William Pollard-Urquhart

Summary

William Pollard-Urquhart (19 June 1815 – 1 June 1871), was an Irish politician and writer specialising in economic and policy questions of his day.[1] He served as high sheriff of County Westmeath, and sat as Member of Parliament for the county.[1]

William Pollard-Urquhart
Member of Parliament
for Westmeath
In office
1852–1857
Serving with William Magan
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Member of Parliament
for Westmeath
In office
1859–1871
Serving with
Preceded by
  • William Magan
  • Sir Richard Levinge
Succeeded by
Personal details
Born(1815-06-19)19 June 1815
Kinturk, County Westmeath, Ireland
Died1 June 1871(1871-06-01) (aged 55)
Brighton, Sussex, England
Political partyLiberal

Early life edit

Urquhart, eldest child of William Dutton Pollard (1789–1839), of Kinturk, Castlepollard, County Westmeath, by his second wife, Louisa Anne, eldest daughter of Admiral Sir Thomas Pakenham, was born at Kinturk on 19 June 1815.[1] He was educated at Harrow and at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating BA as eighteenth wrangler in 1838, and M.A. in 1843.[2] He kept his terms at the Inner Temple, but was never called to the bar.

Career edit

In 1840 he was gazetted High Sheriff of Westmeath, and in 1846, on his marriage, took by royal licence the additional name of Urquhart. He sat in parliament for Westmeath as a liberal from 1852 to 1857, and from 1859 to his death.[1]

Personal life edit

On 20 August 1846, he married Mary Isabella, the only daughter of William Urquhart of Craigston Castle, Aberdeenshire. Their second son, Francis Edward Romulus Pollard Urquhart (born 1848), became a major in the Royal Horse Artillery in 1886.[1]

He died at 19 Brunswick Terrace, Brighton, on 1 June 1871.

Works edit

Pollard-Urquhart was the author of:[1]

  • Agricultural Distress and its Remedies (Aberdeen, 1850)
  • Essays on Subjects of Political Economy (1850)
  • The Substitution of Direct for Indirect Taxation necessary to carry out the Policy of Free Trade (1851),
  • Life and Times of Francisco Sforza, Duke of Milan (Edinburgh, 1852, 2 vols; adversely criticised by the ‘Athenæum’)
  • A short Account of the Prussian Land Credit Companies, with Suggestions for the Formation of a Land Credit Company in Ireland (Dublin, 1853)
  • The Currency Question and the Bank Charter Committees of 1857 and 1858 reviewed. By an M.P. (1860)
  • Dialogues on Taxation, local and imperial (1867).

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d e f Boase, G. C. (1896). "Pollard-Urquhart, William" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  2. ^ "Pollard (post Pollard-Urquhart), William (PLRT834W)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.

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

External links edit

  • Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by William Pollard-Urquhart
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Westmeath
18521857
With: William Magan
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Westmeath
1859–1871
With: Sir Richard Levinge 1859–1865
Hon. Algernon Greville-Nugent 1865–1871
Succeeded by
Honorary titles
Preceded by
Richard Winter Reynell
High Sheriff of Westmeath
1840
Succeeded by
Cuthbert Fetherstonhaugh