Pollock

Pollock, the name of an English family which has contributed many important members to the legal and other professions. David Pollock, who was the son of a Scotsman and built up a prosperous business in London as a saddler, had three distinguished sons: Sir David Pollock (1780-1847), chief justice of Bombay; Sir Jonathan Frederick Pollock, Bart. (1783-1870), chief baron of the exchequer; and Sir George Pollock, Bart. (1786-1872), field-marshal. Of these the more famous were the two last. Field Marshal Sir George Pollock, who rendered valuable military service in India, and especially in Afghanistan in 1841-1843, ended his days as constable of the Tower of London, and was buried in Westminster Abbey; his baronetcy, created in 1872, descended to his son Frederick (d. 1874), who assumed the name of Montagu-Pollock, and so to his heirs. Chief Baron Sir J. Frederick Pollock, who had been senior wrangler at Cambridge, and became F.R.S. in 1816, was raised to the bench in 1844, and created a baronet in 1866. He was twice married and had eight sons and ten daughters, his numerous descendants being prominent in many fields. The chief baron's eldest son, Sir William Frederick Pollock, 2nd Bart. (1815-1888), became a master of the Supreme Court (1846) and queen's remembrancer (1874); his eldest son, Sir Frederick Pollock, 3rd Bart. (b. 1845), being the well-known jurist and legal historian, fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Corpus professor of jurisprudence at Oxford (1883-1903), and the second son, Walter Herries Pollock (b. 1850), being a well-known author and editor of the Saturday Review from 1883 to 1894. The chief baron's third son, George Frederick Pollock (b. 1821), became a master of the Supreme Court in 1851, and succeeded his brother as queen's (king's) remembrancer in 1886; among his sons were Dr W. Rivers Pollock (1859-1909), Ernest Murry Pollock, K.C. (b. 1861), and the Rt. Rev. Bertram Pollock (b. 1863), bishop of Norwich, and previously head master of Wellington College from 1893 till 1910. The chief baron's fourth son, Sir Charles Edward Pollock (1823-1897), had a successful career at the bar and in 1873 became a judge, being the last survivor of the old barons of the exchequer; he was thrice married and had issue by each wife.