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This article was begun because Pooley is not mentioned in the article on Surbiton, which rightly attributes the rise of the town to the coming of the railway, but does not deal with the personalities involved. LynwoodF (talk) 11:50, 9 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]
In the "Life in Kingston" paragraph, it is stated (somewhat indirectly, but plainly) that the Wadbrooks who intermarried with the Pooleys were considered to be of the lower orders and not quite respectable. This may represent a strained interpretation of the passage in Sampson, who was surely aware that the Wadbrooks in question were an old yeoman family (who quite often wrote themselves "gentlemen") living in the ancient parish of Kingston since at least the fifteenth century, and in nearby Weybridge before that. Documented direct ascendants of these particular Wadbrooks were high sherifs of Elmbridge hundred, sergeants at mace of the Kingston mercers, churchwardens of All Saints, and buried in the north aisle of St Nicholas, Thames Ditton (epitaphs, now obliterated, preserved in county histories), and also under a prominent free-standing monument still extant in All Saints churchyard (where Jane Wadbrook Pooley herself rests). These same direct ascendants built The Elms, a substantial XVIII-century house (now protected) in Surbiton Road, as well as Couchmore Farm, another imposing house on the Esher side of Thames Ditton, and a major farmhouse ("Willes" [?], since demolished) in the neighborhood of Weston Green. Members of this particular family held a number of minor court offices (clerk of HM woodyard, etc.) in the XVII century. A Weybridge Wadbrook is recorded as having multiple land transactions with a number of prominent courtiers in the XV century; this man is also listed in the contemporary Worthies of England (Surrey). There is at least a fair likelihood that these people ultimately descended (through families living near Guildford -- perhaps holding serjantries in the royal residence there), from the Wodbroks/Wodburgs who were crusader knights under the Edwards and, earlier, lords of the manor of Woodborough/Wodburg) near Nottingham. Thus it seems highly unlikely that they were regarded otherwise than as respectable gentry. Thewadbrook (talk) 00:16, 24 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]
