Pollock was Member of Parliament (MP) for Huntingdon from 1831 to 1844. He served as Attorney General between 1834 and 1835 and 1841 and 1844 in the Tory administrations of Sir Robert Peel. In 1841 he was admitted to the Privy Council and in 1844 he was appointed Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, a post he held until 1868. Having been knighted on 29 December 1834, Pollock was created a Baronet, of Hatton in the County of Middlesex, on 2 August 1866. Apart from his political and legal career Pollock was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1816. He contributed a number of papers in mathematics to the Royal Society, including one on what is now known as the Pollock's conjecture.
