lateral relation of Sir John. John Pollard may have been the Pollard who, without Christian name, is mentioned as entering at the Middle Temple on 3 June 1515; but it may be that this entry is that of Lewis Pollard, son of Sir Hugh Pollard and grandson of Sir Lewis Pollard the judge. John was appointed autumn reader of the Middle Temple in 1535, and became serjeant-at-law in 1547. After 1545 he received, possibly through the influence of a relative, Richard Pollard, who had taken part in the suppression of the monasteries, a grant of the manor of Nuneham Courtney, where he afterwards lived. He was relieved by patent of 21 Oct. 1550 from his office of serjeant-at-law, in order to become vice-president of the council for the Welsh marches. He was elected member for Oxfordshire in the parliaments of 1553 and 1554, and for Wiltshire in that of 1555. He seems to have been knighted on 2 Oct. 1553, although he is described as merely armiger in the returns of 1554 and 1555. He was chosen speaker of the House of Commons in 1553, and held the office till the close of the parliament of 1555. He was described as 'excellent in the laws of this realm.' He died in August 1557, and was buried on 25 Aug. He married Mary, daughter of Richard Gray of London, but left no issue. His estates passed in great part to his brother Anthony, after the death of his widow. The inquisition post mortem is numbered 4 and 5 Phil, and Mary, No. 139. His will was proved in the probate court of London, P.P.C. 37, Wrastley, on 13 Oct. 1557.
[The late Mr. Winslow Jones made extensive researches into the history of the Pollard family, and placed his materials at the disposal of the present writer. See also Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, viii. 87, 149, 312; Manning's Speakers of the House of Commons; Machyn's Diary (Camd Soc.), pp. 148, 335; Dixon's Hist. of the Church of England, passim.]
POLLARD, LEONARD (d. 1556), divine, a native of Nottinghamshire, was a scholar of Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1542–3 (B.A. 1543–4). He was admitted a fellow of Peterhouse on 2 March 1546, (M.A. 1547). In June 1549 he was an opponent in a public disputation on the doctrine that the Lord's supper is no oblation or sacrifice, but merely a remembrance of Christ's death. After he had graduated D.D. he became prebendary of Worcester on 11 Sept. 1551. On 6 Nov. 1553 he preached at St. Michael's, Cambridge, on purgatory. He was then in receipt of an annual pension of 30s. as incumbent of the dissolved chantry of Little St. Mary's, Cambridge. On 23 Dec. 1553 he became prebendary of Peterborough, resigning on 30 June 1555. In 1554 he was admitted a fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. He was rector of Ripple, Worcestershire, and in 1555 became chaplain to the bishop of Worcester, Richard Pate or Pates [q. v.] Under his direction Pollard wrote five sermons, beginning ‘Consydering with myself,’ which he dedicated to his bishop. They were printed in London by Richard Jugge and Cawood, as well as by William Griffith, in 1556, having been sanctioned by Bonner on 1 July 1555. A copy is in the British Museum. He died before March 1556.
[Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. i. 127, 546; Ames's Typogr. Antiq. ed. Herbert, pp. 716, 1798; Le Neve's Fasti, ii. 548, iii. 86; Baker's History of St. John's College, ed. Mayor, i. 286, ii. 981; Strype's Memorials, III. i. 81, and Life of Cranmer, p. 290; Tanner's Bibl. Brit.]
POLLARD, Sir LEWIS (1465?–1540), judge, born about 1465, was son of Robert Pollard of Roborough, near Torrington, Devon, and a kinsman of Sir John Pollard [q. v.], speaker of the House of Commons. Lewis was called to the bar from the Middle Temple, where he was reader in 1502; in 1505 he was made serjeant-at-law, and on 9 July 1507 king's serjeant, an appointment which was confirmed on the accession of Henry VIII. From this time he frequently served on the commission for the peace in Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, and Wiltshire, was justice of assize for the Oxford circuit in 1509, and for the western circuit from 1511 to 1514, when he was appointed justice of common pleas and knighted. He retired from the bench after February 1526, and died in 1540. ‘His knowledge in the laws and other commendable virtues, together with a numerous issue, rendered him famous above most of his age and rank’ (Prince, Worthies of Devon, p. 493). He married Agnes, daughter of Thomas Hext of Kingston, near Totnes, Devon, and had eleven sons and eleven daughters. Of the sons no less than four were knighted, Sir Hugh, Sir John, Sir Richard, and Sir George. Sir Hugh was great-great-grandfather of Sir Hugh Pollard [q. v.]; Sir Richard was father of Sir John Pollard (1528–1575), who must be distinguished from Sir John, speaker of the House of Commons; the former was knighted by the Earl of Warwick on 10 Nov. 1549, sat in parliament as member for Barnstaple, 1553–4, Exeter in 1555, and Grampound, 1562, and died in 1575, leaving no issue. Sir Lewis's son George owed his knighthood to his services in defence of Boulogne in 1548–9.
[Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, passim; Dugdale's Chron. Ser. pp. 77, 79; Foss's Lives
