page_title: Way, St Giles in the Wood
section_title: Pollard
hierarchical_section_title: Way, St Giles in the Wood / Descent of the estate / Pollard
caption_attribution_description: Monumental brass of Alyanora Pollard (d.1430), St Giles in the Wood parish church, Devon. Only the original lower half of the female figure has survived, the top half being an accurate modern replacement, with the Latin inscription below it: Hic jacet Alyanora Pollard qui fuit uxor Joh(ann)is Pollard et filia Joh(ann)is Copleston qui obiit xxi die mensis Septembris Anno d(o)m(in)i Mill(ensi)mo CCCCXXX cuius animae propitietur Deus Amen.(http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ukdevon/StGilesInsideMIs.htm) ("Here lies Eleanor / Alianore Pollard who was the wife of John Pollard and daughter of John Copleston who died on the 21st day of the month of September in the One thousandth four hundredth and thirtieth year of Our Lord of whose soul may God look upon with favour Amen".)
context_page_description: Way is a historic estate in the parish of St Giles in the Wood, Devon. It is situated about 2 miles north-east of the village of St Giles in the Wood and about 4 miles north-east of the town of Great Torrington. It was described by Hoskins as "the fons et origo of the mighty tribe of Pollard" and had been acquired by them from the de la Way family at some time before 1242.
  One of the earliest members descended from this family to reach national prominence was Sir Lewis Pollard, Justice of the Common Pleas from 1514 to 1526, of Grilstone, Bishop's Nympton, described by Thomas Fuller in his Worthies of England as one of several Devonshire men "inundated with a genius to study law".
  The former mansion of the Pollards at Way is now represented by the farmhouse known as Way Barton. Reset into the front wall of the house is a stone sculpture dated about 1300 showing the faces of two ladies wearing wimples and above them the smaller face of a man. In 1309 Robert Pollard was granted by the Bishop of Exeter licence to build an oratory at Weye, of which no trace remains in the present house.
context_section_description: Vivian (1895) gave the descent of Way in the Pollard family as follows: 
  Walter I Pollard of Way, living 1242
  Walter II Pollard (son) of Way, living 1295
  Joel Pollard (son) of Way,  living 1334
  John I Pollard (son) of Way and of Horwood, Devon, who married Emme Doddiscombe, one of the five daughters and co-heiresses of Sir John Doddiscombe of Doddiscombsleigh, near Exeter, and Compton Pole, Devon. According to Prince (1643–1723)  an ancient Pollard family inscription formerly existed in Horwood Church, in a window of the so-called "Pollard Aisle" built by that family, as follows:
  Orate pro bono statu Johannis Pollard et Emmae uxoris eius qui istam guildam fieri fecerunt (pray for the good position of John Pollard and of Emma his wife who made this guild to come into being)
   
  This evidences their having established a guild in that church. In Prince's opinion it was Horwood not Way which was the earliest devonshire home of the Pollard family. The 3rd son of John Pollard and Emme Doddescombe was Roger Pollard, who founded the Pollard family of Langley, Yarnscombe.
  Walter III Pollard (eldest son and heir) of Way, who married Elizabeth Cornu, a daughter of William I Cornu of Horwood and a  sister and co-heiress of William II Cornu of Horwood.
  John II Pollard (son) of Way, who married Eleanor Coplestone (died 1430), a daughter of John de Coplestone, a member of the ancient family seated at Copplestone in the parish of Colebroke, Devon. A monumental brass exists in St Giles Church of Alyanora Pollard (died 1430), of which only the original lower half of a female figure has survived, the top half being an accurate modern replacement, with the inscription below it:
  Hic jacet Alyanora Pollard qui fuit uxor Joh(ann)is Pollard et filia Joh(ann)is Copleston qui obiit xxi die mensis Septembris Anno d(o)m(in)i Mill(ensi)mo CCCCXXX cuius animae propitietur Deus Amen. (Here lies Eleanor / Alianore Pollard who was the wife of John Pollard and daughter of John Copleston who died on the 21st day of the month of September in the One thousandth four hundredth and thirtieth year of Our Lord of whose soul may God look upon with favour Amen.)
  There are two further inscriptions on the same slab made later to commemorate two distant relations:
  Firstly, immediately beneath the above inscription, a small brass plaque with portrait of a kneeling lady, to commemorate Johanna Risdon (died 17 May 1610), daughter of George Pollard of Langley and mother of the Devon historian Tristram Risdon (died 1640) of Winscott in the parish of St Giles in the Wood, the author of "The Survey of Devon" (c. 1630).
  Secondly, below the last, incised in the stone slab on which the brasses are affixed memorial text to Margaret Risdon (died 1636), daughter of Tristram Risdon.
  The 2nd son of John II Pollard and Eleanor Copleston was Robert Pollard, whose eldest son was Sir Lewis Pollard (c. 1465 – 1526), Justice of the Common Pleas from 1514 to 1526 and MP for Totnes in 1491, founder of the most influential branch of the Pollard family seated at Kings Nympton in Devon, from whom descended the Pollard Baronets.
  Walter IV Pollard (eldest son and heir) of Way, who married Joan Baron, daughter and sole heiress of Roger Baron of Baronshill, Devon.
  [[File:NunehamCourtenay PollardMonument.JPG|thumb|200px|Monument in Nuneham Courtenay Church, Oxfordshire, of Anthony Pollard (died 1577), grandson of Richard I Pollard of Way and  Margaret Cockworthy, and brother and heir of John Pollard (died 1557), Speaker of the House of Commons
  Richard I Pollard (son) of Way, who married Margaret Cockworthy, daughter of John Cockworthy of the family from Cockworthy in the parish of Yarnscombe, Devon. Their grandson by their daughter Avis Pollard was John Pollard (died 1557), Speaker of the House of Commons. The effigy and monument of their other grandson, and John Pollard's brother and heir, Anthony Pollard (died 1577), survives in Nuneham Courtenay Church, Oxfordshire.
  Anthony I Pollard (son) of Way, who married Petronell Chudleigh, daughter of James Chudleigh of Ashton in Devon.
  Sir Richard II Pol
caption: Monumental brass of Alyanora Pollard (née Copleston) (died 1430), grandmother of Sir Lewis Pollard (died 1526). St Giles in the Wood parish church, Devon
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