The Pollard family of Horsham, Reigate, Manchester, and York

I3. WILLIAM POLLARD

William Pollard was born on the 10th June 1828 in Horsham, Sussex. In 1832 he was named among the children in the will of his father, James Pollard. In 1841 he was a pupil at the Friends' School, Park Lane, Croydon.1

 

By September 1843 he had become a member of the teaching staff at the Friends' School in Croydon, but was already discontented and contemplating quitting. The superintendent of Croydon School felt that, if he applied himself to his work, there was a good chance of his becoming an efficient and valuable teacher. His father certainly believed he had more prospects in teaching than on the farm "as thee know thee are not so able to Drive Plough or fill a Dung Cart as thee are to teach a School wherein thee will be gaining some real wisdom thyself," as he wrote to William on the 9th September that year. James also made it clear to him that there were no other options available that he could afford. The consequence was that William bowed to this pressure, and remained at Croydon.2

 

On the 22nd November 1843 he was apprenticed as a junior teacher at the Friends' School in Croydon, the apprenticeship expiring on his 21st birthday. While at Croydon William formed a strong attachment to the philanthropist Peter Bedford, whom in many respects he came to regard as his mentor. In 1849, for additional teacher training, he went on to the Flounders Institute at Ackworth, Yorkshire, which had only been founded one year previously. He was still a student there in 1851.3

 

All told, William Pollard spent 16 years of his life at Ackworth. When he became a master at the School in 1851, his salary was £60 p.a., which Peter Bedford didn't consider too high a salary after seven years serving at Croydon and the two years at the Flounders Institute. It is recorded of William as a teacher that he "excelled in the art of reading. His voice was round and clear, though not altogether free from intonation; but his style inspired his hearers with an increased interest in the subject-matter, and his turn to read aloud was always welcomed" (Joseph Spence Hodgson); the reference to 'intonation' probably has to do with the sing-song voice in which vocal ministry was traditionally offered. In 1852 he played an active part in setting up the Ackworth Literary and Scientific Society, and was keen to encourage independence and research amongst the children, seeing no value in a school society which was merely an extra class under the supervision of a master.4

 

William Pollard

 

While at Croydon he had met [K1] Lucy Binns of Bishopwearmouth, who was an apprentice there in the days of John Sharp. William Pollard's removal to Ackworth must have made it easier for the couple's relationship to develop, and they married on the 12th January 1854, at the Nile Street meeting-house in Sunderland. The couple had ten children: Mary Sophia (1854–1935), Lucy (1856–1939), Ellen (1857–1858), Bedford (1858–1945), Albert (1860–1902), William Henry (1862–1923), Eliza (1866–1938), Constance (1867–1871), Arthur Binns (1870–1949), and [I2] Francis Edward (1872–1951); the first six were born in Ackworth, the others in Reigate.5

signature of William Pollard

Quaker marriage certificate for William Pollard and Lucy Binns (with apologies for the poor focus)

 

 

In 1861 his home was on the road leading to Carr Bridge, Low Ackworth, Ackworth; the household kept two servants, including a nursemaid.6

 

 

In the spring of 1862 he had a letter published in The Friend, advocating an Association for Promoting Religious Instruction among Friends. In the summer he participated in an Ackworth conference to consider Scripture-reading meetings. The following summer he took part in the revived Friends' Educational Society, of which he was named as a member of the General Committee of Management; he and two others were nominated to consider and report on the value of vacations, and the duties in parents in regard to their children during vacations; he presented a paper on the subject to the FES meeting at Ackworth in July 1864. Drawing on his experiences at Ackworth, he also participated in the 1863 annual meeting of the Friends' First-Day School Association. In May 1864 he spoke at Yearly Meeting, on school inspection. Between 1864 and 1866 he contributed Primitive Christianity Revived and Congregational Worship to the Old Banner series of Quaker tracts, of which he had been a co-promoter; the former received an adverse review in The British Friend in April 1864. In June 1865 he was present at a well-attended meeting, at Devonshire House, of the Central Committee of the Society of Friends for the Relief of the Emancipated Slaves of North America; he "strongly advised that friends should not omit calling for help on those in their own localities who were thought not to be favorable to the movement." In 1865 he wrote a Reading Book for his pupils; he later published Choice Readings and (1872) a Poetical Reader. The review in The British Friend in September 1865 concluded: "With all our partiality for Lindley Murray, we yet consider there was room for a new work of this kind, and we think it well supplied by our friend William Pollard." The Reading Book has been described as the pupils' "one outstanding link with culture", and became very generally used in Friends' schools. For Elfrida Vipont, 20th century historian of Ackworth school, "William Pollard was a man of taste and catholic reading, and his selection was arranged in a way which encouraged the children to explore further . . ."7

 

Apparently experimenting with new educational outlets, he placed the following advertisement in The British Friend in April 1866:

 

Evening Amusements. Now ready, price One Shilling. The new game of Proverbs, for Family Parties. Sent post free on receipt of 13 stamps, by William Pollard, Ackworth, Pontefract.8

 

William Pollard with his class at Ackworth

William Pollard with his class at Ackworth

 

In 1866 he was obliged to give up teaching owing to declining health. He had been a good and enthusiastic teacher, and maintained a lifelong interest in education. It was in May of this year that he was first recorded as a minister, by Pontefract Monthly Meeting, held at Ackworth. In June, announcing (with his partners, John Rice and William Westlake) that the Old Banner pamphlet series was finishing, he also gave notice of their intent to produce a half-yearly serial volume, the Friends' Eclectic Review. He moved to Reigate in the spring of 1866, and later that year he was encouraged by his home Monthly Meeting (Dorking, Horsham and Guildford) to undertake religious service among the villagers of Ackworth. In March he was similarly encouraged in respect of the Sussex and Surrey Quarterly Meeting area; it was also part of his view to hold some meetings of a social character and for religious teaching, "as way may open." In fact he extended his net still further, holding meetings in Southampton in November 1867 and Reading in April 1868; at the latter "W.P. gave an interesting lecture on the agreement of the views and principles of the Society of Friends with primitive Christianity, which was apparently well received by those present, many of whom came by invitation."9

 

At this time, in apparent response to an advertisement in The Friend, he became agent to Francis Frith, the celebrated Reigate photographer. For the next seven years he placed all Frith's advertising and published Frith's catalogues. Frith himself had, it seems, no direct dealings with the purchasers of his photographs. Frith's most recent biography notes that "Francis Frith's business really began to expand after he took on William Pollard (1828–93) to help market his products in 1866." Pollard and Frith ceased to be business partners after 1873, but they remained close friends and regularly lectured together in the cause of peace.10

 

Early in 1867 he spent a fortnight in London, and attended Yearly Meeting, the first time for some years. By July that year he was referring to his health as "somewhat precarious". Between 1867 and 1890 he wrote some 18 articles for the Friends' Quarterly Examiner, mainly covering matters raised in Yearly Meeting and other aspects of current Quaker practice; a contribution from him appeared in the first volume of 1867 as the first of a series of 'Colloquial letters on various subjects'. On 18th February 1868 he visited Robert and Elizabeth Spence Watson at Mosscroft, Gateshead, four years before his youngest son was born, who later married their daughter. In March 1868, at Northampton meeting-house, he gave a lecture on 'Primitive Christianity and Quakerism.' In the spring of 1869 his monthly meeting liberated him for religious service within the Essex Quarterly Meeting area. That year he wrote a letter to the Friends' Quarterly Examiner decrying the fashionable bonnets increasingly worn by women Friends, especially those who attended meetings with "fantastic structures upon their heads;" he argued, however, for a moderate line, still favouring simplicity, but allowing relatively plain but fashionable clothing. The following spring he was authorised for religious service in the Quarterly Meetings of Yorkshire, Lancashire & Cheshire, and Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire & Lincolnshire; for some of this work he was joined by his brother-in-law Henry Binns. He participated in London Yearly Meeting in June 1870.11

 

In February 1869, described as a gentleman, of Reigate, he was listed as a shareholder in the Metropolitan Bank Limited.11A

 

At the date of the 1871 census William Pollard was an agent for Frith's Photos, visiting with his wife's cousin George Binns at 12 Summerseat Place, Horton, Bradford, Yorkshire. In June that year his daughter Constance died at Reigate, aged 3½. In his last year in Reigate he was a resident in Holmesdale Road, Reigate, registered as a voter by virtue of possession of a freehold house in South Park. In September of 1872 he was still residing at Holmesdale Road, a photographic agent.12

 

 

The Pollards' home in Holmesdale Road, Reigate

The Pollards' home in Holmesdale Road, Reigate

William & Lucy Pollard and family, before 1872

William and Lucy Pollard and family, before 1872

At the beginning of June 1871 he spoke at London Yearly Meeting, urging Friends to be less passive in their testimony against war. In 1871 he published Considerations addressed to the Society of Friends on the Peace Question, and in 1872 (in which year he again participated in Yearly Meeting), having long taken a great interest in work for peace, he became secretary and lecturer to the Lancashire and Cheshire International Arbitration Association, a branch of the Peace Society, with an office at first at 6 St Ann's Square, later (by August 1876) just a stone's throw away, at 12 King Street. He held this post for most of the rest of his life. Around 1872 the family moved to Sale, Cheshire, (breaking the journey for a few days at Leamington), and William joined Ashton-on-Mersey (Sale) meeting. In 1874 and 1875 he participated in Yearly Meeting, in the latter year also speaking at the General School Conference Annual Meeting. Prompted by the 1875 Yearly Meeting, he secured the front page article in the August British Friend, on 'The Present Crisis in the Society of Friends as Portrayed in the Late Yearly Meeting.' 13

 

Around the time of his participation in the 1876 Yearly Meeting, Hardshaw East monthly meeting gave approval to Pollard's visits to a number of meetings in the Lancashire area—Liverpool, Rochdale, Lancaster, Burnley, &c.; associated with these visits were a number of public meetings on the Peace Question (the meeting in Manchester, on 21st December 1876, was on the Peace Question and the Duty of Christians in the Present Crisis). He attended a series of meetings in Leigh, Lancashire, in August that year, revisiting his paper on Primitive Christianity. In 1877 he spoke at London Yearly Meeting and the Yearly Meeting on Ministry and Oversight, and at the General School Conference he read a paper on the Friends' Hall, Owens College, Manchester. He participated in the London Yearly Meeting of 1878.14

 

