A Story of Wills

A last will can sometimes be the only available source for what life was really like in the past life of a family at a certain time and place. The wills associated with the Pollock family are excellent examples of such revelation.

Descendants of Sarah Graham Pollock

Sarah Jane Graham was born in 1840 when her mother was about age 50. She was the youngest of the Graham sisters. Sarah married Andrew Pollock in 1858, when she was 18 years old. They had four children, 3 sons and a daughter. Their names and birth dates were as follows: William (1859), James Graham (1860), Andrew John (1868) and Bessie (1870).

The Wills

 

Sarah died in Londonderry, Ireland on Novermber 17, 1894 when she was 54 years old. She wrote her will in February of that same year, and had it witnessed by Margaret and Robert Hamilton her sister and brother-in-law. The will left all her meager assets (£20) to her daughter Bessie who was 24 years old at the time of her mother's death.

Will of Sarah Graham Pollock

Sarah's husband Andrew Pollock died at age 67 on July 4, 1898 in Castlederg near the farm he worked in Ballyfolliard Townland. Probably this is the Graham's Town location mentioned in his sister-in-law Ellen Graham's will.

In Andrew's will he left to his three surviving children (William had died in 1882) the following: James Graham (one shilling [a shilling was worth 1/20th of a pound]), Andrew John (one shilling), Bessie (one hundred pounds sterling, his watch and gold chain, and all his furniture, household goods and effects). The remainder of his estate, including the proceeds from sale of the farm, he left to his brother John James Pollock. His brother and another man were appointed to sell the farm, its implements and machinery with son Andrew John given first chance of buying "same at such valuation as may."

Will of Andrew Pollock

James and Bessie Pollock

Location of Castlederg and the former Graham's Town

Both James Graham Pollock and Bessie Pollock lived in Londonderry for the rest of their short lives.  On May 14, 1901, Bessie Pollock died at age 30 in Londonderry. She was unmarried and childless, willing an estate of £196 to her brother James. James died in Londonderry in December of 1901.

Eleven years before his death James had married Lucy Thompson. He and Lucy had five children, four girls and a boy, and lived at 17 Abercorn Road in Londonderry.

Bessie, the oldest daughter, and Sarah, the youngest, never married. Lucy married John Canning Mitchell in 1927. Rebecca married Joseph Caskey Williamson in 1926. The only son William married Annie Jane Boyd in 1926. No record was found of grandchildren.

Andrew John Pollock

An Andrew John Pollock, born in 1868,  is found in the 1901 and 1911 Irish Censuses to be living in the Artigarvan Townland in Leckpatrick Parish. Leckpatrick Parish adjoins Ardstraw Parish where the Ballyfolliard Townland, Graham's Town and the former family farm were located.

Artigarvan is about 14 miles from Castlederg where Andrew John Pollock was born and his father died. The former location of Graham's Town is between the two places, about 3 miles from Castlederg. Given the same name, year of birth and location of residence it is pretty definite that this man is our Andrew John Pollock. No record can be found of his death.

Children of Andrew John Pollock

Robert Pollock - 1918

Andrew John Pollock married Minnie Barnhill in December of 1894. The 1901 and 1911 Irish Censuses indicate that they were parents of 11 children born between 1896 and 1910.  There were 5 sons and 6 daughters.

The oldest child was Robert, born in 1896. He died in French Flanders from the effect of wounds suffered in battle during World War 1. Beside Robert, three of the remaining sons never married. Samuel, the only exception, married Letitia Townsley in 1933.

Among the daughters,  four never married. The two exceptions were Elizabeth and Margaret. Elizabeth married Alfred Roy in 1920. Margaret married Albert A. Hamilton in 1937 in Los Angeles, California.

Margaret and Albert seemed to travel together for some years in Canada and California. According to Albert's Naturalization form completed on March 5, 1936, he was married to the former Margaret Pollock and had a child named Margaret born in Aug 1, 1926.

To add confusion to this post, California Marriage Records indicate the marriage of Albert and Margaret occured on Apr 13, 1937 in Los Angeles, California.  Perhaps this was an attempt to facilitate the nationalization of both Margaret's as American citizens. Given the large families, it is strange that Margaret, the younger, appears to the only surviving Pollock descendant.

Thus ends the Pollock story unless new information becomes available.