Richard Pococke

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Richard Pococke (1704 - September 1765) was an English prelate and anthropologist.

Pococke was born in Southampton and educated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, receiving a Bachelor of Law degree. His family connections meant he advanced rapidly in the church, becoming vicar-general of the diocese of Waterford and Lismore. He seems to have spent far more time travelling than attending to his duties as a churchman and spent 1733-36 undertaking a series of tours in Europe. From 1737-40 he visited the Near East, visiting Egypt, Jerusalem, Palestine and Greece. These travels were later published in his 'Description of the East' of 1743 and 1745, works which were praised by Edmund Gibbon. Made bishop successively of Ossory, Elphin and Meath in 1765, he spent many of his later years in travel throughout Britain and Ireland, publishing accounts of many of his journeys. His many manuscripts were given to the British Library on his death, of apoplexy, during a visitation in Ireland.^[1]

[edit] Works

• A Description of the East and Some other Countries, Vol.I: Observations on Egypt, W. Boyer, London, 1743.
• A Description of the East and Some other Countries, Vol.II, W. Boyer, London, 1745. - divided into two parts;

Part 1, Observations on Palæstina or the Holy Land, Syria, Mesopotamia, Cyprus, and Candia.

Part 2, Observations on the islands of the Archipelago, Asia Minor, Thrace, Greece, and some other parts of Europe.

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopædia.