Hugh Pollard (sheriff)

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Arms of Pollard of King's Nympton: Argent, a chevron sable between three escallops gules PollardEscallopArms.PNG
Arms of Pollard of King's Nympton: Argent, a chevron sable between three escallops gules

Sir Hugh Pollard (fl. 1536, 1545) lord of the manor of King's Nympton in Devon, was Sheriff of Devon in 1535/6 [2] and in 1545 was appointed Recorder of Barnstaple in Devon. [3]

Lord of the manor title from the feudal system of manorialism

Lord of the manor is a title given to a person holding the lordship of a manor in the Anglo-Saxon system of manorialism which emanated from feudalism in English and Irish history. In modern England and Wales, it is recognised as a form of property, one of three elements of a manor that may exist separately or be combined, and may be held in moieties:

  1. the title ;
  2. the manorial, comprising the manor and/or its land; and
  3. the seignory, rights granted to the titular holder of the manor.
Manor of Kings Nympton

The Manor of King's Nympton was a manor largely co-terminous with the parish of King's Nympton in Devon, England.

Recorder of Barnstaple judicial position in Barnstaple

The Recorder of Barnstaple was a recorder, a form of senior judicial officer, usually an experienced barrister, within the jurisdiction of the Borough of Barnstaple in Devon. He was usually a member of the local North Devonshire gentry. The position of recorder of any borough carried a great deal of prestige and power of patronage. The recorder of a borough was often entrusted by the mayor and corporation to nominate its Members of Parliament, as was the case with Sir Hugh I Pollard, Recorder of Barnstaple, who in 1545 nominated the two MP's to represent the Borough of Barnstaple. In the 19th century a recorder was the sole judge who presided at a Quarter Sessions of a Borough, a "Court of Record", and was a barrister of at least five years' standing. He fixed the dates of the Quarter Sessions at his own discretion "as long as he holds it once every quarter of a year", or more often if he deemed fit.

Contents

Origins

He was the eldest son and heir of Sir Lewis Pollard (c.1465–1526) of King's Nympton, a Justice of the Common Pleas from 1514 to 1526 [4] and Member of Parliament for Totnes in 1491. Hugh's mother was Agnes Hext, daughter of Thomas Hext, a prominent lawyer [5] of Kingston in the parish of Staverton, near Totnes, by his wife Florence Bonville. Westcote stated her to be the heiress of Dunisford (or Donesford). [6] The Pollard family were first established in Devon before the 13th century at the manor of Way in the parish of St Giles in the Wood, near Great Torrington.

Lewis Pollard English judge

Sir Lewis Pollard of Grilstone in the parish of Bishop's Nympton, Devon, was Justice of the Common Pleas from 1514 to 1526 and served as MP for Totnes in 1491 and was a JP in Devon in 1492. He was knighted after 1509. He was one of several Devonshire men to be "innated with a genius to study law", as identified by Fuller, who became eminent lawyers at a national level. He was a kinsman of the judge and Speaker of the House of Commons Sir John Pollard.

Kings Nympton village in the United Kingdom

King's Nympton 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 (7 km) S.S.W. of South Molton and 4 miles (6 km) N. of Chulmleigh. The parish exceeds 5,500 acres (2,226 ha) in area and sits mostly on a promontory above the River Mole which forms nearly half of its parish boundary.

Justice of the Common Pleas Puisne judicial position within the Court of Common Pleas of England and Wales, under the Chief Justice

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. It was created out of the common law jurisdiction of the Exchequer of Pleas, with splits forming during the 1190s and the division becoming formal by the beginning of the 13th century. The court became a key part of the Westminster courts, along with the Exchequer of Pleas and the Court of King's Bench, but with the Writ of Quominus and the Statute of Westminster, both tried to extend their jurisdiction into the realm of common pleas. As a result, the courts jockeyed for power. In 1828 Henry Brougham, a Member of Parliament, complained in Parliament that as long as there were three courts unevenness was inevitable, saying that "It is not in the power of the courts, even if all were monopolies and other restrictions done away, to distribute business equally, as long as suitors are left free to choose their own tribunal", and that there would always be a favourite court, which would therefore attract the best lawyers and judges and entrench its position. The outcome was the Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1873, under which all the central courts were made part of a single Supreme Court of Judicature. Eventually the government created a High Court of Justice under Lord Coleridge by an Order in Council of 16 December 1880. At this point, the Common Pleas formally ceased to exist.

