English: East window of the chancel of the Church of England parish church of St Peter, Marsh Baldon, Oxfordshire. Arms of Pollard of Marsh Baldon.

Text from: 'Parishes: Marsh Baldon', in A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 5, Bullingdon Hundred, ed. Mary D Lobel (London, 1957), pp. 30-47.

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Sir Thomas Pope, once 'the dear friend' of Sir Thomas More and the founder of Trinity College, Oxford, died possessed of Marsh Baldon in 1559. (fn. 85) As he left no children, his brother John Pope of Wroxton was his heir. From him the manor descended to his son William, later to become Sir William Pope, Bt., and finally Earl of Downe in 1629. (fn. 86) His sister Susannah had married in 1583 Daniel Danvers, later known as Danvers of Horley. He was the second son of John Danvers of Culworth (Northants.), (fn. 87) where he and his wife lived until they moved to Marsh Baldon in about 1600. (fn. 88) He had bought the manor from his brother-in-law in 1594 for £1,000. (fn. 89) In 1613 he settled it on his eldest son John (fn. 90) and his wife Ann, the daughter of a Berkshire gentleman, Anthony Sadler of Inkpen, and their male heirs. The new squire died young in 1616–only 30 years old. (fn. 91) His widow Ann lived on in her Baldon home, and took a second husband, Richard Goddard of Upham (Wilts.), (fn. 92) member of a family with which the Pollards were already allied. The only child of his wife's first marriage, Susan, was married in 1635 to John Pollard, grandson of John Pollard, a former lord of Little Baldon manor and of the neighbouring manor of Nuneham Courtenay, (fn. 93) and the son of Lewis Pollard of Little Baldon. (fn. 94) In the same year the Goddards embarked on various legal transactions which ended in the conveyance of the manor to John and Susan Pollard in the latter's right. (fn. 95) By 1648 the Pollards' son John, although only about twelve years old, had been betrothed to Elizabeth Jennens, and in September a marriage settlement was being arranged by which the two brothers of Elizabeth were to hold a part of the manor to the use of John Pollard for his life and to the use of Elizabeth after his death as her jointure. (fn. 96)

John Pollard's already comfortable circumstances were improved in 1660 when he received a legacy from one of his wife's relatives, William Danvers, a silk merchant of London. (fn. 97) In the 1665 hearth tax assessments, ten hearths were returned for his house, whereas most of his chargeable neighbours returned three or under. (fn. 98) He died in 1670, and his son John and his wife Elizabeth succeeded to the property. (fn. 99) John Pollard the younger is often mentioned in the Queen's College deeds as their tenant of a property called Brasiers. (fn. 100) In about 1708 he and his wife entered into legal negotiations about Baldon manor which terminated in its sale in 1713 to their daughter Elizabeth's husband, Dr. Lane, (fn. 101) a Bristol dealer in copper and lead. (fn. 102) By the date of these transactions the Pollards were in their late seventies. By 1712 they must have died for Elizabeth Pollard, not yet married, was then lady of the manor. (fn. 103)