William Pole or Poole, schoolmaster, d. February 25, 1674, 81 y.
no. 23767
“William Pole came to Dorchester in 1630. After remaining in Dorchester several years, he removed to Taunton, but returned again to Dorchester in 1672. He was town clerk of Dorchester, and for many years, a schoolmaster. He was highly esteemed by his contemporaries, and spoken of in the records as a ‘sage, reverend, and pious man of God’. … He died Feb. 24, 1674. Jane Poole, probably his widow, died 1690 or 1691.” History of the Town of Dorchester, Massachusetts. (Boston, 1859)
William Pole, who died in 1674 at age 81, was an ancient schoolmaster who wrote his own epitaph, an admonition as sharp as the chisel that first cut his words into stone. He was Town Clerk of Dorchester upwards of forty years.
Inscription from: Epitaphs From the Old Burying Ground in Dorchester, Massachusetts. Boston Highlands, 1869. Harlow Elliott Woodward was a main contributor to this work. Another version of the inscription is given there as well.
Passenger! Its worth thy pains to stay,
And take a dead man’s lesson by the way.
I was what now thou art, and thou shalt be
What I am now, what odds ‘twixt me and thee.
Now go thy way. But stay, take one word more,
Thy staff, for aught thou knowst, stands next the door
Death is the door, the door of heaven and hell:
Be warn’d, be arm’d, believe, repent, farewell!
William Pole was the fourth schoolmaster of the town. He came to Dorchester in 1630 [actually probably later], and afterwards went to Taunton. He returned to Dorchester, however, and taught school from 1659 until 1668. Besides his service to the town as an instructor of the young, Mr. Pole occupied the position of “Clerk of ye Writs & Register of Births, Deaths, and Marriages in Dorchester about 10 years.” He died February 25, 1674.
[quoted sentence above is from History of the Town of Dorchester, Massachusetts. Boston, 1859. p. 96.]