Sir Henry Pollexfen (1632 – 15 June 1691), Counsellor at Law, of Stancombe Dawney in Sherford (near Kingsbridge), Devon, of Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, and latterly of Nutwell in the parish of Woodbury, Devon, emerged as the leading counsel of the western Assizes circuit during the 1670s and grew to more general prominence over the following decade. At a time of strong anti-Catholic feeling, he acted as counsel for the accused peers in state trials surrounding the Popish Plot allegations which emerged in 1678. He was chosen by Judge Jeffreys to present the evidence for prosecution in the Bloody Assizes following the Monmouth Rebellion, and in 1685 led the prosecution of Lady Alice Lisle. He defended the Corporation of London in the 1683 case of Quo Warranto,J. Shortt, Informations (Criminal and Quo Warranto) Mandamus and Prohibition, 1st American edition (Charles H. Edson and Company, Boston 1888), p. 119-20 (Google). and had a role in the Great Monopoly case of the East India Company v Sandys of 1683–85, defending Thomas Sandys.'312. The Great Case of Monopolies, between the East-India Company, Plaintiffs, and Thomas Sandys, Defendant, 36 Charles II, 1684', in T.B. Howell (ed.), Cobbett's Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason (etc) (Hansard, London 1811), X: A.D. 1680-1685, pp. 371-554 (Google). Being personally of Protestant sympathies, and often advocating in resistance to the royal prerogative under the increasingly Catholic monarchs, he welcomed the departure of James II and offered advice to William of Orange in his approach and accession to the throne. For this he was rewarded by a knighthood and his appointment, in 1689, as Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, during which time he also sat in Parliament. He held the office for only two years before his death in 1691.
Origins Family background The family of Pollexfen (often pronounced "Poulson") was established of old in the coastal hinterland of south Devonshire, between the Tamar at Plymouth, and Mothecombe beside the Erme estuary, a few miles to the south-east, an area centred upon the parish of Yealmpton and the estuary of the River Yealm. Sir Henry Pollexfen himself tells in his will that his grandfather was Andrew Pollexfen of Caleston in the parish of Holbeton, gent., and that the manor of Stancombe, with property in the parishes of Sherford, Southpoole, Stokingham, Stoke Fleming and Blackawton, were the lands (spreading further eastwards) which he inherited from his ancestors.Will of Sir Henry Pollexfen (P.C.C. Probate 22 July 1691, Vere quire).
Lady Elizabeth Eliott-Drake,Lady Elizabeth Eliott-Drake (1840-1923), née Douglas, a daughter of Sir Robert Andrews Douglas, 2nd Baronet of Glenbervie and wife of Sir Francis George Augustus Fuller-Eliott-Drake, 2nd Baronet (1837–1916) of Nutwell Court and Buckland Monachorum. referring to family archives, in 1911 further clarified that Sir Henry's great-grandfather was John Pollexfen of Kitley in Yealmpton, and that his father was Andrew Pollexfen (died 1670) of Stancombe Dawney in the parish of Sherford, whose wife was Joan, a daughter of John Woollcombe of Pitton in Yealmpton.E. Eliott-Drake, The Family and Heirs of Sir Francis Drake, 2 vols (Smith, Elder & Co., London 1911), II, pp. 55–9.As is commonly found in Devon, dispersed steadings within a parish have non-parochial names of their own. This Andrew had an elder brother Henry, of Woolston (Sir Henry's uncle), who was the senior heir, but died childless. The clarification was necessary because, contrary to the received affiliation, Lt.Col. Vivian, in his Heraldic Visitations of Devon (1895), constructed a pedigree in which he inferred (mistakenly) from certain willsWill of Thomas Maynard of Sherford (PCC 1628, Barrington quire); Will and Sentence of Elizeus Hele of Exeter (PCC 1635-36, Pile quire); Will of Walter Hele of Wimpston (PCC 1657, Ruthen quire). Cited by Vivian. that Sir Henry and his brethren were the children of the elder Henry."Pollexfen of Woodbury", in Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620 (Exeter 1895), pp. 600-01 (HathiTrust). That Henry Pollexfen of Woolston (in West Alvington) was a magistrate of many years' standing, and a notable early Quaker who was imprisoned for his beliefs in 1656: he heard George Fox's ministry at the General Meeting of Friends at Exeter in 1657, and Fox attended a large meeting for worship at his house in 1663, after which the "old Justice" accompanied him to Plymouth.J.L. Nickalls (ed.), The Journal of George Fox, (Cambridge University Press, 1951; Revised edition, Religious Society of Friends, London 1975), pp. 260, 288, and p. 443 (Internet Archive).