Brother

Hugh's younger brother was the more prominent Sir Richard Pollard (1505–1542), MP for Taunton (1536) and for Devon (1539, 1542), of Putney, Surrey, King's Remembrancer of the Exchequer and a law reporter, [7] who was an assistant of Thomas Cromwell in administering the surrender of religious houses following the Dissolution of the Monasteries. [8] In 1537 Thomas was granted by King Henry VIII the manor of Combe Martin in Devon [9] and in 1540 Forde Abbey.

Richard Pollard (MP) 16th-century English politician

Sir Richard Pollard, was Member of Parliament for Taunton in 1536, and for Devon in 1540 and 1542. He played a major role in assisting Thomas Cromwell in administering the Dissolution of the monasteries.

Taunton (UK Parliament constituency) Parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom, 1885-2010

Taunton was a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and its predecessors from 1295 to 2010, taking its name from the town of Taunton in Somerset. Until 1918, it was a parliamentary borough, electing two Member of Parliaments (MPs) between 1295 and 1885 and one from 1885 to 1918; the name was then transferred to a county constituency, electing one MP.

Devon was a parliamentary constituency covering the county of Devon in England. It was represented by two Knights of the Shire, in the House of Commons of England until 1707, then of the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and finally the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1832. Elections were held using the bloc vote system of elections.

Career

He was Recorder of Barnstaple in 1545, to which honorary officer the Borough of Barnstaple entrusted the nominations of its two Member of Parliament. [10] One of the MP's he nominated was George Rolle (d.1552), a London lawyer, who in 1523 had been appointed by a private Act of Parliament as life tenant of the office of "Keeper of the Writs and Rolls of the Court of Common Pleas", due to his "long good and perfect knowledge and experience" of the functioning of that Court. Rolle was thus an associate of Sir Hugh's father, Sir Lewis Pollard, one of the Judges of the Common Pleas. It was in the small Devonshire parish of St Giles in the Wood, the ancestral home of the Pollards, where Rolle purchased his seat of Stevenstone, which eventually at the start of the 20th century became the caput of "the largest estate Devon had ever seen", [11] today managed by the Clinton Devon Estates company.

Barnstaple was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Barnstaple in Devon, in the South West of England. It returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom until 1885, when its representation was reduced to a single member.

George Rolle English politician

George Rolle of Stevenstone in the parish of St Giles in the Wood near Great Torrington in Devon, was the founder of the wealthy, influential and widespread Rolle family of Devon, which according to the Return of Owners of Land, 1873 in the person of Hon. Mark Rolle, the adoptive heir of John Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle, had become by that year the largest landowner in Devon with about 55,000 acres. He was a Dorset-born London lawyer who in 1507 became Keeper of the Records of the Court of Common Pleas and was elected as a Member of Parliament for Barnstaple in 1542 and 1545. He became the steward of Dunkeswell Abbey in Devon, and following the Dissolution of the Monasteries he purchased much ex-monastic land in Devon. Not only was he the founder of his own great Devonshire landowning dynasty but he was also an ancestor of others almost as great, including the Acland baronets of Killerton, the Wrey Baronets of Tawstock and the Trefusis family of Trefusis in Cornwall now of Heanton Satchville, Huish, later Baron Clinton, heirs both of Rolle of Heanton Satchville, Petrockstowe and of Rolle of Stevenstone.

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 Rolle estates as disclosed by the Return of Owners of Land, 1873 comprised 55,592 acres producing an annual gross income of £47,170, and formed the largest estate in Devon, followed by the Duke of Bedford's estate centred on Tavistock comprising 22,607 with an annual gross value of nearly £46,000.

Through the influence of his younger brother Sir Richard Pollard he obtained the wardship of Richard Bury (1516–1543), son and heir of John Bury (d.1533) lord of the manor of Colleton in the parish of Chulmleigh, Devon, whom he married to his daughter Elizabeth Pollard. Richard Pollard obtained as his own wife John Bury's daughter Jacquetta, as promised him in her father's will. [12]

Colleton, Chulmleigh human settlement in United Kingdom

Colleton is a hamlet and former manor in the civil parish and ecclesiastical parish of Chulmleigh, in the North Devon district of Devon, England. It is situated on the north side of a valley containing the River Taw. Its nearest town is Chulmleigh, which lies approximately 3.6 miles (5.8 km) to the south-west. It consists of the grade I listed Colleton Barton and Colleton Mill, the former manorial mill, with another former industrial building situated at the approach to the bridge over the River Taw.

