Name Thomas Pocock | Role Clergyman | |
Thomas Pocock (1672–1745) was an English clergyman, known as a diarist. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1727.
Contents
Life
He was the son of Thomas Pocock and his wife, Anne, and grandson of the Rev. Dr. Laurence Pocock, Rector of Brightwalton in Berkshire, who, in turn, was probably a second cousin to Edward Pocock, the orientalist and biblical scholar. He was educated at Abingdon, and entered Pembroke College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1694. He was M.A. of St Mary Hall, Oxford in 1698.
Pocock was chaplain to George Byng, 1st Viscount Torrington, his brother-in-law, on HMS Ranelagh, during the Battle of Malaga (1704), having previously served from 1698 in HMS Oxford. His journal relates mainly to this naval campaign; he served as naval chaplain again, in 1711, in HMS Union. Subsequently Pocock was rector of Danbury in Essex, from 1705. He became rector of Latchingdon, in the same county, in 1712, and also chaplain to the Royal Hospital, Greenwich in Kent (now Greater London), from 1716.
Works
Family
Pocock married Joyce, the daughter of James Master, who was a brother of Streynsham Master, the English East India Company pioneer. Pocock's master, Lord Torrington, married Joyce's sister, Margaret. Pocock had nine children, including Admiral Sir George Pocock K.B., Lieut. Richard Pocock R.N., Sarah the wife of Capt. Philip Vincent R.N. and Beatrice the wife of the Rev. David Campbell, Chaplain to Greenwich Hospital.