite the suspicion with which the profession regarded him, his practice was large in fashionable society, and his reputation stood fairly high. On 11 Dec. 1606, at the suggestion of the Earls of Southampton, Northampton, and Salisbury, all restrictions on his license were removed. On 12 Jan. 1609 he was made ordinary physician of the king's household (State Papers, Dom. index to warrant book, p. 77), and on 7 July the persistent influence of his aristocratic patrons led to his election as fellow of the College of Physicians (Hist. MS. Comm. ubi supra). He had a mandate on 22 July 1615 to be created M.D., and apparently obtained the degree at Cambridge.
In April 1612 he was one of the three physicians in attendance on Lord-treasurer Salisbury (State Papers, Dom. James I, lxviii.
