Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pollard, William
POLLARD, WILLIAM (1828–1893), quaker, born on 10 June 1828, was ninth child of James and Susanna Pollard of Horsham, Sussex, where the family had been settled for several generations. After attending the Friends' school, Croydon, Pollard proceeded to the Flounders Training College at Ackworth, Yorkshire. From 1853 he was a teacher at Ackworth school. For the use of his pupils he wrote a ‘Reading Book,’ 1865, a ‘Poetical Reader,’ 1872, and ‘Choice Readings.’ From 1866 to 1872 he was in the employ of Francis Frith, the well-known photographer at Reigate.
From 1872 to 1891 he was secretary and lecturer to the Manchester Peace and Arbitration Society, and lived at Sale, Cheshire. During this period he wrote articles for the ‘Manchester Examiner.’ In the winter of 1891 he became co-editor with W. E. Turner of the ‘British Friend,’ a monthly periodical first published at Glasgow in 1843.
Pollard was a successful minister among the Friends from 1865, and was an able exponent of the fundamental principles of quakerism in its quietist phase. A ‘Reasonable Faith, by Three Friends’ (W. Pollard, Francis Frith, and W. E. Turner), London, 1884 and 1886, was well received, though it met with some opposition from the more evangelical section of the society. His other works were: ‘Old-fashioned Quakerism: its Origin, Results, and Future. Four Lectures,’ London, 1887; the first lecture, on ‘Primitive Christianity,’ was reissued in ‘Religious Systems of the World,’ London, 1890. His ‘Primitive Christianity revived’ and ‘Congregational Worship’ were contributed to the ‘Old Banner’ series of quaker tracts, London, 1864–1866.
Pollard died on 26 Sept. 1893, and was buried in the Friends' burial-ground at Ashton-on-Mersey, Manchester. His wife, Lucy Binns of Sunderland, whom he married in 1854, survived him with five sons and three daughters.
[Eccles and Patricroft Journal, September 1893; Annual Monitor, 1894, and private information.]