Arthur Pollok
(1847-1864)
1 July 1862

Volume 8, page 154, sitting number 10,237.

[Identified as 'A. Pollock, Esq.' in the Silvy daybooks, the preceding entry is 'Allen Pollock, Esq.,' presumably this sitter's father. The following entry is 'John Pollock,' presumably his younger brother.]

Allen Pollok of Lismany was the Scotsman known as 'the Great Evictor, ' who acquired and cleared thousands of acres of land in County Galway, Ireland, taking advantage of financially distressed landholders through the Encumbered Estates Court in the wake of the Great Famine. A petition against these forced evictions, signed by 1400 people, was debated in the House of Commons in 1856. According to the Newry Telegraph (3 May 1856), Pollok had by this point already evicted some 5000 people from their homes and he now intended to depopulate a further 7000 acres. 'There was no gentleman in the West of Ireland who did not regard with abhorrence these proceedings of Mr Pollock [sic], as tending to depreciate the general character of Irish landlords, to disturb peace, and to depopulate the country.'  Nevertheless, in the 1870s Pollok is recorded as holding over 29,000 acres in Galway as well as a small amount of property in county Dublin.