During the Manchester period there appeared a small number of pamphlets or letters dealing with various aspects of the peace question. In 1878 William Pollard lived at 5 Holmefield, Sale, Manchester. That year was spent mostly in travelling in the ministry with Francis Frith, holding well-attended public peace meetings in many of the major towns of Lancashire, Yorkshire and Cheshire. Pollard and Frith were described as "working together very harmoniously and pleasantly." In the autumn of 1879 (in which he had again participated in Yearly Meeting), William Pollard went on a tour of meetings in Scotland, with William Edward Turner of Liverpool; they visited Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow, St Andrews, Kilmarnock, Greenock and Paisley; at Aberdeen Pollard is said to have delivered an address on War and Christianity to a numerous and attentive audience. In November that year Frith and he continued their service to peace and the ministry by visiting meetings in Sheffield, Pontefract, Barnsley, Doncaster, Settle, Ackworth and Huddersfield. For several years after 1879 he continued the peace work, going on to propose both a code of international law and the establishment of a High Court of Nations. The printed list of members of Lancashire & Cheshire QM reveals that in 1880 the Pollard family resided at Homefield, Hope Road, Sale, which was convenient for Sale railway station and Ashton-on-Mersey meeting house, built in 1856 primarily to serve the new burial ground. Pollard was again an active participant in the 1880 and 1881 London Yearly Meeting and Ackworth General Meeting. In November 1880—travelling solo—he gave a number of lectures on peace in Cornwall, visiting Come-to-Good, Redruth, Mevagissey, St Austell, as well as Falmouth, where he spoke on 'War and Christianity' to a large meeting (7-800) of the Salvation Army; the same address was given at the Bowdon Congregational Church in Manchester, in January 1881. In 1881 the census enumerator found him at 9 Holmefield, where the household had one servant. In that year he was described as secretary to the Lancashire and Yorkshire International Arbitration Association and Peace Society; he was one of the organisers of a peace conference at Leeds.15

 

In May 1879 he attended a public meeting of the Aborigines' Protection Society, on 'South Africa and the War in Zululand' , in the Friends' meeting-house, Bishopsgate-street Without, London.16

 

During the final two decades of his life William Pollard consistently voiced strong aversion to the gradual drift towards Evangelicalism of the Society of Friends. He was an opponent of dogmatic teaching, and advocated the "wonderful education power" of free and open forums "in promoting enlightenment and useful thought". At the same time, he took the lead in resisting evangelical attempts to introduce Bible reading and congregational singing into meetings for worship.17

 

By 1882 the Pollard family had moved to Holmefield House, Clarendon Crescent, Eccles, which was close to the new meeting house in Half Edge Lane and, again, to Eccles railway station. William Pollard's business address is given as 12 King Street, Manchester, where he worked for the International Arbitration Association. That is some five minutes' walk from Mount Street, where Pollard would have attended monthly meeting (men only), held at 10 a.m. on the appropriate day. He spoke at London Yearly Meeting and the School Conference of 1882; and in September that year delivered addresses on War and Christianity in various towns of Kent, including Rochester, New Brompton, Canterbury, Margate, Dover, Folkestone and Ashford.18

 

In 1883 and 1884 he spoke at London Yearly Meeting and the School Conference. In the autumn of 1884 he gave a series of lectures on the Peace Question at Saffron Walden, Sudbury, Ipswich, Bury, Woodbridge, Sibford School, Reading, and Matlock Bank.19

 

In 1884 was published A Reasonable Faith, of which he was co-author with Francis Frith and William E. Turner, writing the chapter on The Bible and probably also that on The Sufferings of Christ, as well as revising all. The authors claimed that the book's message was intended for those who desired "a Faith at once Scriptural and reasonable" in contrast to an "emotional" evangelical creed which they viewed as a modern form of the Calvinistic theology against which the founders of Quakerism had initially rebelled. Viewed by John Greenleaf Whittier as "Quakerism pure and undefiled," it represents a crucial stage in the progress of British Quakerism towards the acceptance of liberal theology, which is marked by the Manchester Conference of 1895—"a watershed in the society's history." For the most recent historian of British Quakerism of the period, Thomas C. Kennedy,

 

In the post-Niebuhrian twentieth century, the views set out in A Reasonable Faith may leave an impression of 'feel-good' Christianity, promising much and demanding little. But among late-nineteenth century Quakers, the book's effect seems to have been electrifying, especially for young people. [ . . . ] More than fifty years after its publication, the book was still being credited with saving 'the reason and faith of that generation of Quaker youth' .

 

William Pollard

 

He continued his ministering work in 1886, at various locations in Lancashire, Cumberland and Durham, as well as participating in Yearly Meeting, as he had in 1885, and would continue to do every year until his death. In the autumn of 1886 he wrote to The British Friend, in his capacity as Secretary to the Peace Society and International Arbitration Association, listing the Society's available lectures; he himself was available to lecture on:

 

The Peace Society—its History and Aims; War and its Remedies; International Arbitration: How can it be Carried out; The War System and Bad Trade; The Story of William Penn; The Life and Teachings of Richard Cobden; "Force is No Remedy;" War and Christianity (Sunday Address); The Christian Doctrine about War and its Difficulties (Sunday Address); Can Christianity put down War? (Sunday Address); The Right and Wrong Way of Fighting (For Sunday Schools); Peace, War, and True Heroism, Illustrated by specially–prepared Pictures, shown by the Oxy-hydrogen light. (Special terms.)

 

In 1887 he published Old-Fashioned Quakerism; its Origin, Results and Future. Four Lectures; the first of these, 'Primitive Christianity', was reissued in 1890 in Religious Systems of the World. Old-Fashioned Quakerism constitutes a distillation of his mature thought.20

 

Though he was still living in Holmefield House in 1885, by the time of his daughter's marriage in May 1887, William Pollard, described as Agent to the Peace Society, was living at Oak Cottage, 537 Eccles New Road, Salford, Lancashire. He made his will on the 3rd August that year, described as agent to the Peace Society, of Oak Cottage, 573 Eccles New Road. He left his wife £50 to be paid to her within a month of his decease; his executors and trustees were named as his son-in-law Joseph John Sparkes and his son Bedford; his trustees were then to dispose of the remainder of his real and personal estate as follows: 1) household furniture, plate, linen, glass china, books, prints & pictures and all other effects of household or domestic use or ornament, to his wife, or to such of her children as she might direct (or, in the event of her death or remarriage, to be divided equally between the children; 2) other elements of his estate to be invested, with the consent of his wife, the income to be paid to her, and following her death or remarriage the estate to be divided equally between the children. Witnesses to the will were Alfred Neave Brayshaw, solicitor, and his clerk E.E. Collicull.

 

In the spring of 1888 he visited Ireland, holding meetings in Belfast, Lisburn, Lurgan, Bessbrook, Dublin, &c., as well as attending the Yearly Meeting of Ministers and Elders in Dublin; he read a paper on Peace at Dublin Yearly Meeting, "which was listened to with intense interest, and which many felt treated the subject more exhaustively then they had ever heard before." He addressed the School Conference that year, making reference to young men "whom he had come across in America"—the only suggestion found, that he may have visited that country. In October 1890 William Pollard and W.E. Turner visited meetings in Devon and Cornwall, Pollard also lecturing for the Peace Society in Exeter, Liskeard, St Austell and Plymouth.

 

In April 1888 he purchased 50 £10 shares in his son-in-law's new company, the Universal Digestive Tea Company.21

 

By 1891 he had moved to Drayton Lodge, Clarendon Road, Eccles, although he was absent on census night; as agent and lecturer for the Peace Society he was visiting Alexander Eddington, grocer, at 20 Unthanks Road, Heigham, Norfolk.22

 

During his period in Manchester he wrote articles for the Manchester Examiner, and was a frequent contributor to Christian World. In 1890 he contributed a powerful plea for Irish Home Rule to the Friends' Quarterly Examiner; this was revised and reprinted in the same year as The Irish Home Rule Question: A Survey from the Quaker Standpoint.23

 

In August 1891 Pollard and Turner visited meetings in Scotland, including visits to Glasgow and Edinburgh, where they attended the Two Months' Meeting. In the winter of 1891–2 he resigned as Lecturer to the Peace Society on medical advice, having a weak heart. His retirement was noted with regret in The Friend and The British Friend; the latter, noting his general service in opposing the cruelty and wastefulness of war, mentioned that he had also "specially pressed practical proposals for Arbitration, and a just and conciliatory Foreign Policy in lieu of War, on the public generally." The Peace Society organized a subscription fund to mark his retirement, and a presentation was made on the 27th June 1893 at the Reform Club in King Street, Manchester. In January 1893 he became co-editor of The British Friend, with W.E. Turner (the proprietor).24

 

In August 1893 The British Friend made it clear that Pollard was henceforth to have principal editorial responsibility, taking charge of all submitted letters, manuscripts and reviews, while Turner would deal with subscriptions, advertising and notices. But in the same month his health began to fail and he faced the fact that he was suffering from an incurable illness. He attended meeting for worship as long as he was able, often under great physical distress. During his last illness his mind often wandered. In a codicil to his will dated September 1893 he was described as a gentleman, of Drayton Lodge Eccles near Manchester; in the will, in view of his previously named executors now living some distance away, he substituted for them his son Albert, and his friend John Collinson.25

 

William Pollard was short in stature. He had a lively sense of humour; and he took great delight in his children's hymn-singing.26

 

He was probably a more than usually active recorded minister in the life of Manchester PM at a crucial time in that large meeting's history. He was an assiduous participant in and commentator on Yearly Meeting from year to year as well as throwing himself into the life of Friends in the diverse regions where he resided at different stages of his mortal pilgrimage, also visiting many meetings in England and Ireland; his gift in the ministry was instrumental in fostering the Christian life among the younger members of Manchester meeting. He was an able exponent of the fundamental principles of Quakerism in its quietist phase. No-one could listen to his voice in meetings for worship without being struck by his frequent use of the expression "The restoring love of God," or the love of Christ and his restoring power; the Testimony to his life records that "It was manifest that our late dear friend was one of those who are called to bear the burden of original thinking. This, to his strong and serious nature, was part of his work and service in the Church." For one recent historian (Roger C. Wilson, writing in 1990), from the early 1860s until his death in 1893 it was William Pollard "more than any other single Friend who sustained a sense of direction among the diffuse activists who were looking for a way out of the theological dead-end in which the Society was floundering."27 More recently, in 2004, Thomas C. Kennedy described him as "both a precursor and a participant" in the liberal Quaker Renaissance.28

 

After two seizures of paralysis, on two Sundays a fortnight apart, he passed quietly into lethargy and death; this occurred on Tuesday the 26th September 1893, at his home, Drayton Lodge, Clarendon Road, Eccles; his death certificate recorded that he died after 15 days cerebral haemorrhage, 15 days paralysis, and 20 hours coma.

