Pollock

The name may derive from the Gaelic, ‘pollag’, meaning ‘little pool’. Peter, son of Fulbert, had a grant of Upper Pollock in Renfrewshire in the twelfth century, and took his surname from these lands. He gave the church of Pollock to the recently founded Monastery of Paisley in 1163. He also appears to have held lands in Aberdeenshire, and he bestowed the barony of Rothes on his daughter as part of her dowry. Robert de Pollock also endowed the abbey at Paisley. The name appears twice on the Ragman Roll of nobles rendering homage to Edward I of England in 1296. John Pollock of Pollock, probably the twelfth Laird, supported the cause of Mary, Queen of Scots, and fought at the Battle of Langside. On the defeat of the queen’s party, his lands were forfeited. His son, John, was killed at Lockerbie in 1593, supporting his kinsman, Lord Maxwell, in a feud against the Johnstons. The Pollock name was restored when Sir Robert Pollock of Pollock was created a Baronet of Nova Scotia by Queen Anne in 1703 for services to the Crown. He represented Edinburgh in Parliament, and after the union of 1707 he sat in the British Parliament at Westminster. James Knox Polk, the eleventh president of the United States of America, was the great-great-grandson of Robert Pollock of Ayrshire. His administration was marked by large territorial gains, including Texas and California. Many Pollocks also emigrated to Ulster, where the name is widely found in Antrim and Tyrone. The Pollocks of Newry claim to descend from John Pollock, a younger son of Robert Pollock of Pollock, who came to Ireland from Renfrew in the mid seventeenth century.