John Pollexfen Bastard
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John Pollexfen Bastard (18 September 1756 – 4 April 1816) was a British Tory politician.
Member of Parliament for Devonshire from 1784 he stood down in 1812 whereupon his son Edmund took the seat holding it until 1830.
According to the Oxford Companion to Children's Literature, Bastard indirectly inspired the familiar form of the children's rhyme "Old Mother Hubbard..." after instructing its author Sarah Catherine Martin (his sister in law) to "run away and write one of your stupid little rhymes."
Bastard owned several houses and large tracts of land in western England including his main residence Kitley House.
He can be spotted in Hickel's William Pitt addressing the House of Commons on the French Declaration of War, 1793 in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery (England).
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