 

Though he had been in failing health for over a year, neither his immediate family nor his intimate friends had anticipated so early and sudden a close. According to The British Friend,

 

William Pollard attended Manchester Meeting on First-day morning, the 10th of Ninth Month, and, though manifesting some physical weakness, he spoke in ministry with unusual impressiveness. In the afternoon, a paralytic seizure deprived him of the use of his right side, but left his mind only slightly impaired. Considerable restlessness ensued, and other complications existing, much anxiety was felt by his family and friends. Another seizure supervened on First-day, the 24th, which resulted in a state of coma, and in quiet unconsciousness the spark of life flickered to its close on the morning of the 26th.

 

He was buried at 3:15 pm on the 19th, at the Friends' burial ground, Ashton-on-Mersey, Manchester, in the presence of his family and a large number of Friends. W.E. Turner wrote in The British Friend that

 

Under many misrepresentations and sometimes unjust imputations cast upon his large hearted and Catholic attitude of mind, William Pollard cherished a patient and charitable spirit. He believed there was room in the Shepherd's flock for much diversity in its unity, and was only intolerant of the spirit which seemed ready to close the door against any whose interpretation of Christian belief differed from popularly accepted statements of them.

 

And in the same issue J.W. Graham—noting Pollard's role in A Reasonable Faith—wrote that "The Society has lost an original thinker and a man of independent mind; and we his intimates have lost a light of our social circle, one who talked well and wittily, and who keenly enjoyed life, and was never so happy as among its domesticities."29

 

His will was proved at Manchester on the 14th December 1893 by his son Albert Pollard and John Collinson, a Cheetham cotton manufacturer; his estate was valued at £6471 2s 3d (£387,608 at 2005 values); the personal estate was valued at £6471 3s 3d gross, £6319 3s 3d net.30

 

An article in The British Friend in 1894, on 'William Pollard's Books' , focussed on what the author considered his three main works: A Reasonable Faith, Old-fashioned Quakerism, and Plain Truths for Plain People, by 'A Friend.' Pollard's authorship of the latter seems otherwise to have been overlooked, by contemporaries as well as historians.31

 

William Pollard was the seventh child and second son of [I4] James and [J1] Susanna Pollard.32

 


1 TNA: RG 6/714, /1127; Dictionary of Quaker Biography (Friends' House Library, typescript); father's will; TNA: HO 107/1078/9 f51 p12

2 David M. Blamires: 'Towards a Biography of William Pollard'; Journal of the Friends' Historical Society, Vol. 55 Nos. 3 & 4, pp.112-123

3 Dictionary of Quaker Biography; indenture, now at West Sussex RO; Blamires, op. cit.; Blamires (1984); HO 107/2331 f49 p24

4 Blamires, op. cit.; DQB; Elfrida Vipont (1959) Ackworth School from its foundation in 1779 to the introduction of co-education in 1946. London: 90:1

5 Blamires, op. cit.; marriage certificate; Ms notes on family of William & Lucy Pollard, by a son (probably Wilfrid) of Sophie and Joseph Sparkes—photocopy in my possession; genealogical notes by Sidney Beck; Bedford Pollard (1937) Quaker Reminiscences, London: Headley Brothers; entry in digests of Society of Friends; DQB; William Pollard: 'Some Descendants of James and Mary Pollard', Ms book now at West Sussex Record Office; letters of Mary Pollard; genealogical notes by Sidney Beck; Essex Record Office D/Q 49/I2/a1; The Friend 1862-12-01 p. 309; diary letter from H.B. Smith, quoted by Bedford Pollard in The Friend 90:176–7 1932-02-26; Bedford Pollard (1937) Quaker Reminiscences, London: Headley Brothers

6 RG 9/3440 f25 p17

7 Dictionary of National Biography; Vipont (1959) 104-5; The Friend N.S. 1.7:92 1861-07-01, 1862-08-01, 1863-08-01 p. 183, 1864-01-01, 1864-06-20, 1864-08-01, 1865-07-01, XXXIII:644–5; The British Friend 1863-08-01 pp. 193-4, 1864-01-01, 1864-08-01, 1865-09-01

8 The British Friend XXV.4:100

9 DQB; Surrey Record Centre 6189 Box 11; The Friend VI.66:133, 67:151, VII.4:97, 11:277, VIII.5:140; The British Friend XXV.4:88, 7:171, 11:272, XXVI.7:186-7; Bedford Pollard (1937)

10 DQB; DNB; Blamires, op. cit.; Michael Wigg: 'Francis Frith: Quaker Connections'; Michael Wigg: The Universal and Uniform: the evolution of Fras Frith's business 1860–1873, Unpublished Postgraduate Diploma dissertation, the London Institute, 1995; Julia Skinner (2022) A Grand Spell of Sunshine. The Life and Legacy of Francis Frith. Salisbury: The Francis Frith Collection: 194

11 Friends' Quarterly Examiner I:304, 442–7; Blamires, op. cit.; Michael Wigg: 'Francis Frith: Quaker Connections'; The Friend NS IX.100:89, X.Apr:93, X.May:116, X.June:132, X.Sept:227; The British Friend XXVIII.Apr:89, XXVIII.May:114-5, XXVIII.July:176, XXVIII.Sept:228, XXVIII.Oct:252: 4; Mosscroft visitors' book; Northampton Mercury, 1868-03-21; Hannah Rumball '"We Must Hope That the Moderates with Their Quiet Attire Are the Rising Section", British Women Friends' Relinquishment of Plain Dress', in Robynne Rogers Healey and Carole Dale Spencer, eds (2023) Quaker Women 1800–1920 :230

11A Kentish Independent, 1869-02-20

12 RG 10/4469 f79 p30; electoral register; son's birth certificate; The Friend NS XI.July:184

13 Blamires (1984); letters & journals possessed by Jonathan Dale; DNB; DQB; Eccles and Patricroft Journal 6 Oct 1893; William Pollard (1880) 'The Peace-at-any-Price Party'; Blamires, op. cit.; documents now at West Sussex RO; The Friend NS XI.June:131, XIII.June:143, XIII.July:182, XIV.June:114, 126, XV.June:154, 165, 166, July:185; The British Friend XXIX.June:128-38, XXX.June:135, 138, 143, 145, XXXI.June:132, XXXI.Nov:279-303, XXXII.June:145, XXXIII.June:139, 163, Aug:193–6; Bedford Pollard: Quaker Reminiscences, 1937, London: Headley Brothers

14 The Friend NS XVI.June:147, July:193, Oct>259–60, 272, XVII.June:157, XVIII.June:125, 131 The British Friend XXXIV.June:153, 155, July:196–7, 202–1, XXXV.June:158, XXXVI.June:126, 132; The Guardian 1876-12-21

15 Blamires, op. cit.; Post Office Directory; Slater's Directory of Manchester; TNA: RG 11/3506 f107 p9; Blamires (1984), op. cit.; Wigg 1995: 13; a letter from Mabel to Robert Spence Watson, now at Tyne & Wear Archives Service, refers to Pollard and Frith as visiting ministers at York meeting in 1879; The Friend NS XVIII.Sept:246, XIX.June:158, XX.Jan:3–5, June:138, 145, 157, July:24, Oct Ads:3, Dec:318, XXI.Apr:89, June:139, 145, 156–7, July:207–8, Aug:332; The British Friend XXXVI.Aug:212, Oct:260, XXXVII.Jan:12–3, June:139, Sept:233, XXXVIII.Jan:5–7, 12, June:142–3, July:185–6, Dec:295, XXXIX Jan Ads:9, Mar:68, Oct:263; The Guardian 1881-01-08; Lancaster Gazette, 1879-08-09

16 The Aborigines' Friend, 1879-06-01, 5:121

17 Thomas C. Kennedy (2001) British Quakerism 1860–1920. The Transformation of a Religious Community: 294

18 Blamires, op. cit. The Friend XXII Jan Ads:8, June:128, 145, 150, 155, July:170–1, Sept:224–5, Oxt:264–5, Nov:277–8; The British Friend XL.June:129, 144, Oct:264–6

19 The Friend XXIII.Jan:21, Mar:56–8, May:103–4, June:137, 140, 142, 146, XXIV.June:147–8, Nov:294; The British Friend XLI.Feb:37, June:126, 132, 135, 141, 144, XLII.June:129, Oct:244, Nov:264, Dec:288.

20 letters from Frank Pollard; Robert S.W. Pollard: 'Memoir of Francis E. Pollard', in F.E. Pollard (1953) War and Human Values, 2nd edn 1953; DQB; intro. to Blamires (1984), op. cit.; DNB; Blamires, op. cit.; Kennedy (2001); The Friend XXV Dec: Ads 8, XXVI Apr:100, June:144, Nov: 297, XXVII Jan:22, June:137, 152, June: Ads 11, July: Ads 6, Aug: 203–4, Sept:239–40, XXVIII Jan:24, May:114, June:143, 149, XXIX June:156, XXX June:148–9, XXXI June:141–2, XXXII:345, 346, 350, 372, XXXIII:359, LXVII:703 1927-07-29; The British Friend XLIII Dec: Ads 6, XLIV Apr:80, Nov:271–2, XLV Apr: Ads 9, Aug: 207–8, XLVI Feb:43, Apr: 90, June:132, XLIX:132, 143, NS I:5, 6, 10, 131, II:171

21 Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser, 1888-04-02; AOSA Annual Report 31, 1912; will and probate. "537" Eccles New Road was probably an error.

22 letter from Lord Rosebery to William Pollard; will; RG 12/1529 f51 p2. 1889 Slater's Directory of Manchester gives house number as 573; 573 Eccles New Road appears as uninhabited, in the 1891 census, so on the assumption that the Pollards may recently have moved out, this may be the correct number; The Friend XXVIII Jan:24, XXVIII May:114, XXVIII June:132, 134–5, 143, 149, 185, XXIX June:156, XXX Dec:228–9; The British Friend XLVI May:117, June:124, XLVII June:157,  176–6, 178, June: Ads 8

23 Blamires (1984), op. cit. 910; DNB; Eccles and Patricroft Journal 6 Oct 1893; Michael Wigg: 'Francis Frith: Quaker Connections'

24 The British Friend XLIX Sept: 224, NS I Nov:271, II Jan:1; Annual Monitor 1894; DNB; Eccles and Patricroft Journal 6 Oct 1893; Blamires, op. cit. Eccles and Patricroft Journal says editor & part-proprietor, DNB says co-editor.

