Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pollard, Hugh
POLLARD, Sir HUGH (d. 1666), royalist, son of Sir Lewis Pollard, bart. (d. 1641), of King's Nympton, Devonshire, and his wife Margaret, daughter of Sir Henry Berkeley, was descended from Sir Lewis Pollard [q. v.] His great-grandfather, another Sir Lewis, was recorder of Exeter and serjeant-at-law; his father, also Sir Lewis, was created a baronet on 31 May 1627. Hugh was a captain in the army before 1639, when he was engaged in raising troops in Devonshire for the expedition against the Scots. In the following year he was again serving under Conway against the Scots, and was probably present at the battle of Newburn on 28 Aug. On 19 Nov. he was returned to the Long parliament as member for Beeralston, Devonshire. In May and June 1641 he was implicated in the royalists' ‘first army plot,’ was imprisoned in the Gatehouse, and expelled from the House of Commons. He was bailed before the end of June, and retired to Devonshire. Here he was apparently engaged in further royalist schemes, and on 26 Sept. was taken prisoner by some parliamentary troopers, and carried to Molton (Some late Occurrences in Shropshire and Devonshire, 1641, p. 7). During the year he became baronet on his father's death.
Early in 1642 he set out for Holland to raise levies for the king's service. On the voyage he fell in with the Providence, a king's ship coming from Holland with arms and ammunition, and determined to return with it. They were pursued by some parliamentary ships, but Pollard escaped, and in August accompanied the Marquis of Hertford to the west to levy troops; he was sergeant-major in Viscount Kilmorey's regiment (Peacock, p. 16). During the war he was mainly employed with the army in Devonshire and Cornwall, and in 1645 was governor of Dartmouth. Fairfax laid siege to the town in January 1645–6, and when summoned to surrender Pollard returned a defiant answer. A detachment of four hundred horse was sent under Major Ducroc from the king's army at Torrington to defend the town, but Pollard quarrelled with Ducroc, and the troops returned to Exeter. The next night (18 Jan.) Fairfax ordered an attack on the town. It was stormed, and Pollard was wounded in an attempt to escape across the harbour. He was taken prisoner, and kept in custody until May 1646. An erroneous report of his death has been frequently repeated (ib.). He then petitioned to compound for his delinquency, and on submitting to his fine was released on bail. The sum was ultimately fixed at 518l.; in 1653 it was paid, and the sequestration of his estates discharged.
Pollard, though he stayed in England, remained a royalist at heart. It was only its rapid suppression that prevented him supporting Booth's attempt in 1658 by a rising in Devonshire. At the Restoration he was sworn of the privy council, appointed governor of Guernsey and comptroller of the king's household. He sat in parliament as member for Callington, Cornwall, in 1660, and Devonshire in 1661. He received various grants from the king, including one of 5,000l. in 1665, as a reward for his services, and to clear him from pecuniary embarrassment in which they had involved him. He died on 27 Nov. 1666, having married Bridget, daughter of Edward de Vere, seventeenth earl of Oxford, and widow of Francis Norris, earl of Berkshire [q. v.] By her he left an only daughter, Margaret; the baronetcy passed to his brother Amias, and on his death without issue in 1693 became extinct.
[Cal. State Papers, Dom. passim; Cals. of Committees for Compounding and Advance of Money; Cal. Clarendon State Papers; Hist. MSS. Comm. 4th Rep. p. 304; Rushworth's Collections, III. i. 255; Carte's Original Letters, i. 137; Official Returns of Members of Parliament; Journal of Lords and Commons; Clarendon's Rebellions; Sprigge's Anglia Rediviva; May's Long Parl. pp. 96, 98, 99; Lloyd's Memoirs, p. 648; Pepys's Diary, ed. Braybrooke, iii. 348; Evelyn's Diary, ed. Bray, i. 370, ii. 19, 862, iv. 154; Maseres's Tracts, i. 29; Markham's Fairfax, pp. 260–1; Aikin's Court of Charles I, ii. 150, 156; Masson's Milton, passim; Chester's Westm. Abbey Register; Prince's Worthies of Devon, pp. 494–5; Moore's Devon, p. 86; Burke's Extinct Baronetage; Gardiner's Hist. of England.]