Inheritance and education Andrew Pollexfen and his wife Joan Woolcombe had three sons, Henry (the eldest, died 1691),J.S. Crossette, 'Pollexfen, Henry (c.1632-91), of Woodbury, Devon and Lincoln's Inn Fields, London', in B.D. Henning (ed.), History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660–1690 (from Boydell and Brewer 1983), History of Parliament Online. John Pollexfen, MP, the political economist (died 1715),J.S. Crossette, 'Pollexfen, John (c.1638-1715), of Walbrook House, London and Wembury, Devon', in B.D. Henning (ed.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690 (from Boydell and Brewer, 1983), History of Parliament Online. and Nicholas Pollexfen, a successful merchant (died 1682);Will of Nicholas Pollexfen of Waddon, Surrey (PCC 1682, Cottle quire). in addition they had seven daughters. It is shown that Henry of Woolston planned to make his nephew Henry his heir, but on condition that Andrew should surrender to him his long lease on Stancombe Dawney, which he was reluctant to do. After a long time this was successfully arranged in August 1659 through the agency of Richard Burdwood (the younger Henry's brother-in-law), and his cousin Edmund Pollexfen of Kitley."Copy of Bargain and Sale" (1659), (Drake of Buckland Abbey/Pollexfen family papers), Devon Archives and Local Studies Service: South West Heritage Trust, document ref: 346M/F869/i (Discovery Catalogue). Described by Eliott-Drake. A lifetime lease of the estates was made to Andrew, which in 1666 Andrew in turn assigned to his son John in exchange for certain annuities:"Copy of Grant: 1. Andrew Pollexfen of Sherford, gent., to 2. John Pollexfen his son" (1666), (Drake of Buckland Abbey/Pollexfen family papers), Devon Archives and Local Studies Service: South West Heritage Trust, document ref: 346M/F871 (Discovery Catalogue). Described by Eliott-Drake. but this arrangement lasted only until Andrew's death in 1670, whereupon the family estate passed to Henry the lawyer, as his uncle's heir.
Despite his later success, Henry Pollexfen seems to have had no university education, but it is likely he received mentoring from his cousin Edmund Pollexfen whom his family referred to as the "Counsellor". Edmund (later identified as "of Yealmpton") matriculated from Exeter College, Oxford on 13 February 1648/49:'Pollexfen, Edmund, gent.', in J. Foster (ed.), Alumni Oxonienses, 1500-1714 (James Parker and Co., Oxford 1891), Part III, p. 1177 (Internet Archive). he was admitted to Inner Temple on 15 February 1650, and Henry was admitted on 29 May 1652.Inner Temple Archives, Person records: Pollexfen, Edmund, and Pollexfen, Henry. Edmund was called to the bar on 9 February 1656/57, and Henry on 4 November 1658: the arrangements over the estate followed soon afterwards. Similarly in 1657 Edmund handed over his rights as executor of his late father, Nicholas Pollexfen, to his mother Petronel.'"Release by Edmund Pollexfen of the Inner Temple" (1657), (Hole of Parke family papers), Devon Archives and Local Studies Service: South West Heritage Trust, document ref: 312M-8/F5 (Discovery Catalogue). Some sixteen years later, on 7 February 1674/75, Edmund and Henry were called to the Bench of the Inner Temple on the same day. They were, in effect, almost exact contemporaries.
Contemporary, but of the next generation, was his cousinSee 'Letters of John and Henry Pollexfen to their cousin G. Treby, 4 and 7 February 1678/79' in The Manuscripts of Sir William FitzHerbert, bart., and others, Historical Manuscripts Commission, Thirteenth Report, Appendix, Part VI (HMSO, 1893), p. 12, and passim (Internet Archive). Cited by Crossette and Henning. the exclusionist attorney George Treby (1642–1700), also of Holbeton, who like Edmund studied at Exeter College but entered the Middle Temple. Treby's legal career (during which he sat for Plympton Erle in six parliaments between 1677 and 1692, bringing in John Pollexfen as his colleague there) ran concurrently with Pollexfen's through the great trials of that age: he became Attorney-general simultaneously with Pollexfen's appointment as Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in 1689, and after Pollexfen's death succeeded to the latter office for the term of his life.J.S. Crossette/B.D. Henning, 'Treby, George (1642-1700), of Fleet Street, London', in B.D. Henning (ed.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690, (from Boydell and Brewer, 1983), History of Parliament Online. Treby was on the Woolcombe side, a grandson of Phillippa (Treby), sister of Joan Woolcombe.Eliott-Drake, The Family and Heirs of Sir Francis Drake, II, p. 87, note (Internet Archive).
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