25 The British Friend II Aug:239; DQB; Annual Monitor 1894; will, codicil, and probate

26 Isaac Henry Wallis (1924) Frederick Andrews of Ackworth. London: Longmans, Green & Co.; Annual Monitor 1894

27 Blamires, op. cit.; Blamires (1984); DNB; DQB; Elizabeth Spence Watson: 'Family Chronicles/Home Records', and supplement

28 Thomas C. Kennedy (Spring 2004) 'Early Friends and the Renewal of British Quakerism, 1890–1920', Quaker History 93.1: 80–95

29 Proceedings of Yearly Meeting 1894; Blamires, op. cit.; death certificate; will and probate; Eccles and Patricroft Journal 29 Sept 1893; DQB; The Friend XXXIII:644–5, 656; The British Friend II Oct:294, Nov: 297–9

30 will, codicil and probate

31 Evelyn Noble Armitage, in The British Friend III Apr:106–8

32 RG 6/714, /715, /1127, /1134; William Pollard: 'Some Descendants of James and Mary Pollard', at West Sussex RO


Bibliography



I4. JAMES POLLARD

James Pollard was born in Horsham on the 19th June 1789. From 1798 to 1801 he attended Ackworth School, his normal residence being at Horsham. At admission his reading and spelling were found to be "but poorly".1

 

In 1808 he attended Monthly Meeting for the first time, at Ifield, Sussex. In June of the following year—by now working as an assistant in his father's drapery—he was drawn for service in the local militia, upon which he was fined £10, then imprisoned in Horsham Gaol for 14 days, for refusal to serve; he was one of only two Friends in Surrey and Sussex penalised this way, at this time. He was treated kindly in gaol, being given a bedroom to himself, with the debtors. In 1811 he was for the first time subject to distraint, for non-payment of church rates; he appears to have begun in business in his own right by this date.1A

 

signature of James PollardOn the 27th April 1813 he married [J1] Susanna Bourn, by licence from the Archdeaconry of Lewes, at St Nicholas parish church, Brighton, Sussex. He was described as an ironmonger, of Horsham. The marriage caused consternation among local Friends, as Susanna was not herself a Quaker, and the proceedings seemed to have progressed rather rapidly, before Friends had time to intercede. Their children were: Ann (1816–1818), Eliza (1818–1859), Richard (1819–1854), Emma (1822–1826), Martha (1823–1859), Mary (1826–1851), [I3] William (1828–1893), Robert (1831–1856), and David (1834–1838), all births being registered by Surrey & Sussex quarterly meeting.2

 

In 1814 James was summoned for the local militia once more, again fined £10, but this time distrained rather than imprisoned. From 1816 to 1840 he was an ironmonger in Horsham; he is so described in his own will of February 1832 and the will of his father Samuel Pollard in September 1840. From 1818 to 1834 he is described as an "Ironmonger &c.", and around 1830 he was in business as a "draper and tinman", with a shop in West Street, Horsham. In this period he was frequently subject to distraint, the records of sufferings recording the taking of sundry items of ironmongery: tea kettles, coal scuttles, knives and forks etc. He had been left the shop by his aunt Hannah Pollard in 1821; he and his father had acted as executors of her will.3

 

In July 1829 Horsham overseers informed the meeting that James Pollard had been "guilty of a criminal connection with a young woman who lived with him as a servant"; he admitted his guilt, and when the meeting was informed, in September, that the young woman was in fact pregnant James was disowned.4

 

James Pollard made his will on 29 February 1832, as follows:5

 

I James Pollard of Horsham in the County of Sussex Ironmonger declare this to be my Will I give and devise All my real estate whatsoever unto my brother William Pollard of Great Surrey Street Blackfriars Road Surgeon and my brother in law Richard Moase of Lindfield in the County of Sussex Farmer their executors and administrators Upon trust to sell the same at such time or times by Public Auction or Private Contract as they may think proper with the consent of my Wife in her lifetime and afterwards at their discretion for the most money that can be obtained for the same And I direct that the receipt or receipts of my said Trustees or the survivor of them or the executors or administrators of such survivor shall be a sufficient discharge or discharges for the purchase money agreed to be paid for my real estate or any part thereof and that the purchaser or purchasers thereof shall not be liable to answer for the misapplication or nonapplication there And I give and bequeath the money thereby arising with the rents issues and profits of my real estate until the same shall be void as aforesaid And all the rest residue and remainder of my estate and effects whatsoever (after payment of my debts funeral and testamentary expenses) unto my Wife Susannah Pollard and my children Eliza Pollard Richard Pollard Martha Pollard Mary Pollard William Pollard and Robert Pollard and any future born children or child or of which my said wife may be encient at the time of my decease to be equally divided between them share and share alike the legacy to my Wife to be in lieu and bar of dower and thirds and the shares of my said children to be vested interests and to be paid to them as they respectively attain the age of twenty one years and the interest and dividends thereof or so much as shall be necessary to be applied in the meantime for their maintenance and education And I direct my Trustees or the survivor of them or the executors or administrators of such survivor to invest the shares of my children and any surplus which may accrue during their minority on mortgage upon real estate or to place the same in the Government Stocks or Funds and to change or vary the same from time to time with the consent of my said Wife during her life and after her decease at their own discretion and I empower my Trustees to apply money out of the shares of my children respectively for the apprenticeship or otherwise for their benefit And I declare that my said Trustees shall not be answerable for any more money than they shall actually receive nor for any losses which may happen except through their wilful neglect or default nor the [illeg. word] for the other of them and that they may retain all necessary expences which they may be put to in executing the trusts of this Will and I appoint the said William Pollard and Richard Moase Executors thereof and revoke all former Wills In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this twenty ninth day of February One thousand eight hundred and thirty two—James Pollard—Signed Sealed Published and Declared by the said James Pollard the Testator as and for his last Will and Testament in the presence of us who have hereunto subscribed our names as witnesses at his request in his presence and in the presence of each other—B. Henning—G. Stedman—W. Stedman.

 

He voted for the sitting MP, Robert Hurst, in the parliamentary election of 1835.6

 

In 1839, after 10 years' exclusion, James applied for readmission to the Society of Friends. He was found to be sincerely repentant, and his application was accepted. Probably he had never stopped attending meeting for worship, and he quickly resumed his position with local Friends, attending Monthly Meetings fairly regularly during the early 1840s, and indeed Quarterly Meeting in 1842.7

 

By 1841 he had become a farmer, of Park Farm, Horsham, Sussex, though still also with a house in West Street, Horsham; with James and Susanna were her sister and brother-in-law, a nephew and niece of Susanna's, and a 19-year old girl of uncertain relationship. At the end of 1843, with his sister Mary Ann Hayllar, he was co-executor of his father's will. His change of profession made him even more vulnerable to distraint, because of course he was also expected to pay tithes. From 1842 he suffered a number of seizures of sacks of wheat and oats, and even cows.8

 

Though he clearly found letter-writing something of a task, he shows himself in surviving letters to have been a caring and affectionate father. He clearly possessed a fair number of books—some of his remarks lead one to suppose that they were serious, probably religious, works. He was conservative in the matter of the Quaker testimony on plainness of speech, behaviour and dress, as might be expected for a Quaker of his generation, in the period prior to the 1860 Yearly Meeting which withdrew the query on plainness.9

 

On 20 January 1849, at Horsham Petty Sessions, two labourers were charged with using a wire to catch game on Greyland's Farm:

 

Mr James Pollard, farmer, said he had commissioned Thornton to set wires on his farm for rabbits, and gave him the wire for that purpose. Thornton made up the wire himself. He believed the wire was not set on Mr Fitzgerald's ground at all.

It was found that it had been on Fitzgerald's property, and each defendant was fined £1 10s., including costs.10

 

He remained a farmer to his death, which occurred on the 7th January 1851, on a visit to his daughter Eliza at Reigate, Surrey. His death was caused by natural disease of the heart, and happened "suddenly and instantly". There was a coroner's inquest, at the Rose and Crown in Reigate, a surgeon testifying that though he had applied stimulants and bled him it had been to no avail, and the jury returning a verdict of Natural death. His body was interred in the Friends' burial ground at Reigate on the 12th January. His will was proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury on the 1st August; his effects were sworn under £1500, the final valuation being given as £460.18.5d. (£26,978 at 2005 values). In August 1856 his executors advertised for sale by auction his freehold shop, house, and premises in West Street, Horsham.11

 

James Pollard was the second child and eldest son of [I5] Samuel and [I32] Catherine Pollard.12

 

*** For an exhaustive treatment of the lives of James and Susanna Pollard, please see this pdf file (updated February 2023). ***

 


1 Quaker birth note now at West Sussex RO; William Pollard: 'Some Descendants of James and Mary Pollard', Ms book now at West Sussex RO; TNA: RG 6/846, RG 6/609, RG 6/1644; West Yorks. Archive Service C678, Ackworth School archives, 11/3/1; Surrey Record Centre 6189 Box 6, East Sussex Record Office SOF 20/1

2 William Pollard: 'Some Descendants of James and Mary Pollard'; Sussex Record Society Vol.XXVI,1919, p.341, Calendar of Sussex Marriage Licences; parish register; SRC 6189 Box 6; ESRO Par. 255/1/3/1 (XA30/12); Dictionary of Quaker Biography

3 RG 6/714, /715, /1134, /1135; Henry Burstow: Reminiscence of Horsham, ed. William Albery. 1916, reprinted 1975, Norwood, Pa.: Norwood Editions; ESRO SOF 5/2 & 24/3; SRC 6189 Box 18; Horsham Museum Mss 808(5); will of Hannah Pollard, TNA: PROB 11/1646 Q.419; Pigot's Directory, 1832–4

4 SRC 6189 Box 9

5 will, TNA: PROB 11/2138

6 West Sussex Record Office MP 1507 Horsham electors' list

7 SRC 6189 Box 9, ESRO SOF 20/4

8 DQB; copy will, PROB 11/1988/135; Pigot's Directory to London & Provinces, 1832–4; Robson's Directory to London & Provinces, 1838; father's will; TNA: HO 107/1097 3 f28 p7; SRC 6189 Box 18; electoral register

9 David M. Blamires: 'Towards a Biography of William Pollard', Journal of the Friends' Historical Society, Vol.55 Nos. 3 & 4, pp.112-123

10 Brighton Gazette, 1849-01-25

11 William Pollard apprenticeship indenture, now at West Sussex RO; DQB; son's marriage certificate; widow's death certificate; William Pollard: 'Some Descendants of James and Mary Pollard'; death certificate; PROB 11/2138; IR26/1911—which says date of death was 8th Jan; SRC 6189/58; Sussex Agricultural Express; letter from Mary to Robert Pollard, now at West Sussex RO; West Sussex Gazette, 1856-08-28

12 RG 6/609, /714, /846, /1134, /1643, /1644; William Pollard: 'Some Descendants of James and Mary Pollard', Ms book at West Sussex RO

 


I5. SAMUEL POLLARD

Samuel Pollard was born on the 21st December 1760, in Horsham, Sussex.1

 

At a Court of Assistants held by the Carpenters' Company at Carpenters Hall on Tuesday the 4th July 1775 he was bound apprentice to Gabriel Gregory of Maze Pond, Southwark, carpenter, and also Citizen & Carpenter of London, for a consideration of 15 guineas.2

 

signature of Samuel PollardOn the 20th July 1784, a carpenter in Clapham, Surrey, he married [I32] Catherine Hughesdon at Clapham's Holy Trinity church, by licence. At the birth of his daughter Grace in 1786 he was described as "A Member of Horslydown Monthly Meeting London now residing at Horsham and under Dealing at the request of the said Meeting for Marriage by the Priest to a Person not of our Society." Horsleydown Monthly Meeting were not finally satisfied until Samuel Pollard formally wrote to condemn his own offence of being married by a priest, in March 1788, the apology being accepted in May of that year.

