Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pollard, Lewis
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 of the Judges, v. 227–8; Visitation of Devon (Harl. Soc.); Prince's Worthies of Devon, pp. 492–495; Pole's Description of Devon, and Moore's Hist. of Devon, passim; Burke's Extinct Baronetage; Strype's Works, Index.]Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.225
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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| 60 | i | 16 f.e. | Pollard, Lewis: after Nottinghamshire insert was a scholar of Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1542-3, |