POLLOCK, Sir Robert, 1st Bt. (c.1665-1735), of Pollock, Renfrew.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715-1754, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1707 - 1708
1710 - 1722

Family and Education

b. c.1665, 1st s. of Robert Pollock of Pollock by his 2nd w. Jean, da. of Cornelius Crawford of Jordanhill, Renfrew. educ. Glasgow 1679. m. (1) contr. 25 and 30 Jan. 1686, Annabella (d. bef. 15 May 1691), da. of Sir George Maxwell of Nether Pollock, Renfrew, wid. of John Cathcart of Carleton, Ayr, s.p.; (2) Annabella, da. of Walter Stewart of Pardovan, 4s. 3da. suc. fa. 1673; cr. Bt. 30 Nov. 1703.

Offices Held

M.P. [S] Renfrewshire 1700-7.

Lt. indep. tp. Scotch horse 1689; capt. 7 Drags. bef. June 1691; maj. Lord Murray’s Ft. 1694; half pay 1698; maj. Earl of Hyndford’s Drags. 1703; lt.-col. Drags. 1706; lt.-col. Lord Carmichael’s Drags. 1710; col. of Drags. 1712; half-pay 1713; gov. Fort William 1715-25.

Biography

Pollock, who was created a baronet for his services and suffering at the Revolution,1 was returned for the third time for his county as a Whig in 1715. Appointed governor of Fort William, he commanded the garrison there throughout the rebellion, sending back much information to Montrose, though ‘mortified’ at so many ‘ungrate and unnatural’ rebels ‘passing under his nose’.2 After the rebellion he was said by a Jacobite agent to have supported a petition to allow wives and widows of English Jacobites to retain their jointures out of the estates forfeited by their husbands but to have opposed a similar petition on behalf of their counterparts in Scotland, to the surprise of English Members.3 Voting consistently with the Government, which ‘probably lost him some of those who formerly were his friends’,4 he was defeated in 1722, soon afterwards resigning his military governorship in return for a pension of £300 p.a.5 He did not stand again, dying 22 Aug. 1735.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: J. M. Simpson

Notes

  • 1. Crawfurd, Shire of Renfrew, 291-2.
  • 2. HMC 3rd Rep. 380.
  • 3. HMC Stuart, vi. 106.
  • 4. Caldwell Pprs. (Maitland Club lxxi), i. 238.
  • 5. Chas. Cathcart to Walpole, 12 Sept. 1724, Cholmondeley (Houghton) mss.