 

Samuel and Catherine's children were: Mary (1785–1785), Grace (1786–1791), Samuel (1787–1851), [I4] James (1789–1851), Andrew (1790–1863), Thomas (1792–1848), William (1794–1878), Theophilus (1795–1872), Martha (1797–1879), John (1799–1837), Joseph (1801–1873), Frederic (1803–1844), Mary Ann (1805–1865), and Josiah (1807–1834); all but Mary are known to have been born in Horsham.3

 

By 1787 he had begun buying property in Horsham, and was in future to make at least part of his living as a landlord. That year he took on an 11-year-old girl apprentice, Ann Cooper.4

 

From the beginning of 1789 he began regularly attending Monthly Meeting, and from September 1789 was usually one of the meeting's representatives to Sussex and Surrey Quarterly Meeting. In 1796, and on a number of subsequent occasions, he also attended London Yearly Meeting.5

 

In 1791 he was a defendant in the Chancery suit of Hall con Pollard and others, a case deriving ultimately from his grandmother's earlier suit of 1718.6

 

In 1795 he was appointed as the local agent for Ackworth school, a position he retained for some 30-odd years.7

 

From 1795 to 1807 he is described as a shopkeeper. In 1807 he is more specifically stated to be a draper, freeholder of a house in West Street (almost directly opposite no. 49), rated at £20/5/-. By 1818 he is described as a yeoman, of Horsham.8

 

In 1797 he was distrained for tithes, 6 yards of cloth being taken; he was to suffer repeated further seizures from his drapery shop right through to 1821. The distraint was usually for non-payment of tithes or church rates, but in 1798 he was distrained under the Cavalry Act.9

 

In 1807 he voted twice, in Lewes and Horsham.10

 

In 1811 he was able to lend £100 towards the cost of constructing a new meeting house at Brighton; only two other individuals advanced as much. That year he acted as co-executor of the estate of his brother-in-law Joseph Cranstone. In February 1812 he briefly acted as clerk to Horsham Monthly Meeting.11

 

Around 1820 he apparently lived in a house called 'The Druids'; he paid for the first year of education of a neighbour's son, Henry Burstow. This was probably the property he had bought from the Duke of Norfolk in 1813 for £1500, then known as 'Popes'. In 1820 he apparently didn't vote, but he did so in 1826, 1830 and 1835.12

 

In 1817 he was correspondent in Horsham for the Society for the Promotion of Permanent and Universal Peace, to which he had subscribed a guinea—double the contribution of any of the other five Horsham subscribers.13

 

From 1816, when subject to distraint, it was frequently large quantities of hay that were seized, suggesting that by then he may also have been engaged in farming. This may be confirmed by the reference to a Samuel Pollard, farmer of Horsham, who witnessed the marriage of Joseph Cranstone, Samuel's nephew (additionally, his son Frederick, at his death in 1844, was described on his death certificate as a "farmer's son").14

 

On 21 March 1820, a notice of the dissolution of the partnership between S. Pollard and S. Pollard jun., Horsham, drapers, was published in the London Gazette. In 1821, with his son James, Samuel acted as executor of his sister Hannah's will.15

 

In 1823 he is listed in Pigot's Sussex Directory as a linen draper in Horsham, but in 1824 he sold his drapery business to a John Browne, for £200 plus the value of stock in trade. From 1832 to 1832, and again in 1839, Pigot's Directory lists him as an ironmonger and linen draper; possibly this reflects his ownership of the business carried on by his son.16

 

In 1832, 1834 and 1839 he voted for the borough of Horsham, as a resident of the Bishoprick, which is also referred to as Alfred Place. Around this time he employed an ostler named Waterman, who smuggled 2-gallon casks of spirits in buckets of hogwash he carried suspended from a yoke, as he walked round the town.17

 

In July 1832 Samuel Pollard was appointed an Elder. From then on he regularly attended Monthly and Quarterly Meetings of Ministers and Elders. In January 1826 he chaired a meeting of the inhabitants of Horsham, to protest against the imprisonment of Edward Mills, an "old and respectable Tradesman." In September 1833 he was present at a parish meeting in the King's Head in Horsham, "to consider upon the expediency of adopting the Plan pursued last Winter for providing Employment of the Poor." In 1837 he made a donation of £50 to the Friends' School in Croydon. In the 1837 election he voted Lennox and Surrey.18

 

In February 1839 he gave evidence at a Court for the Relief of Insolvent Debtors, at Horsham, in the case of William Feist, shoemaker. He sold Popes that year, to a Peter Du Cane, for £2020.19

 

As a yeoman of Horsham he made his will in 184020:

 

This is the last Will and Testament of me Samuel Pollard of Horsham in the County of Sussex yeoman that is to say I give to my son Samuel one hundred and fifty pounds and to my son Andrew one hundred pounds and to my son Thomas one hundred pounds and to my son Theophilus one shilling to be paid to them as soon as convenient after my decease I give and devise to my son James Pollard of Horsham Ironmonger and my son William Pollard of London Surgeon and my friend John Glaisyer of Brighthelmston Druggist and to their heirs executors and administrators and assigns in trust as soon as conveniently may be after my decease to sell my estates by public auction or private sale so that the most money may be had or obtained for the same videlicet my house and land with the appurtenances at Lindfield in the County of Sussex known as the Tiger Inn and alsy my leasehold premises with the appurtenances in the parish of Horsham now in the occupation of Meshack Seagrave and also my leasehold house and premises in High Street Kensington in the County of Middlesex let or lease to William Treadwell and for the more easily carrying this my will into effect I do hereby direct and appoint that the purchaser or purchasers of my said estates shall not be obliged or compelled either in law or equity to see to the application of the purchase money but the receipt or receipts of my said trustees shall be a good and sufficient discharge to such purchaser or purchasers respectively for the purchase money and which shall be paid and applied by my said trustees or the survivor of them his heirs executors or administrators in such manner as is hereinafter by my will directed and also all my bonds bills notes mortgages ready money and all the Rest and Residue of my estates and effects of what nature o kind soever, I hereby direct that the whole of my said real and personal estates of what kind or nature soever shall be converted into money and which together with the money arising from the sale of my real estates and the rents profits interest and dividends shall be equally divided amongst or between my sons James Pollard William Pollard Joseph Pollard and my daughter Mary Ann Hayllar and the children of my late sons John Pollard and Josiah Pollard who are to have what would have been their fathers share had they been living equally divided between them. I hereby direct my said trustees to pay over the Widows of my said sons John Pollard and Josiah Pollard the interest or dividends that may arise from such shares to be expended in the education and maintenance of their said children during the time their Mothers remain Widows but if they marry again my will is that my executors shall apply such interest or dividends for the benefit of those children until they attain the age of twenty one years respectively and in case any other of my said children should die either in my lifetime or before his her or their share or shares shall be payable and should leave lawful issue such issue shall have his her or their Fathers or Mothers share to be equally divided among them and paid to them as they respectively become of the age of twenty one years the interest or proceeds arising from such shares before such child or children shall have attained the said age of twenty one years to be applied towards their maintenance and education at the discretion of my executors and I direct that my said trustees or the survivor of them his executors or admtors shall not be accountable for any loss or losses that shall of may happen in the execution of the trusts hereby in them reposed not owing to their wilful neglect or default nor shall they my said trustees be accountable the one for the other or the acts or deeds of the other but each of them for his own acts and deeds only and I hereby direct that my executors be paid for the [illeg. word] and expenses they may have or be put to in the execution of this my will and whereas several of my sons have had and now have [memos?] or notes or bonds my will is and I do hereby direct that all such debts and interest thereon shall be charged to them respectively and deducted out of the respective shares of my said real and personal estates And I do hereby nominate constitute and appoint my said sons James Pollard and William Pollard and my aforesaid friend John Glaisyer Executors of this my last will and Testament and my will is that either of my executors shall have full liberty to purchase either of my estates in the same manner as if he or they were not herein appointed by me to that office and hereby revoking all former and other will or wills by me at any time heretofore made I declare this to be my last will and Testament contained in two sheets of Paper In Witness whereof I the said Samuel Pollard the testator have hereunto and to the preceding sheet hereof set my hand this ninth day of the ninth month commonly called September in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty /—/ Samuel Pollard /=/ Signed by the above named Samuel Pollard the testator as and for his last will and Testament in the presence of us who at his request and in his presence and in the presence of each other have subscribed our names as witnesses thereto

Benjn  Newes druggist Horsham /=/ Geo Albery Saddler Horsham

 

The will refers to "my house and land with the appurtenances at Lindfield in the county of Sussex known as the Tiger Inn and also my leasehold premises with the appurtenances in the parish of Horsham now in the occupation of Meshack Seagrave and also my leasehold house and premises in High Street Kensington in the county of Middlesex let or lease to William Treadwell." In fact he was to sell the Tiger Inn in April 1840.

