Lewis Pollard

Origins

Pollard was a member of an ancient Devonshire gentry family, a younger son of Robert Pollard, second son of John Pollard of Way in the parish of St Giles in the Wood, near Great Torrington, Devon, by his wife, a member of the Lewknor family of Sussex. Robert's father John Pollard (whose wife was Alyanora Copleston (d. 21 September 1430), whose monumental brass exists in the parish church of St Giles in the Wood, daughter of John Copleston of Copleston, Devon) settled on him his lands in Roborough, about 5 miles SE of Great Torrington. Risdon states that Sir Lewis Pollard resided at Grilston, in the parish of Bishop's Nympton, before he purchased the nearby manor of King's Nympton to the south.

The following were the principal historic seats of the wider Pollard family:

Way, St Giles in the Wood

The former Way mansion of the Pollards is now represented by the farmhouse known as Way Barton. In 1309 Robert Pollard was granted by the Bishop of Exeter licence to build an oratory at Weye, of which no trace remains in the present house.

Risdon stated Way to have been the residence of the de la Way family temp. King John (1199–1216), and to have been granted by Walter de la Way, the son of William de la Way, to Walter Pollard temp. Edward I (1272–1307), which grant was witnessed by Sir Henry Sully and Sir Thomas Merton. Hoskins referred to Way as the "fons et origo of the mighty tribe of Pollard" and stated it to have been acquired by them from the de la Way family even earlier before 1242.

East Barton, Horwood

Prince however identified the most ancient residence of the Pollard family of Devon to be in the parish of Horwood, about 4 miles east of Bideford and 5 1/2 miles NW of Way. This was the seat of Walter Pollard temp. Henry III (1216–1272). The family seat was on the site of the present farmhouse known as East Barton.

In the Church of St Michael in Horwood, on a recessed ledge under the window in the north wall of the "Pollard Aisle" (the north aisle of the church) is an alabaster effigy about four feet long of a lady, c. 1450, with horned head-dress and wearing a rich robe in which are enfolded three children, believed to represent Elizabeth Pollard (died 1430).

The family remained at Horwood until at least the 17th century, as the mural monument affixed in the splay of the window above the effigy testifies, inscribed to "Arthure Pollard of this parish, who died in 1633. His wife, a second son of the prominent Fortescue family of Filleigh, as is revealed by the arms of Pollard impaling Fortescue with a crescent for difference of a second son. The arms of Pollard feature on the small door of the altar-table, on the beams above the east window of the Pollard Aisle and on the bench-ends in the main aisle of the church. Two large ledger stones inscribed to the 16th century. Pollards are set into the floor in the place of greatest honour, below the altar table against the east wall. A further ledger stone exists in the Pollard Aisle of a 17th-century Pollard of Instow, near Bideford.

Langley, Yarnscombe

A further branch of the Pollard family headed by Richard Pollard was established at Langley in the parish of Yarnscombe, one mile NE of the parish church and 3 miles NE of Way, temp. Richard II (1377–1399), and a male member of this family, probably a brother of Johanna Risdon (d.17/5/1610) and therefore uncle of Tristram Risdon, was later usher to Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603) and married a sister of Bess of Hardwick, (Elizabeth Talbot, Countess of Shrewsbury) (1521–1608).

Career

Lewis Pollard entered the Middle Temple to train as a lawyer, and was appointed Reader of that society, the third person to hold that office. He was appointed one of ten Sergeants at Law in 1505, during at a great ceremonial feast in Lambeth Palace with 1,000 guests including King Henry VII himself. In 1507 Pollard was appointed the King's Sergeant-at-Law to Henry VII and three years later the appointment was renewed by Henry VIII, who soon after appointed him a Justice of the Common Pleas. He remained in this office of judge until his death on 21 October 1526. Prince wrote of his career:

"This high and great trust of a judge (an higher than which is hardly found upon earth, the lives and livelyhoods of men being therein concern'd) Sir Lewis Pollard executed with great faithfulness and reputation, the fragrant odour whereof perfumes his memory unto this day. His knowledge in the laws and other commendable virtues (as a certain writer tells us [i.e. Thomas Westcote]) together with a numerous issue rendered him famous above most of his age and rank".

