Sir Frederick Pollock, 1st Baronet

Pollock was the son of saddler[1] David Pollock, of Charing Cross, London, and the elder brother of Field Marshal Sir George Pollock, 1st Baronet. The Pollock family were a branch of that family of Balgray, Dumfriesshire; David Pollock's father was a burgess of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and his grandfather a yeoman of Durham. His business as a saddler was given the official custom of the royal family.[1] Sir John Pollock, 4th Baronet, great-great-grandson of David Pollock, stated in Time's Chariot (1950) that David was, 'perhaps without knowing it', Pollock of Balgray, the senior line of the family (Pollock of Pollock or Pollock of that ilk) having died out.[2]

Pollock was educated at St Paul's School and Trinity College, Cambridge.[3] He was Senior Wrangler at Cambridge University. He is also thought to be one of the founding members of the Cambridge Union Society, along with Henry Bickersteth and Sir Edward Hall Alderson, both of Gonville and Caius College.

Pollock was Member of Parliament (MP) for Huntingdon from 1831 to 1844. He served as Attorney General between 1834 and 1835 and 1841 and 1844 in the Tory administrations of Sir Robert Peel. In 1841 he was admitted to the Privy Council and appointed Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, a post he held until 1868. Having been knighted on 29 December 1834,[4] Pollock was created a Baronet, of Hatton in the County of Middlesex, on 2 August 1866.[5] Apart from his political and legal career Pollock was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1816. He contributed a number of papers in mathematics to the Royal Society, including one on what is now known as the Pollock's conjecture.

Pollock died in August 1870, aged 86, and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his eldest son, William. His fourth son, Charles Edward Pollock, apprenticed to his father, had no university education. He became a law reporter then co-serving Baron of the Court of Exchequer, becoming the last in that appeal court.

Two of Pollock's grandsons became prominent lawyers: Sir Frederick Pollock, 3rd Baronet (d.1937), was Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of Oxford; Ernest Pollock, 1st Viscount Hanworth (d.1936), served as Master of the Rolls.

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• Works written by or about Sir Frederick Pollock, 1st Baronet at Wikisource
• "SIR FREDERICK POLLOCK (Obituary Notice, Wednesday, August 24, 1870)". Eminent Persons: Biographies Reprinted from The Times. I (1870–1875). London: Macmillan & Co. 1892. pp. 28–32. Retrieved 28 February 2019 – via HathiTrust.

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• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Sir Frederick Pollock
• Descendants of Sir Frederick Pollock, 1st Bt.
• Portraits of Sir Frederick Pollock, 1st Baronet at the National Portrait Gallery, London
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