 

In 1841 he was living in Bishopwick, Horsham, being of independent means; he was living with his (apparent) son, a house servant, and one other (probably also a servant).21

 

A gentleman, he died at the Bishoprick, N. Horsham, on Wednesday the 11th August 1841, from decay of nature. His body was interred in the Friends' burial ground at Horsham on the 26th August. His will was proved on the 21st September in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury.22

 

Samuel Pollard was the sixth child, third son, of [I6] James and [I17] Mary Pollard.23


1 TNA: RG 6/1258

2 London Lives, ref. GLCCMC251010302

3 RG 6/609; William Pollard: 'Some Descendants of James and Mary Pollard', Ms book now at West Sussex RO; marriage bond at London Metropolitan Archives DW/MP/124/020/a-b; Surrey Marriage Index; Surrey Record Centre 6189 Box 5; Dictionary of Quaker Biography (Friends' House Library, typescript); London Metropolitan Archives P95/TR11/109/001 (X078/020); The Friend; The British Friend; Annual Monitor

4 West Sussex Record Office QDE/2/1 (MF 637-9) and Par/106/31/3

5 SRC 6189 Boxes 6 & 9; East Sussex Record Office SOF 1/3, SOF 20/1-4; Library of the Religious Society of Friends List of Representatives to London Yearly Meeting 1780–1861

6 documents now at West Sussex RO

7 ESRO SOF 1/3

8 RG 6/846, RG 6/714, RG 6/1134, RG 6/698; Dictionary of Quaker Biography; letters from William Albery to Bedford Pollard, 1927, now at West Sussex RO

9 ESRO SOF 5/2, SRC 6189 Box 18

10 Poll book

11 ESRO SOF 20/2, SRC 6189 Box 6; catalogue entry for Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies, DE/Ce/F26; PROB 11/1528/331 copy will of Joseph Cranstone

12 letters from William Albery to Bedford Pollard, 1927, now at West Sussex RO; Henry Burstow (1916) Reminiscence of Horsham, ed. William Albery. reprinted 1975, Norwood, Pa.: Norwood Editions; WSRO Add. Mss 11007-10, WSRO Add. Ms 2655 & MP 1507 Horsham electors' lists

13 Annual Report of the society

14 ESRO SOF 5/2 & 24/1, SRC 6189 Box 18; TNA: RG 6/1157; son's death certificate

15 will of Hannah Pollard, Public Record Office PROB 11/1646 Q.419; The Times 22 Mar 1820

16 Horsham Museum Mss 808(2); Freath, S.G.H., I.A. Mason & P.M. Wilkinson (1995) A Catalogue of the Horsham Museum Mss. Chichester: West Sussex County Council; Letters from William Albery to Bedford Pollard, 1927, now at West Sussex RO; Pigot's Sussex Directory

17 letters from William Albery to Bedford Pollard, 1927, now at West Sussex RO; William Albery (1947) A Millennium of Facts in the History of Horsham and Sussex 947–1947. Horsham: 505

18 SRC 6189 Boxes 9 & 17; ESRO SOF 21/2; Essex Record Office D/Q 49/A1/a18; Brighton Patriot, 1936-01-26; Horsham Posters; poll book

19 WSRO Add. Mss 11012-5; Brighton Gazette, 1839-03-14

20 wife's death certificate; will, TNA: PROB 11/1951; Sussex Agricultural Express

21 TNA: HO 107/1097/1 f26 p4

22 death certificate; will; Sussex Advertiser, 1841-08-16; SRC 6189/168; Dictionary of Quaker Biography says date of death was 18th August.

23 documents now at West Sussex RO; RG 6/424, /1258



I6. JAMES POLLARD

James Pollard was born around 1721 and was baptised at St Dunstan, Stepney, London, on 2nd November 1721.1

 

In November 1737 he was left £1070.10s in his mother's will; the money was held in Chancery until after his father's death.2

 

On the 2nd April 1738 it was stated that "James Pollard the son who is upwards of 17 yres of age is desirous to be put apprentice to Robert Wilson of Mark Lane Cornfactor for a term of 4 yres to commence from the 22nd day of March last & the sd Robert Wilson hath agreed to take him as such apprentise for the consñ of 200£ being the usual price on such occasion wch the sd petr James Pollard the father hath agreed unto conceiving it for the benefit of his said son." The Court investigated whether the price and Mr Wilson were acceptable, and when they proved to be so ordered on the 5th April that £200 South Sea stock be sold and the proceeds given to Wilson.3

 

signature of James PollardHe successfully completed his apprenticeship in 1742. On the 22nd January 1744/5 he was given £300 from Chancery, at his own disposal. On the 16th February 1745/6 he married [I17] Mary Hall, in Horsham, at which date he was described as a mealman of Ifield. They had eight children: Rebecca (1747–1819), Mary (1748–1817), Hannah (1752–1821), Joseph (1754–1836), James (1756–1832), [I5] Samuel (1760–1841), Martha (1762–1790), and Sarah (1764–1845); all were born in Horsham.4

 

Quaker marriage certificate for James Pollard and Mary Hall

 

On the 21st October 1747 he was given a further £370.10.0d for his own use—it was "required to complete the purchase of an estate contiguous to his farm and lands he now possesses." He was executor of his father's will in February 1748/9. On the 15th June 1749—three months after his father's death—he was given the residue of the Slater estate (see I12), £1257.9.3d in South Sea Annuities.5

 

In 1757 and 1768 he is described as a miller, of Horsham; in 1775 he was a shopkeeper there.6

 

He died on the 18th June 1783, in Horsham, and was buried there on the 24th. In 1781, and at his death, he was described as a shopkeeper of Horsham.7 Administration of his estate was granted to his widow at Horsham on the 17th July 1783, recorded in the Consistory Court of Chichester; his estate was valued at above £300.8

 

James Pollard was the eldest child of [I7] James and [I12] Rebecca Pollard.9

 


1 TNA: RG 6/847, RG 6/610; Chancery records in PRO, Pollard con Slater; baptism register for St Dunstan, Stepney

2 mother's will; Chancery records in PRO, Pollard con Slater

3 Chancery records in PRO, Pollard con Slater

4 RG 6/26, /102, /424, /715, /1310; Chancery records in PRO, Pollard con Slater; William Pollard: 'Some Descendants of James and Mary Pollard', Ms book now at West Sussex RO; entry in digests of Society of Friends; will quoted in gedcom from Mark & Glenys Hill, citing TNA: PROB 11/768 Image Ref. 79;  National Burials Index; Annual Monitor

5 Chancery records in PRO, Pollard con Slater

6 www.a2a.org.uk/search/documentxsl.asp?com=1&i=10&nbKey=1&stylesheet=xsl/A2A_com.xsl&keyword=james pollard&properties=0601, citing Lytton/445 & /449, WSRO; London Lives, ref. GLCCMC251010302

7 RG 6/847, RG 6/610; www.a2a.org.uk/search/documentxsl.asp?com=1&i=8&nbKey=2&stylesheet=xsl/A2A_com.xsl&keyword=james pollard&properties=0601, citing SOF/59/8, West Sussex RO

8 Consistory Court probate diary

9 Chancery records in PRO, Pollard con Slater; entry in digests of Society of Friends; parish registers of St John Wapping, St Dunstan and All Saints Stepney, and St John the Baptist Croydon



I7. JAMES POLLARD

James Pollard was born in Arundel, Sussex, on the 25th September 1688.1

 

On the 6th June 1713 a marriage licence for James Pollard and Rebecca Slaughter was issued by the Faculty Office; they were married the same day at Lamb's Chapel, Monkwell Street; he was described as being of St Dunstan's, Stepney. Some time before May 1716 he went to Plymouth with [I12] Rebecca Stoodley. On the 6th of that month he was said to be a labourer in Milbrook in the parish of Maycock (i.e. Maker, which adjoins Plymouth), Cornwall. By the 7th September 1717 he had left Millbrook, and was now of St John Wapping; he marked his name.2

 

On the 10th September 1717 he married [I12] Rebecca Stoodley (née Sla[ugh]ter), at the church of St Benet, Paul's Wharf, London; he was described as a bachelor, of St John Wapping, Middlesex. This presumably legitimised their marriage, Rebecca's 1713 marriage having been bigamous. Their children were: Slater (1718 – after 1749, b. Wapping), Rebecca (1719 – ?, b. Stepney), [I6] James (1721–1783, b. Stepney), John (1723–1723), Mary (1723–1725), Hester (1724/5 – after 1749), and Charity (1728 – after 1749); the four youngest were born in Croydon.3

 

From 1718 onwards he was involved in the Chancery suit Pollard con Slater, over Rebecca's uncle's estate. For a close look at the Chancery case, see The Pollards in Chancery, below.4

 

In 1718 and 1721 James was a ropemaker, of Wapping—living in 1718 in Gun Alley. The family moved to Croydon, in Surrey, before 1723. In May 1737 James was described as a gentleman, of Croydon; in the same month he is named in Rebecca's will. In November that year he inherited half of his wife's estate (£4070.10s)—though he was not permitted to break into the capital.5

 

On the 11th February 1748/9 he made his will6:

 

In the Name of God Amen

I James Pollard of Croydon in the County of Surrey Gentleman being weak and infirm in Body but of sound and disposing mind memory and understanding thanks be given to Almighty God for the same and considering the uncertainty of this Life do make and ordain this my last will and testament in manner and form following that is to say First and Principally I commend my soul into the Hands of Almighty God my Creator humbly hoping to obtain Mercy and Forgiveness of all my Sins in and through the Merits of Jesus Christ my blessed Saviour and Redeemer and my Body I comment to the Earth from whence it came decently to be buried at the discretion of my Executor hereafter named And as to my worldly Estate I give devise bequeath and dispose thereof as followeth And First my will and desire is and I do hereby order direct and appoint that all and every my Household Goods Furniture and Implements of Household Stuff whatsoever plate Rings Linnen and China Ware shall be equally divided into six parts and shares Five of which Six parts I give and bequeath unto my Five Children James Slaughter Hopkins Rebecca Pollard Hester Pollard and Charity Pollard equally between them share and share alike and the other Sixth part thereof I give and bequeath unto my daughter Elizabeth Wood in Trust for her two Children James Wood and Rebecca Wood equally to be divided between them share and share alike also my ill is that my Ready Money and the residue of my personal Estate shall go for and towards Payment of my just debts Funeral Expences and Probate of this my will Also I give and devise unto my said two Grand Children James Wood and Rebecca Wood and to their heirs and assigns for ever as Tenants in Common and not Joint Tenants All that Messuage or Tenement with the Yard Garden and Premises thereto belonging with their Appurtenances situate lying and being near my dwelling House in the Town of Croydon aforesaid and now in the Occupation of Thomas Parnham or his Assigns Also I give and devise unto my aforesaid Five Children James Pollard Slaughter Hopkins Robert Pollard Hester Pollard and Charity Pollard and to their Heirs and Assigns for ever as Tenants in Common and not as Joint Tenants All that Messuage or Tenement where I now dwell in Croydon aforesaid with the Stable Chaise House Yards Gardens Buildings and Premises with the Appurtenances whatsoever thereto belonging or in any wise appertaining subject nevertheless to and Chargeable with the Payment of ten Pounds a Piece unto my two Brothers John Pollard and Nathaniel Pollard and with the Payment of so much of my just Debts Funeral Expences and Probate of this my will as my Ready Money and residue of my personal Estate shall fall short of paying and discharging if it happens so to do And I make ordain constitute and appoint my said Son James Pollard full and sole Executor of this my last will and Testament hereby revoking and making void all former will or wills by me made and declaring this only to be my last will and testament In witness whereof I the said James Pollard the Testator have to this my last will and testament set my Hand and Seal the Eleventh Day of February in the year of our Lord One Thousand seven hundred and Forty eight: the mark and seal of James Pollard. Signed Sealed Published and declared by the said Testator for and as his last Will and Testament in the Presence of us who hereunto set our names as witnesses in his Presence. Mary Dungate. J. Sanders Thos Varnom — ——

