Person:Robert Polk (6)

Robert Bruce Pollock

• Polk, William Harrison - Polk Family and Kinsman - Louisville, Kentucky, Bradley & Gilbert, 1912, 767 pgs

Chapter II - Robert Bruce Pollock

Robert Bruce Pollock, second son of Sir Robert 2nd of Ireland, was a Captain in Col. Porter’s Regiment which served under Cromwell. Porter married Magdalen Tasker, youngest of the two children of Col. Tasker, a distinguished Chancellor of Ireland whose seat was “Castle Hill” near the village of Baliindrate, commanding a view of the River Dale. “Moneen” another estate belonging to Col. Tasker, lying in the parish of Lifford, near Strabane, on the River Foyle, consisted of six hundred acres. These he divided between his two children, Barbara Keys, wife of Capt. John Keys, and Magdalen. Magdalen first married Col. Porter, who died not long afterward without issue by Magdalen and she next married Robert Bruce Polk (Pollok), a Captain in his regiment and an intimate friend it is said. Magdalen was related to the Countess of Morington, and her sister Prudence, aunts to the Duke of Wellington. Captain Robert Bruce Polk died (1703/4) as shown by his will of date May 6, 1699, probated June 5, 1703/4, on record at Annapolis, Ann Arundel County, Maryland. Before the American Revolution a double record was kept of all wills, one in the county of residence of the descendant, and another in the office of the “Chief Commissary” (Clerk) of the Colony, at its capital. The will of Magdalen , dated 1725 is of record in Somerset county, Maryland, but not that of her husband Capt. Robert Bruce Polk. Why the latter does not also appear on the records of Somerset County, is not certainly known. To this absence (the document of record at Annapolis having only been discovered within a few years past) was no doubt due to the long prevalent opinion that Capt. Robert Bruce Polk did not accompany his family to America but died in Ireland. Later and fuller investigation cleared up this doubtful point by discovery of his will on file at Annapolis, and of land grants to him from Lord Baltimore (the first of which was “Polk’s Folly”) and other documents. It is indisputable now, in the light of these modern discoveries, that Capt. Robert Bruce Polk came with his family to Maryland, near about 1672; that they landed from a ship at “Damn Quarter” (now called Dame’s Quarter) and planted their new home in that locality, between Manokin and Nanticoke Rivers, near the junction of those streams with the Chesapeake Bay. Here they occupied adjoining tracts of land for which they later acquired patents from Lord Baltimore. Just how many children Robert and Magdalen had when they came to America is not certainly known. Evidently a portion of them, the first five, were born in Ireland. According to the latest records, their children were John, William, Ephraim, James, Robert, David, Joseph, Martha and Anne. That they had a son David was not known until Captain Robert’s will was found a few years ago at Annapolis, wherein he is mentioned. Judging from various circumstances, Joseph was the youngest son.

1.   Polk, William Harrison. Polk family and kinsmen. (Louisville, Ky.: Bradley & Gilbert, 1912)
   Chapter II.