Pollard History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms

The notable Pollard family arose among the Cornish People, a race with a rich Celtic heritage and an indomitable fighting spirit who inhabited the southwest of England. While surnames were well-known during the English medieval period, Cornish People originally used only a single name. The way in which hereditary surnames came into common use is interesting. As the population of medieval Europe multiplied, people began to assume an extra name to avoid confusion and to further identify themselves. Under the Feudal System of government, surnames evolved and they often reflected life on the manor and in the field. Patronymic surnames were derived from given names and were the predominant type of surname among the Celtic peoples of Britain. However, the people of Cornwall provide a surprising exception to this rule, and patronymic surnames are less common among them than other people of Celtic stock, such as their Welsh neighbors. This is due to the greater influence of English bureaucracy and naming practices in Cornwall at the time that surnames first arose. This type of surname blended perfectly with the prevailing Feudal System. One feature that is occasionally found in Cornish surnames of this type is the suffix -oe or -ow; this is derived from the Cornish plural suffix -ow. is a patronymic surname that came from the popular religious given name, Paul. Pollard is a patronymic surname, which belongs to the category of hereditary surnames. Many patronymic surnames were formed by adopting the given name of an ancestor of the bearer, while others came from popular religious names, and from the names of secular heroes. However, this surname may have also been a nickname, taken from the Old English word poll, which means head, and the suffix -ard, which referred to something big. 1

Early Origins of the Pollard family

The surname Pollard was first found in Cornwall where one source claims “the barton of Trelleigh in Redruth, was ‘the seat of that most ancient family or Pollard, from whence all of the of that name were descended.’ ” 2

We cannot verify that this is true, but it is important to note that the name was also scattered throughout Britain as in Pollardus Ostiarius who was listed in the Curia Regis Rolls of 1201 on Suffolk, Pollardus Forestarius in the Curia Regis Rolls of Gloucestershire in 1207, Stepahnus filius Pollard in the Hundredorum Rolls of 1275 in Kent. 3

The various Pipe Rolls list: William Pollard in Surrey in 1181; Richard Pollard in Hertfordshire in 1192; and Richard Pollard in Lancashire in 1195. 1

Also of note was the Abbey of Ford, Axminster, Devon. “The Abbey passed in the first place by lease to Richard Pollard, but was afterwards bought by him. Sir John Pollard, his son, sold it to his cousin, Sir Amias Poulett ; and he to William Rosewall, Elizabeth’s attorney-general.” 4

“Horwood [Devon], for many years the chief residence of the Pollards, of whom one notable monument still remains in the church a fifteenth-century effigy of a lady, with three children in the folds of her robe.” 4