0 @IP10@ INDI
1 SOUR @SIP1@
1 NAME William /POLLARD/
1 SEX M
1 BIRT
2 DATE ABT 1583
1 EVEN
2 TYPE Arrival
2 DATE 1616
2 PLAC Bermuda
2 SOUR Assize held in 1618.
1 NOTE Family tradition alleged that William Pollard first emigrated to Virgina, but research
2 CONC has shown that it was to Bermuda and not Virginia that he went.

2 CONC In the 1618 Assize the Church wardens presented the said William Pollard
2 CONC 'for that he hath contrary to religion and the discipline of the Church of England
2 CONC refused or neglected to receive the Holy Communion ever since he came into the land
2 CONC which is about 2 years since'. (Memorials of Bermuda by General Sir J.H. Lefroy, Vol. 1
2 CONC pages 131, 683).

He had probably been in the Army because on his arrival he was appointed
2 CONC a captian of the forts. His status and position can be gathered from the previous
2 CONC Assize in 1617, at which the baylie of the Pembroke tribe, Mr Pollard (for so was the
2 CONC baylie named) being a gentleman bred up and sent over by the Earl of Pembroke had used
2 CONC these words to certain people of that tribe that:- "rather than his folk should go
2 CONC up to work at the forts, he himself would lie in irons for them". Mr Pollard was tried
2 CONC together with Mr. Rich (a Kinsman of the Earl of Warwick and baylie of the Southhampton
2 CONC tribe). On confessing their errors they were pardoned and restored to their former
2 CONC commands.

The baylies had the position of Justice of the Peace. They were supervisors
2 CONC of the labour and manners of the people within their tribes or parishes and were remunerated
2 CONC with a thirtieth of the landlord's profits. In 1621 the post of baylie was abolished
2 CONC but Pollard remained on as representative of the Earl of Pembroke (History of Bermudas
2 CONC by General Sir J.H. Lefroy pages 98-103).

On June 26 1620, William Pollard bought
2 CONC a share from Sir Francis Parington in the Virginia Company, from which the Bermuda Company
2 CONC was an offshoot. (Records of the Virginia Company by S.M. Kingsbury Vol. 1 p. 378; Vol. III
2 CONC p. 62).

William's signature has been preserved on a document which he, together with
2 CONC nine other of the principle inhabitants of Bermunda signed in 1622. In this document
2 CONC they set out six grievances for which they held the Governor, Captain Butler, responsible
2 CONC (MSS. of the Duke of Manchester, Historical MSS. Commission Report VIII, Part 2,
2 CONC paragraph 295).

From a letter written by Capt. Henry Woodhouse without date but
2 CONC probably june 1625, it is known that William Pollard was then in England with the Earl
2 CONC of Pembroke on business connected with Bermuda and was expecting to return there shortly.
2 CONC (Memorials of Bermuda by General Sir j.H. Lefroy, Vol. 1, p.346).

2 CONC Captain Wlliam Pollard was still living in Bermuda in 1629 and is mentioned in a letter
2 CONC from Capt. Philip Bell (Then Governor of Bermuda) to Sir Nathaniel Rich dated 28 Apr 1629
2 CONC (MSS. of the Duke of Manchester; Historical MSS. Report VIII, Part 2, Para. 416).

2 CONC After the death of the Earl of Pembroke in 1630, intestate and with liabilities amounting
2 CONC to 80,000 pounds, his Bermuda estate was sold to two london merchants. William Pollard
2 CONC then emigrated to Barbados. THe exact date is disfficult to fix as most of the early
2 CONC barbados records were lost in the fire which destroyed Bridgetown, the capital in 1668.
2 CONC Other factors which may have influenced his decesion to leave Bermuda were the strained
2 CONC relations which he had with three succeeding Governors during the time he was there.
2 CONC A number of energetic and discontented Bermudians came to Barbados at this time. Between
2 CONC 1629 and 1638 there were grants of 67,387 acres of land to 700 odd persons, an average
2 CONC of less than 100 acres each. (H. Wilkinson's Adventurers of Bermuda, p. 260 and Journal
2 CONC of Barbados Museum and Historical Society Vol XIII, Part 4, pg 106).

2 CONC He was living in Barbados in 1638 and his name appears in a list of persons holding
2 CONC 10 acres of land and over. (Memoirs of the First Settlement of Barbados). This is
2 CONC presumably the estate of about 100 acres known as Pollards which remained in the elder
2 CONC branch of the Family till about 1798 when it was passed to Thomas McIntosh Branch Esq.

2 CONC William Pollard's will has not survived. His children, most of whom must have been born
2 CONC in Bermuda, are cheifly known from their wills as the Parish registers of St. John in the
2 CONC Pembroke Tribe, Bermuda, covering their period are lost. See also Capt. John Smith's
2 CONC History of Virginia, pages 367 & 374 and note 1907 edition.
1 FAMC @FP1@
1 FAMS @FP21@

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