Purchase of lands

He purchased the manor of King's Nympton in Devon, where he built a residence and established a deer park. This remained the principal seat of the family for several generations and in the south aisle of the Parish Church of St James exists at the east end the "Pollard Chapel" with 17th-century panelling. He purchased the manor of Oakford in August 1507 for £203 from Sir Charles Brandon (d.1545), later Duke of Suffolk, and from his wife Margaret. The Pollards held Oakford until 1604 when it was sold by Sir Hugh Pollard to Richard Hill alias Spurway, a clothier of Tavistock.

Marriage and children

He married Agnes Hext, a daughter of Thomas Hext, a prominent lawyer of Kingston in the parish of Staverton, near Totnes, Devon, by his wife Florence Bonville. Westcote stated her to be the heiress of Dunisford (or Donesford). By her he had eleven sons and eleven daughters, including:

Sons

The Heralds' Visitations of Devon lists the following sons of Sir Lewis Pollard:

Daughters

The Heralds' Visitations of Devon names five daughters of Sir Lewis Pollard:

Death and burial

He died on 21 October 1526 aged about 61 and was buried in the church at King's Nympton, as Risdon stated "In Nymet Church Judge Pollard lieth honourably interred, having a monument erected to his memory" (see below), as well as a stained-glass memorial window nearby, now lost (see below). His reference to "Nymet" is clearly intended as Bishop's Nympton, as the passage occurs within his section on that parish, which is followed by a separate section on King's Nympton.

Will

His will was dated 4 November 1525 and bequeathed the profits of his manor of Oakford to a chantry "to pray for my soule my father my mother my uncle Maister Lewis Pollard..." He mentioned "My Lady of Canon Lege", possibly a reference to Canonsleigh Abbey. He mentioned his brother Thomas Pollard, his sons John, Richard, Antonye, his godson Lewes Stucley and "Annes my wife", whom he requested should not remarry, in which case she should inherit together with his son John the residue of all his goods. He left £6 13s 4d towards the building of a church tower at either Bishop's Nympton or King's Nympton. The will was witnessed by Antony Pollard, Squire, and Thomas Hext, gent.

Monument

The ornately sculpted late Perpendicular Gothic stone monument in Bishop's Nympton Church is generally assumed to be to Sir Lewis Pollard. It is set into the north wall of the chancel, near the altar. According to Pevsner it probably doubled as an Easter Sepulchre.

Pollard Window

In 1630 when Risdon was writing his Survey of Devon, a now lost stained-glass window existed in Bishop's Nympton Church which depicted Sir Lewis Pollard, probably kneeling, with ten or eleven sons behind him on one side, and on the other side his wife facing him, probably also kneeling, with 10 or 11 daughters behind her. The following story is related by Prince:

There was a tradition of long standing in this family. That his lady, glassing this window in her husband's absence at the Term in London, caused one child more than she then had to be set up there; presuming, having had one and twenty already, and usually conceiving at her husband's coming home, that she should have another. Which, inserted in expectation, came to pass in reality.

Such arrangement of husband kneeling opposite wife, perhaps separated by a prie-dieu, he with sons behind him and she with daughters behind her, was a common composition for monuments at this period, as seen for example in the Rolle monumental brasses in Petrockstowe Church. An inscription on the glass stated, according to Risdon, "his name, marriage, office and issue" with underneath the following inscription:

Orate pro bono statu Ludovici Pollard militis unius Justiciar(iorum) Domini Regis de Banco et Eliz(abetha) uxor(is) eius qui istam fenestram fieri fecerunt("Pray for the good of Lewis Pollard, knight, one of the Justices of the Bench of the Lord King, and Elizabeth his wife who brought this window into being")

This inscription according to Prince was modelled on an ancient Pollard family inscription formerly existing in Horwood Church, in a window of the so-called "Pollard Aisle" built by that family, as follows:

Orate pro bono statu Johannis Pollard et Emmae uxoris eius qui istam guildam fieri fecerunt

This evidences their having establisherd a guild in that church. Emma was one of the five daughters and co-heiresses of Sir John Doddiscombe of Doddiscombsleigh, near Exeter, Devon. In the window at Horwood was depicted the Pollard arms impaling Argent, a griffin rampant sable. The griffin was according to a tradition in the Pollard family, the armorial of a Duke of France, whose daughter, formerly a nun in France, had married a member of the Pollard family, who had become enamoured of her whilst on campaign in France, and had received dispensation to marry her.