Robert Blemell Pollard

London school-proprietor, judgement creditor on enslaved people in Jamaica.

1. "Adm. sizar at ST JOHN'S, May 20, 1801. [S. of Robert Blemell, Master of St Margaret's Hospital, Westminster. B. Mar. 10, 1783.] School, Westminster. Matric. Michs. 1801; B.A. 1805. ‘For many years Master of the Green Coat School at Westminster, which then stood on the outskirts of Tothill Fields, adjoining the Bridewell, and of Blemell House School, which stood on the site of Brompton Oratory.’ Married, July 31, 1806, Frances Crispe, of Snodland, Kent. Died Jan. 10, 1864. (Record of Old Westminsters; Graduati, 1659-1823, erroneously calls him ‘Samuel Blemell.’)" Baptism of Robert Blemell, son of Robert and Charity Blemell, at Milton-next-Sittingbourne, Kent, 14/03/1783.

2. Married Frances Crispe at Westminster, 24/07/1806. Robert Blemell Pollard and his wife Frances had nine children baptised in St Luke's Church, Chelsea: Robert Crispe (born 1807), Edward William (1808), Henry Smith (1810), Frances Caroline (1811), Louisa (1816), Charles Frederick (1817), Frederick Blumell (1818), Alfred Valentine (1820) and Caroline Eliza (1821). For the first four, there's no more information in the baptism records other than Pollard's wife was called Frances. For the next three, he was a gentleman of Cadogan Place. For the last two he was a schoolmaster of Brompton.

3. Robert Blemell Pollard bought a site of 31/2 acres from Alexander Barclay (wax-chandler) for £4000 in 1819 and set up a boarding school, Blemell House. Pollard sold the site to Congregation of the Oratory in 1852 for £16,000.

4. At Blemell House in the census of 1841, age 58, schoolmaster, with his wife Frances, his niece Eliza, three teachers, 40 male pupils aged between 7 and 17 years, two male servants and four female servants. In the census of 1851 Robert B. Pollard, age 68, born Milton, Kent, was a retired schoolmaster at Blemell House, Brompton (the preceeding entry was for Cottage Place). By 1861 he lived with his daughters at the school they ran at Crescent House, Brompton (the preceeding entry was for Crescent Place and the school was already in operation in 1841). In 1861 he was a fundholder, widowed, with three of his spinster daughters as governesses and 14 female pupils.

5. The will with a codicil of Robert Blemell Pollard late of Crescent House Brompton, gentleman, who died 10/01/1864 at Crescent House, was proved by his spinster daughters Frances Caroline, Louisa and Carolina Eliza, all of Crescent House, his surviving executors. Effects under £12,000.

1. Ancestry.com, Cambridge University Alumni, 1261-1900 [database online]; Ancestry.com, England & Wales Christening Records, 1530-1906 [database online].

2. Findmypast.co.uk, Westminster Marriages [database online]; Ancestry.com, London, England, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812 [database online]; Ancestry.com, London, England, Births and Baptisms, 1813-1906 [database online].

3. British History Online (from Survey of London vol. 41 1983; Boyle's 1835 p. 559 shows Robert Blemell Pollard, Esq. Blemell-house, Old Brompton, London.

4. 1841, 1851, 1861 censuses online.

5. National Probate Calendar 1864.