Chulmleigh town

Chulmleigh is a small Saxon hilltop market town and civil parish located in North Devon in the heart of the English county of Devon. It is located 20 miles (32 km) north west of Exeter, just north of the Mid Devon boundary, linked by the A377 and B3096 roads. The parish is surrounded, clockwise from the north by the parishes of King's Nympton, Romansleigh, Meshaw, East Worlington, Chawleigh, Wembworthy, Ashreigney, Burrington, and Chittlehamholt. In 2001 the population of the parish was 1,308, decreasing to 1,017 at the 2011 census. An electoral ward with the same name also exists whose total population at the same census was 2,081.

In 1539 Hugh Pollard acquired a 21-year lease of the site and demesne of Torre Abbey at the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and in 1543 acquired the freehold from John St. Leger (d.1596) of Annery. [13]

Demesne Type of property

In the feudal system, the demesne was all the land which was retained by a lord of the manor for his own use and occupation or support, under his own management, as distinguished from land sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants. In England, royal demesne is the land held by the Crown, and ancient demesne is the legal term for the land held by the king at the time of the Domesday Book.

Torre Abbey church in Torquay, UK

Torre Abbey is a historic building and art gallery in Torquay, Devon, which lies in the South West of England. It was founded in 1196 as a monastery for Premonstratensian canons, and is now the best-preserved medieval monastery in Devon and Cornwall. In addition to its medieval and Georgian rooms, Torre Abbey is known for the formal gardens on Abbey Park and Meadows, for the third largest art collection in the county of Devon and for regular exhibitions by contemporary artists.

Dissolution of the Monasteries legal event which disbanded religious residences in England, Wales and Ireland

The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland, appropriated their income, disposed of their assets, and provided for their former personnel and functions. Although the policy was originally envisaged as increasing the regular income of the Crown, much former monastic property was sold off to fund Henry's military campaigns in the 1540s. He was given the authority to do this in England and Wales by the Act of Supremacy, passed by Parliament in 1534, which made him Supreme Head of the Church in England, thus separating England from Papal authority, and by the First Suppression Act (1535) and the Second Suppression Act (1539).

Marriage and children

He married twice: [14]

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References

  1. ↑ Vivian, Heraldic Visitations of Devon, 1895, p.597
  2. ↑ Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII , ed. James Gairdner, vol. X, no. 416; Risdon, Tristram (d.1640), Survey of Devon, 1811 edition, London, 1811, with 1810 Additions, Appendix 8: The Sheriffs of Devon since the Conquest, p.12
  3. ↑ Hawkyard, A.D.K., biography of George Rolle (d.1552), MP, published in History of Parliament: House of Commons 1509–1558, Vol.3, London, 1982
  4. ↑ Hoskins, W.G., A New Survey of England: Devon, London, 1959 (first published 1954), p.337
  5. ↑ Biography in History of Parliament
  6. ↑ Westcote, Thomas, A View of Devonshire in 1630, p.47
  7. ↑ History of Parliament biography
  8. ↑ Frequent references to his activities are recorded in Letters & Papers of Henry VIII, 1537
  9. ↑ Risdon, Survey of Devon (1810 edition, p.348)
  10. ↑ History of Parliament biog. of his contemporary George Rolle (d.1552) of Stevenstone, MP
  11. ↑ When held by the eventual heir of the two main branches of the Rolle family, Charles John Robert Hepburn-Stuart-Forbes-Trefusis, 21st Baron Clinton (1863–1957), per Lauder, Rosemary, Devon Families, Tiverton, 2002, p.73
  12. ↑ Byrne, Muriel St. Clare, (ed.) The Lisle Letters, 6 vols, University of Chicago Press, Chicago & London, 1981, vol.1, p.604; Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.123, pedigree of Bury of Colliton
  13. ↑ Youings, Joyce, Devon Monastic Lands: Calendar of Particulars for Grants 1536–1558, Devon & Cornwall Record Society, New Series, Vol.1, Torquay, 1955, pp.25–7, grant no.33
  14. ↑ Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.598
  15. ↑ Risdon, 1810 ed. p.426; Vivian, p.123, pedigree of Bury of Colleton
  16. ↑ Byrne, Muriel St. Clare, (ed.) The Lisle Letters, 6 vols, University of Chicago Press, Chicago & London, 1981, vol.1, p.604
  17. ↑ Vivian, pp.251,598
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