Sir William Frederick Pollock, 2nd Baronet

The eldest son of Sir Jonathan Frederick Pollock, 1st Baronet by his first wife, he was educated under private tutors, at St Paul's School, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he obtained a scholarship in 1835, graduated BA in 1836, and proceeded MA in 1840. Although of junior standing to Tennyson, he was a member of the little society whose debates are celebrated in ‘In Memoriam’ (lxxxvi).

Pollock was called to the bar at the Inner Temple on 26 January 1838, and went the Northern Circuit, in which he held for some years the post of revising barrister. He was appointed a master of the Court of Exchequer in 1846, and in 1874 to the ancient office of Queen's Remembrancer. On the fusion of the courts of law and equity in the Supreme Court of Judicature (1875) the office of Queen's Remembrancer was annexed to the senior mastership, and continued to be held by Pollock until September 1886, when he resigned. He died at his residence in Montague Square on 24 December 1888.

Pollock was a man of liberal culture and rare social charm. His entertaining ‘Personal Remembrances,’ which he published in 1887, show how various were his accomplishments, and how numerous his friendships in the world of letters, science, and art. He was one of Macready's executors, and edited his ‘Reminiscences’ (London, 1876, 2 vols. 8vo). His portrait was painted by W. W. Ouless, R.A.

Pollock was author of ‘The Divine Comedy; or the Inferno, Purgatory, and Paradise of Dante rendered into English’ (in closely literal blank verse, with fine plates by Dalziel from drawings by George, afterwards Sir George Scharf, mostly after Flaxman), London, 1854, 8vo.

Pollock married, on 30 March 1844, Juliet, daughter of the Rev. Henry Creed, vicar of Corse, Gloucestershire; of his three sons, the eldest, Sir Frederick Pollock, 3rd Baronet, was Corpus Professor of Jurisprudence at Oxford (1883–1903). Another second son was the writer Walter Herries Pollock.

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Pollock, William Frederick". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.