 

He died on the 12th February 1748/9, and was buried at Sunbury, Middlesex, on the 19th. At the funeral, performed by James Glover, the hearse was pulled by six horses with ostrich-feather plumes; the funeral cost £32.0.5d. His will was proved at London, in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, on the 23rd February 1748/9.7

 

James Pollard was the third child and second son of [I8] James and [I9] Elizabeth Pollard.8

 


1 TNA: RG 6/1111

2 Extracted Faculty Office marriage licences; Chancery records in PRO, Pollard con Slater; documents now at West Sussex RO; parish register, Lamb's Chapel; my own speculation for equation of Maycock and Maker

3 documents now at West Sussex RO; Croydon and Stepney parish registers; parish register of St John Wapping; gedcom from Mark & Glenys Hill

4 Chancery records in PRO, Pollard con Slater

5 parish register; documents now at West Sussex RO; wife's will now at West Sussex RO; Chancery records in PRO, Pollard con Slater; Stepney parish register

6 TNA: PROB 11/768 will register

7 Chancery records in PRO, Pollard con Slater; parish register; documents now at West Sussex RO; TNA: PROB 11/768 will register

8 RG 6/1111; PROB 11/768 will register



I8. JAMES POLLARD

James Pollard, of Petworth, Sussex, married [I9] Elizabeth Lillington on the 6th March 1682/3, the marriage being registered by Lewes and Chichester monthly meeting. The couple had eleven children: Thomas (1683 – ?), Jane (1685 – ?), [I7] James (1688–1748/9), Elizabeth (1690/1–1711), John (1692 – after 1748), Josiah (1697 – ?), Isaac (1699/1700 – ?), Robard (1703–1711), Joseph (1704/5 – ?), Mary (1708–1711), and Nathaniel (? – ?)—all births bar Nathaniel's being registered by Lewes & Chichester monthly meeting.1

 

James and Elizabeth Pollard were among the witnesses at the marriages of Thomas Lillington and Jean Allbery, in Arundel, Sussex, on the 10th December 1685, and of Mary Bidle and John Deane, in Shipley, Sussex, on the 27th December 1688.2

 

He died on the 13th March 1714/5, and was buried in Horsham.3


1 TNA: RG 6/1111; TNA: PROB 11/768 will register. The parish register of Southwick, Sussex, shows a James Pollard, son of Edward Pollard, baptised there on the 5th February 1659 (Southwick is only 23.8 miles from Petworth and 21.5 miles from Horsham); as well as a Richard Pollard bapt. at Southwick 1654-11-23. Edward Pollard, husbandman of Southwick, had a daughter Susannah, who married in a Quaker ceremony at Bull & Mouth meeting, near Aldersgate, London, on 1680-09-09 (RG 6/1437).

2-3 RG 6/1111, /1258



I9. ELIZABETH POLLARD born LILLINGTON

Elizabeth Lillington may have been baptised on the 29th May 1663, at Petworth, Sussex.1

 

She married [I8] James Pollard on the 6th March 1682/3, at Lewes & Chichester meeting, her residence being given as Petworth.2

 

The couple had eleven children: Thomas (1683 – ?), Jane (1685 – ?), [I7] James (1688–1748/9), Elizabeth (1690/1–1711), John (1692 – after 1748), Josiah (1697 – ?), Isaac (1699/1700 – ?), Robard (1703–1711), Joseph (1704/5 – ?), Mary (1708–1711), and Nathaniel (? – ?)—all births bar Nathaniel's being registered by Lewes & Chichester monthly meeting.3

 

Her death was recorded by Arundel monthly meeting on the 5th October 1711.4

 

Elizabeth Lillington was the daughter of [I10] Thomas and [I11] Jane Lillington.5


1 parish register. TNA: RG 6/1111 has the marriages of two women named Elizabeth Lillington, both of Petworth, both in 1683, and both apparently with parents named Thomas and Jane. The second Elizabeth Lillington marriage includes, among the witnesses, James and Elizabeth Pollard. It isn't clear which bride was the Elizabeth baptised there in 1663.

2–4 RG 6/1111

5 entry in digests of Society of Friends



I10. THOMAS LILLINGTON

Thomas Lillington married [I11] Jane ____.Their only known children were [I9] Elizabeth (1663–1711) and Thomas (? – after 1713).1

 

In 1689 a Thomas Lillington signed a declaration regarding Quaker places of worship, at the Quarter Sessions held at Arundel.2

 

In May 1705 he voted at Horsham, Sussex, in the election for knights of the shire, for Sir Henry Peachey and J. Morley Trevor.3

 

In 1716 he was one of the parties to the conveyance of land for Horsham Friends' meeting house and burial ground. He died on 3 February 1716/7, and was buried at Horsham.4

 


1 TNA: RG 6/1111; presumably before 29th May 1663—FamilySearch; entry in digests of Society of Friends;

2 William Albery: A Millennium of Facts in the History of Horsham and Sussex 947–1947. 1947, Horsham: 451

3 poll book

4 Register of trust property, Surrey Records Centre 6189 Box 18; TNA: RG 6/1258



I11. JANE LILLINGTON born _____

Jane ____ married [I10] Thomas Lillington.1

 

Their only known children were [I9] Elizabeth (1663–1711) and Thomas (? – after 1713).2

 

She died at Arundel on 14 December 1692.3


 

1 presumably before 29th May 1663—FamilySearch; entry in digests of Society of Friends.

2 TNA: RG 6/1111, /1310; entry in digests of Society of Friends

3 RG 6/1111



I12. REBECCA POLLARD born SLATER (or SLAUGHTER)

Rebekah Slaughter was born on 12 February 1696, and baptised on 25 February at St Paul's, Shadwell, Middlesex.1

 

Of Wapping, Rebecca Slater first married Daniel Stoodley (or Stutely), on the 2nd October 1712, in a clandestine marriage at the Fleet Prison, London. They lived in John Taylor's lodging house in Love Lane, Wapping, Middlesex. They had a daughter, Elizabeth (cal 1712 – 1790).2

 

On the 6th June 1713 a marriage licence for [I7] James Pollard and Rebecca Slaughter was issued by the Faculty Office; they were married the same day at Lamb's Chapel, Monkwell Street; she was described as being of St Dunstan's, Stepney. The marriage was almost certainly bigamous. By May 1716, now described as James Pollard's wife, she had gone away to Plymouth with him—seven months before Stoodley died. Stoodley "gave her a very ill character"—however, surviving records suggest his was no better.3

 

In September 1717 she lived in the parish of St John, Wapping. Described now as a widow, she married James Pollard on the 10th September 1717, at St Benet's, Paul's Wharf, London. Their children were: Slater (1718 – after 1749, b. Wapping), Rebecca (1719 – ?, b. Stepney), [I6] James (1721–1783, b. Stepney), John (1723–1723), Mary (1723–1725), Hester (1724 – after 1749), and Charity (1728 – after 1749); the four youngest were born in Croydon.4

 

Rebecca was co-heir to the estate (around £15,000, or £1,271,250 at 2005 values) of her uncle Samuel Slater, who died intestate. Early in 1718 she made a Bill of Complaint to Chancery (now apparently lost), claiming that her brother Samuel Slater was withholding her share of the inheritance. She described herself and her husband as "being greatly in debt and neither her nor her husband having any other means of subsistence but the said moiety of her said uncle's estate." For a close look at the Chancery case, see The Pollards in Chancery, below.5

 

On the 1st December 1718 the Court of Chancery ordered that the Slater inheritance was to be sold and divided between the heirs; Rebecca's moiety was to be reinvested "in the purchase of lands or Publick Stocks or Government Funds", and held in Chancery, paying her the interest; it was invested in South Sea Company and Bank stock.6

 

 

 

Rebecca Pollard's will

 

She made her will on the 31st May 1737. On the 3rd June of that year it was reported that "the produce of the said moiety of the said estate vested in the Joint Stocks of S. Sea annuities standing in the name of the accountant genll of this court" amounted to £8142.4s.11d.7

 

She died on the 14th September 1737. "Mrs. Rebekah Pollard from Croydon" was buried in Sunbury, Middlesex, on the 20th. Her will was proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury.8

 

Rebecca Slater was the daughter of [I13] John and [I16] Rebekah Slaughter.9

 

 

1 parish register of St Paul, Shadwell

2 Chancery records in PRO, Pollard con Slater; Clandestine marriage and baptism registers, TNA: RG 7/20; Croydon burials register

3 Extracted Faculty Office marriage licences; Chancery records in PRO, Pollard con Slater; parish register, Lamb's Chapel

4 parish register; documents now at West Sussex RO; gedcom from Mark & Glenys Hill

5-6 Chancery records in PRO, Pollard con Slater

7 will—now at West Sussex RO; Chancery records in PRO, Pollard con Slater

8 Chancery records in PRO, Pollard con Slater; parish register; Chancery records in PRO, Pollard con Slater says will proved in PCC, but no trace found there—the original will survives now at West Sussex RO.

9 Chancery records in PRO, Pollard con Slater; parish register of St Paul, Shadwell

 

The Pollards in Chancery

[Note: surviving records are incomplete, so some details appear inconsistent. In particular I haven't succeeded in making sense of the sums of money involved.]

 

Samuel Slater, about whose estate the Chancery suit revolved, was "at his death and for a long time before agent under the government to the sick and wounded hospital at Plymouth." If he had a family of his own, none of them survived him. His brother John, an upholsterer of St John's parish, Wapping, predeceased him, so Samuel's heirs, he dying intestate, were John's two surviving children, Rebecca and Samuel Slater (though parish records suggest that at least one other brother, Turner Slater, was still alive).

 

Rebecca Slater married a mariner, Daniel Stoodley, on 2 October 1712, in a clandestine marriage in London. They lived in John Taylor's lodging house in Love Lane, Wapping. Stoodley made his will in 1712, leaving everything to his wife Rebecca.

