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The main source for these details is the “Pollock Pedigree 1080-1950 Compiled from, The Ancient Authorities, and The Work of Alex Pollock of 1939, by E.A. Langslow Cock.” (E.A. Langslow Cock, Esq. 5 Addison Court Gardens, Blythe Road, London, W14). For the early details of Fulbert and his sons, see Lloyd Welch Pogue, Pogue/Pollock/Polk Genealogy, (1990).
POSTSCRIPT: See also the comprehensive family trees at http://www.pollock.4mg.com/Contents.html and in particular the details of the immediate descendants of Fulbert at http://pollock.4mg.com/Fulbert.html – July 2021.
FULBERT is the earliest ancestor of the family that can be traced. He was born about 1080, and died about 1153. After 1141, he emigrated from Shropshire, England to Renfrew, Scotland, with Walter FitzAlan (c. 1105-1177).
Walter’s father Alan FitzFlaad was born in Dol de Bretagne, Normandy c 1078, where his father (c1046-1110) and grandfather (c1020-c1050) before him had been hereditary stewards, but he was christened in Shropshire, became Sheriff of Shropshire and held Oswestry Castle. Walter’s brother William seems to have succeeded his father as Sheriff of Shropshire.
After his move to Renfrew, Walter was made hereditary High Steward of Scotland and was given large estates by Anglo-Norman King of Scotland, David I (1124-1153), and his descendants later became the house of Stewart.
Fulbert was a retainer of Walter’s who probably came from Dol de Bretagne to Shropshire with or to join Walter and then moved with him to Scotland..
| The following is a dubious account from a privately printed family history. It is dubious both for its dates – Fulbert was not born until c.1080 and was certainly not in England before the Battle of Hastings – and for its suggestion that Fulbert was a Saxon: his name is not Saxon but Norman (it was the name of William the Conqueror’s father-in-law and of the Archbishop of Chartres who dealt with Abelard and Heloise) (Warm acknowledgements to Stephen Pollock-Hill for this information). “Fulbert the Saxon, the first recorded progenitor of the family, had come over to England before Harold was overthrown at Hastings by William the Conqueror. He is said to have been Chamberlain to the latter, and one of his beneficiaries. . . . A native of Normandy, in France, [he] was an uncle of Heloise, whose love of Abelard, and its finale of sorrow, constitute one of the most pathetic human stories of the Middle Ages. As stated above, he was Chamberlain to William the Conqueror. He accompanied him to England and was engaged with him in the battle of Hastings (1066). Shortly after, he received from William a large grant of land in Scotland, which became know later as the Barony of Pollock.” – Audacter et Strenue by Grace Polk Gentry – compiled by Katherine Gentry Bushman -1954, published privately. |
Fulbert had three sons:
1. Petrus de Polloc, who in 1178 witnessed a charter by King William the Lion. About 1170 Walter granted him and his brothers the lands of Upper Pollok in Renfrewshire and took their surname from it. The name Pollock (Gaelic Pollag) means “Little Pool” or “Loch-Poll”. The area is now a suburb of Glasgow. Petrus had one daughter, from whom the Earls of Rothes were descended. He was still alive in 1190.
2. Helias de Polloc, who became a priest.
3. Robert de Polloc – our ancestor – who was born about 1119 in Scotland, and died about 1208. He was a companion of Walter the Stewart of Scotland.
These are Robert’s descendants down to our present family:
Robert de Polloc, his son, used his seal about 1208. It shows a boar pierced by a dart and it is in the British Museum. The inscription starts at the top left and reads: SIGILLUM ROBERTI DE POLLOC. Born about 1152, Robert de Polloc died about 1215.
Thomas de Polloc was born about 1190 and survived at least to 1270 (“Pollock Pedigree”).
John de Polloc signed the Ragman Roll – i.e. four great rolls of parchment recording the acts of fealty and homage done by the Scottish nobility and gentry subscribing allegiance to Edward I of England – in 1296. These four rolls consisted of thirty-five pieces sewn together; the originals have perished but a record of them is preserved in the Public Record Office.
Robert de Polloc married Agnes, daughter of John Maxwell, Lord of the Mearns.
John de Pollok was alive 1372.
John Pollok fixed his seal, showing the Pollock arms, in 1453 on the charter of St Andrew’s College; he died in 1486.
Charles Pollok married Margaret, daughter of Thomas Stewart, Laird of Minto.
David Pollok married Margaret, daughter of William Stewart of Castlemilk and died in 1545. Apart from Charles, our ancestor, he had two other sons – John, from whom the main family descended, and George, whose descendants also are known to this day.
Charles Pollok of Greenhill, David’s second son, married Janet Stirling. One son, John, had one daughter. Charles died before 1577.
David Pollok of Lee and Balgray married twice – first to Janet, daughter of John Pollok of that Ilk, by whom he had one son, Charles, who had a daughter; and then to a second wife whose name is unknown who had two sons – John of Balgray and Robert. David died 1631 leaving a will that mentions all three sons.
John Pollok of Balgray, married Jeane, daughter of Robert Pollok of that Ilk, and died 1650, leaving a will.
David Pollok of Balgray and Over Pollok, married Agnes and died 1665. One son was Sir Robert Pollok, Knight of Kelso, the other was:-
David Pollock Yeoman of Spittle in the Parish of Tweedmouth and the County Palatinate of Durham, born c.1662, buried 16 October 1743. He married three times, first to Elizabeth Tait (or Tate) of Etal in July 1697, who bore him five children – David (who died in infancy in 1703), another David (buried 19 September 1724), John (see below), Agnes (who married Daniel Oswald in 1735) and Mary (who died in infancy in 1710). His second wife was Anne Third, whom he married on 2 April 1718, had a daughter, Mary, in 1720, and two sons, Robert (who married one Jane) and William (who died in infancy). His third wife, Miriam, bore him no issue.
John Pollock, David’s third son, was born about 1706 and was buried 9th April 1750. He was apprenticed to Cuthbert Campbell on 10 July 1717, and became a Burgess of Berwick-upon-Tweed on 5 June 1724. He married (perhaps) a Ballantyne from Kelso and had at least six children, of whom five were daughters.
Only one son is known: David Pollock, the saddler.