The spoil of the shrine was stated by Stow in his "Annales" to have "filled two great chests such as six or seven strong men could do no more than convey one of them at once out of the church". Following this operation Pollard proceeded to Reading and Winchester to effect similar destructions. He resided sometime at Putney, Surrey. In 1539, he was appointed to the Council of the West, and was knighted on 16 January 1542. In 1537 he was granted by King Henry VIII the manor of Combe Martin in Devon  His influential position within the Court of Augmentations enabled him to acquire cheap bargains from the possessions of the dissolved religious houses. In 1540 he purchased Forde Abbey and in 1538 he acquired on favourable terms a 99-year lease (later reduced to 21 years) of Marsh Priory, formerly a possession of Plympton Priory in Devon. His technique was similar to that used by George Rolle (by whom he was enlisted to help Lord Lisle) in that he used his local knowledge to buy land which had a ready and profitable resale market when split into smaller lots, often being sold to the former tenants. He married Jacquetta Bury (d.1545, buried at Berrynarbor), as promised him in the will of her father John Bury (d.1533) of Colleton, Chulmleigh, Devon. By his influence Richard had helped his elder brother Sir Hugh I Pollard (fl.1535,1545) (Sheriff of Devon in 1535/6 and Recorder of Barnstaple in 1545) to obtain the wardship of John Bury's 17-year-old son and heir Richard Bury, whom Sir Hugh married to his daughter Elizabeth Pollard.