 

Though the marriage resulted in a daughter, Elizabeth, it was short-lived. According to their landlord, Stoodley left Rebecca to go to sea, without taking leave of her, and owing rent. He had, however, before his last voyage, told a lodging-house keeper in Gravesend that Rebecca "was gone away with another man into the west of England". The master of the Sarah Galley, on which Stoodley made his last voyage, said that he tried to pass as a bachelor, but admitted to him when asked, that he was married "but sayed his wife was gone away to Plimouth and gave her a very ill character." Two other seamen on board the Sarah Galley agreed that Stoodley said that Rebecca had left him and was living with another man; they said that Stoodley was "a morose man, much given to drink and swearing."

 

Rebecca had in fact bigamously married James Pollard on 6 June 1713, at Lamb's Chapel, Monkwell Street.

 

On 6 May 1716 Rebecca is described as wife of James Pollard of Milbrook in the parish of Maycock, Cornwall, labourer. (As 'Maycock' parish doesn't exist, I presume this refers to Maker, which adjoins Plymouth.)

 

On 2 December 1716 Stoodley died, aged 26 or 27, on a chest in the forecastle of the Sarah Galley, returning from the West Indies; he was buried on the coast of Guyana.

 

On 22 January 1716/7 Samuel Slater senior died, possessed of £2000 Bank stock, £4000 South Sea stock, and other personal estate to the value of £15,000 upwards. This included a ⅛ share in a ship, the Happy Return, for which he had paid £250 in 1713. Hester Slater, wife of Samuel junior, took out letters of administration in Samuel's absence—he being in Leghorn, Italy, only returning about 9 May 1717.

 

On 7 September 1717 an indenture was signed by "Rebekah Stoodley alias Pollard of St John Wapping, Middlesex, widow, and James Pollard late of Millbrook [ . . . ] and now of St John Wapping", apparently giving James Pollard equal rights in Rebecca's inheritance. In the event of her death, a trust would be set up for her children. It is stated that "a marriage is shortly to be had and solemnized between" Rebecca and James Pollard. In fact they married just three days later, at St Benet's, Paul's Wharf, London.

 

Some time early in 1718 Rebecca made a bill of complaint to the court of Chancery, which bill is now apparently lost. She said that Samuel Slater junior had been withholding her share of the inheritance, and also, it seems, that Thomas Daniell and John Lambe, who were named to administer the trust, had been in some "manner of unlawfull combinatõn and confederacy" with him; Thomas Daniell is apparently at this time guardian of Elizabeth Stoodley (his wife Charity is Rebecca's aunt). Rebecca described herself and James Pollard as "being greatly in debt and neither her nor her husband having any other means of subsistence but the said moiety of her said uncle's estate". She even had to seek an order in Chancery for part of the inheritance to be paid to her so that she could pay her way through court. The family "have been forced to borrow money".

 

On 17 April 1718 Samuel and Hester Slater rejoined that they had not been paying Rebecca her share of the Slater inheritance because they didn't accept James Pollard as her husband, since there was no proof that Daniel Stoodley was dead. Depositions were subsequently sworn to this effect by shipmates of Stoodley. Samuel Slater said that the assets of the estate were £6396 3s. 2d. "computing the South Sea and Bank Stock only at par"; and that the ⅛ share in the Happy Return was not saleable for above £60, the ship having made several voyages since purchase, and deteriorated.

 

At the time of the Chancery suit Slater is said to have been about to go overseas, and to have been "arrested" (presumably this only means prevented from leaving the country pending the outcome). On 29 July 1718 he was found to possess £3533 6s. 8d. in South Sea stock, and £1000 in Bank stock, registered in the names of Cairnes, David and Clark.

 

On 1 December 1718 it was ordered in Chancery that the Slater inheritance be sold and divided between the heirs; Slater's share was 5545 guineas, given as a "Goldsmith's note"; Rebecca's moiety was to be reinvested "in ye purchase of lands or Public Stocks or Government Funds", and held in Chancery, paying her the interest.

 

The following two decades were uneventful. It's clear, however, that the Pollards prospered, for in a document of 5 May 1737 James is described as a "gentleman"; by this time they had moved to Croydon.

 

On 31 May 1737 Rebecca made her will; she gave the value of her estate as £7542 4s. 11d. This is £600 less than that stated in Chancery on 3 June that year, the difference being a gift to her daughter Elizabeth and her new husband James Wood. The whole estate was held in the form of annuities of the South Sea Company.

 

Rebecca Pollard died on 14 September 1737. On 18 November Chancery acted in accordance with her will; she had left half her estate to her husband £4070 10s., £1070 10s. to James junior, their son, and £600 to each of her four daughters Slater, Rebecca, Hester and Charity; as stated above, she had given £600 in her lifetime to James and Elizabeth Wood. The money left to her children was entrusted to James senior, as all except Elizabeth (i.e. all James's children) were still minors living with him; James was only to take the interest in his lifetime, his portion to be divided up in the same proportions on his death.

 

On 2 April 1738 the court heard that "James Pollard the son who is upwards of 17 yres of age is desirous to be put apprentice to Robert Wilson of Mark Lane London Cornfactor for a term of 4 yres to commence from ye 22nd day of March last & ye sd Robert Wilson hath agreed to take him as such apprentise for you consñ of 200£ being the usual price on such occasion wch the sd petr James Pollard the father hath agreed unto conceiving it for the benefit of his said son". Officers of the court were instructed to investigate whether Wilson were a suitable person, and if £200 the right price. On 5 April both were found in order, and it was ordered that £200 South Sea stock be sold and the proceeds given to Wilson.

 

James completed his apprenticeship. On 22 January 1744/5 he was granted a sum of £300 for his personal use. He married Mary Hall in Horsham on 28 February 1745/6. On 21 October 1747 he was given a further £370 10s., which it seems he required "to complete the purchase of an estate contiguous to his farm and lands he now possesses."

 

James Pollard the father died on 13 February 1748/9. At his death £6018 7s. 2d. remained in Chancery.

 

On 15 June 1749 his son was finally given the remainder of the estate that was due to him—£1257 9s. 3d. of South Sea annuities.

 

 


 

In 1791 John Hall, second husband of Elizabeth Stoodley, now deceased, took out a bill of complaint in Chancery against the grandchildren of James and Rebecca Pollard, claiming that Elizabeth's share of the inheritance, she having died intestate, should go to him, and not be divided among James and Rebecca's grandchildren. One of the grandchildren named was Samuel Pollard of Horsham.

 

 

 


Sources

1. Documents now in the possession of West Sussex Record Office.

 

2. The following Chancery documents in the National Archives:

  • Decrees and Orders, TNA: C33/328, /330, /332, /334, /336, /338, /340, /346, /370, /372, /378, /388, /390, /392, /394, /396, /406, /416

  • Proceedings, TNA: C11/742/8, /744/16, /634/43

  • Town Depositions, C24/1363, /1373

  • Affidavits, C31/82, C41/35, /52

  • Reports and Certificates, C38/350

  • Masters' Documents, C117/228

No references were found in Decree Rolls (C78 & C79) or Masters' Exhibits (C111).

 

 



I13. JOHN SLAUGHTER or SLATER

John Slater was an upholsterer, of St John, Wapping. He married (1) [I16] Rebekah______; their children included Turner (1695 – after 1739), [I12] Rebecca (1696–1737), John (1697 – ?), and Samuel (? – after 1718), the first three being baptised at St John, Shadwell, Middlesex.1

 

From 1695 to 1697 he was described as a distiller, his residence in 1696 and 1697 being given as Newgravell Lane (in Shadwell). A widower and distiller, living next the Royal Garter in Newgravell Lane, Shadwell, on the 17th September 1700, at St Paul's, Shadwell, he married (2) a widow, Sarah Martin, also of Newgravell Lane; they had a daughter, Sarah (1701 – ?), born in Newgravell Lane.2

 

He died before the 6th May 1716.3


1 Chancery records in PRO, Pollard con Slater;  parish register of St Paul, Shadwell; the Calendar of Marriage Licence Allegations for London includes an entry for the 25th October 1693, for John Slater and Rebecca Satine

2 baptism register of St Paul, Shadwell; marriage register of St Paul, Shadwell

3 documents now at West Sussex RO



I14. ____ SLATER

____ Slater married [I15] ____ ____; their children included [I13] John and Samuel.1

 

He died before the 6th May 1716.2


1 Chancery records in PRO, Pollard con Slater

2 documents now at West Sussex RO



I15. ____ SLATER born ____

____ Slater married [I14] ____ ____; their children included [I13] John and Samuel.1

 

 


1 Chancery records in PRO, Pollard con Slater



I16. REBEKAH SLAUGHTER or SLATER born ______

Rebekah ______ married [I16] John Slater; their children included Turner (1695 – after 1739), [I12] Rebecca (1696–1737), John (1697 – ?), and Samuel (? – after 1718), the first three being baptised at St John, Shadwell, Middlesex.1

 

She died near the Royal Garter in Newgravell Lane (Shadwell), and was buried at St Paul Shadwell on the 9th April 1699.2

 


1 Chancery records in PRO, Pollard con Slater; parish register of St Paul, Shadwell; the Calendar of Marriage Licence Allegations for London includes an entry for the 25th October 1693, for John Slater and Rebecca Satine

2 parish register of St Paul, Shadwell



Suggestions for further research

The priority has to be locating the birth/baptism and parentage of [I8] James Pollard. There are numerous public member trees on Ancestry purporting to give this information, but none of them give sources. The birth year they cite appears to be based on the year of the baptism of one of the two women named Elizabeth Lillington, while the stated parentage, although remotely possible, is extremely unlikely (both parents are described as being from Warwickshire), and in any case lacks any supporting evidence. Without clear evidence of removal from a more distant county, the birth/baptism event should surely be found in Sussex, or perhaps Surrey (if indeed it hasn't been irretrievably lost). (I might be more willing to consider possibilities from Cornwall or Devon, where many people bearing the name Pollard seem to have originated.) Given its relative proximity to both Petworth and Horsham, I find the Southwick baptism much more likely than the fanciful Warwickshire connection, but am not yet including it as confirmed, pending further verification or at least wider endorsement of this viewpoint.

 

[I9] Elizabeth Lillington's parentage is a puzzle, as noted above. There appear to be two distinct women of this name, both of them with parents named Thomas and Jane Lillington. It would be good if we could separate out the two Lillington couples.

 

I would love to find out more about the Slater/Slaughter family. We badly need to identify the birth/baptism and/or parentage of [I13] John Slaughter or Slater, for whom we also need marriage and burial details.

 

 

 

 


 

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