Sir Hugh Pollard, 2nd Baronet (1603 – 27 November 1666) was an English soldier and MP elected for

Bere Alston Bere Alston is a village in West Devon in the county of Devon in England. It forms part of the civil parish of Bere Ferrers. History and geography With a population of about 2,000, the village lies in the Bere peninsula, between the river ...

in 1640, Callington in 1660, and

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

in 1661. He supported the

Royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governm ...

cause in the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians ("Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of Kingdom of England, England's governanc ...

Origins

Pollard was the eldest son and heir of Sir Lewis Pollard, 1st Baronet (d.1641) of

King's Nympton King's Nympton (Latinised to ''Nymet Regis'') is a village, parish and former manor in North Devon, England in the heart of the rolling countryside between Exmoor and Dartmoor, some 4½ miles () S.S.W. of South Molton and N. of Chulmleigh. The ...

, Devonshire, by his wife Margaret Berkeley, daughter of Sir Henry Berkeley, Knight, of

Bruton Bruton ( ) is a market town, electoral ward, and civil parish in Somerset, England, on the River Brue and the A359 between Frome and Yeovil. It is 7 miles (11 km) south-east of Shepton Mallet, just south of Snakelake Hill and Coombe Hill, 10 ...

, Somerset.

Career

He joined the army and by 1639 was a captain engaged in raising troops in Devon for the Scottish wars. The following year he was ordered to Scotland and was probably present at the

Battle of Newburn The Battle of Newburn, also known as The Battle of Newburn Ford, took place on 28 August 1640, during the Second Bishops' War. It was fought at Newburn, just outside Newcastle, where a ford crossed the River Tyne. A Scottish Covenanter a ...

Civil War

In November 1640, Pollard was elected

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

for

in the

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...

.Helms & Ferris He became involved in the Royalist army plots of 1641 and, after being found guilty of

misprision Misprision (from fro, mesprendre, modern french: se méprendre, "to misunderstand") in English law describes certain kinds of offence. Writers on criminal law usually divide misprision into two kinds: negative and positive. It survives in the la ...

, was expelled from the House of Commons. He succeeded to the

baronetcy A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

that same year. During the Civil war Pollard mainly served with the king's army in Devonshire and Cornwall and, in 1645, was made governor of

Dartmouth Dartmouth may refer to: Places * Dartmouth, Devon, England ** Dartmouth Harbour * Dartmouth, Massachusetts, United States * Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada * Dartmouth, Victoria, Australia Institutions * Dartmouth College, Ivy League university i ...

. Fairfax's Parliamentary troops besieged the town in January 1645/46 and Pollard was captured and held prisoner until 1646. In 1653, he was fined £518 for his "delinquency". It may have been the severity of this fine which caused him to sell to his cousin Sir Arthur Northcote, 2nd Baronet (1628–1688) the manor of

in Devon, purchased as his seat by his great-great-great grandfather Sir Lewis Pollard (c. 1465-1526), of Grilstone, Bishop's Nympton,

Justice of the Common Pleas Justice of the Common Pleas was a puisne judicial position within the Court of Common Pleas of England and Wales, under the Chief Justice. The Common Pleas was the primary court of common law within England and Wales, dealing with "common" pleas ...

and MP for

Totnes Totnes ( or ) is a market town and civil parish at the head of the estuary of the River Dart in Devon, England, within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is about west of Paignton, about west-southwest of Torquay and ...

Restoration

After the

Restoration Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration *Restoration ecology ...

of the monarchy in 1660 Pollard was elected MP for the Cornish seat and Rolle family

pocket borough A rotten or pocket borough, also known as a nomination borough or proprietorial borough, was a parliamentary borough or constituency in England, Great Britain, or the United Kingdom before the Reform Act 1832, which had a very small electora ...

of Callington in a by-election to the Convention Parliament. No doubt this was due to the Rolle influence exerted by Pollard's second wife Mary Stevens (d. 1669), widow of Henry Rolle (1605-1647) of

Stevenstone Stevenstone is a former manor within the parish of St Giles in the Wood, near Great Torrington, North Devon. It was the chief seat of the Rolle family, one of the most influential and wealthy of Devon families, from c. 1524 until 1907. The ...

. He was appointed a JP, a Deputy Lieutenant, and Vice Admiral of Devon. In 1661, he was elected MP for

in the

Cavalier Parliament The Cavalier Parliament of England lasted from 8 May 1661 until 24 January 1679. It was the longest English Parliament, and longer than any Great British or UK Parliament to date, enduring for nearly 18 years of the quarter-century reign of ...

