HOLLAND, Richard (c.1549-1618), of Denton Hall and Heaton Hall, Lancs.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558-1603, ed. P.W. Hasler, 1981
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

Family and Education

b. c.1549, 1st s. of Edward Holland of Denton by Jane, da. of John Carrington of Carrington Hall, Cheshire. m. (1) da. of Otys Reddish of Reddish Hall, Lancs. s.p.; (2) Margaret, da. of Sir Robert Langley of Agecroft Hall, wid. of John Reddish of Reddish Hall, 5da. suc. fa. 1573.1

Offices Held

Servant of 4th Earl of Derby.

J.p. Lancs., sheriff 1572-3, 1581-2, 1595-6, dep. lt. 1589 or 90; commr. musters, Lancs. 1595 or 96; eccles. commr. province of York Nov. 1599, 1603.2

Biography

Lord Derby’s ‘well beloved servant and councillor’, Holland probably owed his return as knight of the shire to his master, as he certainly did his appointment as deputy lieutenant. His name appears on the south-west corner of Lord Burghley’s map of Lancashire, 1590, with a sign like an ‘o’ against it, and his house at Heaton is marked with a ‘p’, presumably for protestant or puritan. In 1592 he was listed by the Council as one of those ‘meet for his fidelity and soundness in religion’ to be employed against recusants. Indeed, the Council had long known him to be one of their strongest arms in the county. Already in 1582, when he was sheriff, they had thanked him for his diligence in proceeding against recusants, and commanded him to admonish some of the justices who showed slackness and partiality. It was possibly on account of this good record that he was placed on the high commission for York, although he was not on the council in the north. In 1600, as justice of the peace, he inquired into the possession of arms by Lancashire recusants.3

Holland had two principal residences, Denton Hall, Manchester, and Heaton Hall, Prestwich. Denton was a long low Elizabethan house of ‘fair proportions’, said to have been an interesting example of the half-timbered post and petrel style, common throughout Lancashire. The last remaining part of it was destroyed by fire in 1930. The Hollands had been lords of Heaton since the fourteenth century, and their house there was known as the Old Hall. It was rebuilt in the eighteenth century and is used as an art gallery by the city of Manchester. The Hollands were co-founders of old Denton church, described in 1899 as being without equal in Lancashire or Cheshire for the beauty of its exterior. Holland made his will 10 Nov. 1618, and died at the end of that year. He was succeeded by his brother Edward.4

Ref Volumes: 1558-1603

Author: N.M.S.

Notes

  • 1. Vis. Lancs. (Chetham Soc. lxxxi), 18; Stanley Pprs. (Chetham Soc. xxxi), 95-6; Gillow, Burghley’s Map of Lancs, 58-9.
  • 2. APC, xviii. 386; xxv. 156; HMC Hatfield, ix. 397; xv. 395.
  • 3. Gregson, Lancs. Fragments, 207; Holland, Hollands of Lancs. 273-4; PCC 66 Dixy; HMC Hatfield, ix. 241-2; xv. 88; APC, xiii. 320.
  • 4. Middleton, Annals of Hyde, 221, engraving 222, 267; Denton Official Handbook, 12; Cleveland, Heaton Hall; Lancs. and Cheshire Wills (Chetham Soc. n.s. iii), 213; Gillow, 59.