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William Sole

British botanist (1741-1802)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 6, 2026
Entity authorityQ8018602 ↗
Source-derived summary

William Sole (1739 – 7 February 1802) was a British apothecary and botanist.

The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography states that William Sole was born in 1741 in Little Thetford, Cambridgeshire, However, evidence suggest that he was born in 1739 and Baptised on 28 September in Witchford, Cambridgeshire.

William Sole was the first son of John and Martha Sole. Sometime after his birth, the family moved to Little Thetford. John and Martha had a further six children. John (bapt. 14 June 1741), Sarah (bapt. 15 May 1743), Elizabeth (bapt. 24 February 1744), Francis (bapt. 19 February 1748), Robert (bapt.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “William Sole” is british botanist (1741-1802). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through William, Sole and British, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1739, 1802, 1741, 1743—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1741-01-01, 1739—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. For this dossier, William, Sole and British is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “british botanist (1741-1802)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q8018602. VIAF identifies the subject as 59481737. The Library of Congress control number is nr89017040. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1739, 1802, 1741 and 1743.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “William Sole”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow William Sole primary sources, William Sole archive and William research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “William Sole”?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “William Sole” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.