, with as his co-MP Sir John Rolle (d. 1706), KB, cousin and heir of Henry Rolle (d. 1647). He was appointed in 1661

Governor of Guernsey The Bailiwick of Guernsey is a British crown dependency off the coast of France. Holders of the post of Governor of Guernsey, until the role was abolished in 1835. Since then, only Lieutenant-Governors have been appointed (see Lieutenant Gov ...

and in 1662

Comptroller of the Royal Household The Comptroller of the Household is an ancient position in the British royal household, nominally the second-ranking member of the Lord Steward's department after the Treasurer of the Household. The Comptroller was an ''ex officio'' member of ...

and a

Privy Councillor A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

Marriages and children

Pollard married twice: * Firstly to Lady

Bridget de Vere Bridget Norris (née de Vere), Countess of Berkshire (6 April 1584 – December 1630/March 1631) was an English noblewoman, the daughter of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford. Bridget was brought up by her maternal grandfather, the powerful sta ...

(1584-1631), a daughter of

Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford (; 12 April 155024 June 1604) was an English peer and courtier of the Elizabethan era. Oxford was heir to the second oldest earldom in the kingdom, a court favourite for a time, a sought-after patron of ...

(1550-1604) and widow of Francis Norris, 1st Earl of Berkshire (1579-1622). By her he left an only daughter, Bridget Pollard. * Secondly to Mary Stevens (1619-1669), a daughter of William Stevens (d.1648) of

Great Torrington Great Torrington (often abbreviated to Torrington, though the villages of Little Torrington and Black Torrington are situated in the same region) is a market town in Devon, England. Parts of it are sited on high ground with steep drops down to ...

, and widow of Henry Rolle (1605-1647) of

Beam Beam may refer to: Streams of particles or energy * Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy ** Laser beam * Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles **Charged particle beam, a spatially localized g ...

near Great Torrington who inherited in 1638 the vast estate of

near Great Torrington. William Stevens was the founder of the Devon branch of the influential Stevens family of Vielstone in the parish of

Buckland Brewer Buckland Brewer is a village and civil parish in the Torridge district of Devon, England, 4.7 miles south of Bideford. Historically the parish formed part of Shebbear Hundred. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 777, increas ...

, of Cross in

Little Torrington Little Torrington is a village and a civil parish near Great Torrington, in the Torridge district, north Devon, England. In 2001 the population of the civil parish of Little Torrington was 420 and in 2011 it was 376, according to census data ...

and of Winscott in

Peters Marland Peters Marland is a small village and civil parish in the local government district of Torridge, Devon, England. The parish, which lies about four miles south of the town of Great Torrington, is surrounded clockwise from the north by the parishe ...

. The Cornish seat of Callington was controlled by the Rolle family and it must have been due to the influence of his second wife Mary Stevens that Pollard was elected to that seat in 1660. Mary Stevens was buried at

St Giles in the Wood St Giles in the Wood is a village and civil parish in the Torridge district of Devon, England. The village lies about 2.5 miles east of the town of Great Torrington, and the parish, which had a population of 566 in 2001 compared with 623 in 190 ...

, the parish church of Stevenstone.

Death and burial

Pollard died on 27 November 1666 at

Whitehall Whitehall is a road and area in the City of Westminster, Central London. The road forms the first part of the A3212 road from Trafalgar Square to Chelsea. It is the main thoroughfare running south from Trafalgar Square towards Parliament ...

at the age of about 63 and was buried in

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...

Succession

On his death without male progeny the baronetcy passed to his younger brother Sir Amyas Pollard, 3rd Baronet (1616-1701), of

Abbots Bickington Abbots Bickington is a village and civil parish in the English county of Devon, located north-northeast of Holsworthy and near the River Torridge. Etymology The name Bickington is derived from an "estate associated with a man named Beacca" p ...

, Devon. Due to the debts built up by Sir Hugh, largely from his lavish entertaining, much apparently on government business, his brother inherited very little of the ancient family estate and almost immediately had to sell the family manor of King's Nympton. Upon the death of Sir Amyas unmarried and without legitimate male heir, the baronetcy became extinct.

Sources

Helms, M. W., & Ferris, John. P., biography of Sir Hugh Pollard published in History of Parliament: House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983
* Wolffe, Mary, biography of Sir Hugh Pollard published in Oxford Dictionary of National BiographyODNBweb, id= 22467, title = Pollard, Sir Hugh, first = Mary, last= Wolffe * Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, pp. 597–599, Pollard pedigree, p. 598 Sir Hugh Pollard, 2nd Bt

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pollard, Hugh 1603 births 1666 deaths Members of the Parliament of England (pre-1707) for Devon Members of the pre-1707 English Parliament for constituencies in Cornwall Members of the Privy Council of England Hugh Baronets in the Baronetage of England Cavaliers English MPs 1640–1648 English MPs 1660 English MPs 1661–1679 Members of the Parliament of England for Bere Alston People from North Devon (district)