Oxford, Holyoake obtained (in 1647) a license from the university to practise medicine (Wood, Fasti, ii. 104). He practised successfully in Warwickshire until the Restoration, when Thomas, lord Leigh, preferred him to the rectory of Whitnash, near Warwick. He was installed in addition a prebendary of the collegiate church of Wolverhampton. In 1674 Robert, lord Brooke, presented him to the donative of Breamore in Hampshire, where he died on 10 June 1675. He was buried near his father in the church of St. Mary at Warwick. By his wife Anne he had twelve children, one of whom, Henry, is separately noticed.
[Wood’s Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iii. 346–7; Colvile’s Worthies of Warwickshire, pp. 426, 427; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1660-1, pp. 133, 232, 350; Brit. Mus. Cat.]
HOLYOAKE, HENRY (1657–1731), head-master of Rugby School, born probably in Warwickshire in 1657, was the son of Thomas Holyoake [see under Holyoake, Francis] and Anne his wife. He was elected to a choristership at Magdalen College, Oxford, which he resigned in 1676, having matriculated from that college on 12 March 1674. He became clerk and sub-librarian in 1676, appointments which he held until 1681. On 22 Oct. 1678 he graduated B.A., proceeded M.A. on 4 July 1681, and was chaplain of his college from 1681 until 1690. (Bloxam, Reg. of Magd. Coll. i. 95-6). In 1687 he was elected head-master of Rugby School. Despite the smallness of his salary and other disadvantages, he raised the school from insignificance, and was the first to engage an assistant-master. He seems, however, to have unfortunately misunderstood the character of one of his best-known pupils, Edward Cave [q. v.], whom he treated with undeserved severity, and eventually drove from the school (Nichols, Lit. Anecd. v.2). Cave, however, inserted in the ‘Gentleman’s Magazine’ (i. 124) a sympathetic notice of his death. Holyoake was instituted to the rectory of Bourton-upon-Dunsmore on 30 June 1698, to that of Bilton on 31 Aug. 1705 (Bloxam, ii. 77), and to that of Harborough Magna, all in Warwickshire, on 9 Nov. 1712. In 1700 he gave 20l. for the use of Magdalen College Library. He died unmarried at Rugby on 10 March 1730–1731, and was buried in St. Mary’s Church, Warwick, where may be seen a quaint Latin inscription written by himself, which he directed to be engraved to his own memory as well as to that of his father and grandfather.
Holyoake’s establishment at Rugby was under the domestic management of his cousin Judith Holyoake, to whom he left a legacy on the express ground of her having been ‘very serviceable and seemingly kind’ to the boys. He bequeathed 30l. to the daughter of Widow Harris, ‘his tripe-woman;’ the interest of 200l. to the poor of Rugby after the death of his cousin, Elizabeth Holyoake; and all his books (since sold), together with the portraits of his father and grandfather (since lost), to Rugby School.
[Colvile’s Worthies of Warwickshire, pp. 428-30.]
HOLYWOOD, CHRISTOPHER (1562–1616), jesuit, was born in 1562 at Artane, near Dublin, where his family were landowners. In 1582 he became a member of the Society of Jesuits at Dôle in France, and was subsequently professor of divinity and philosophy there and at Padua. Holywood was in 1599 appointed to the mission of the jesuits in Ireland. Disguised as a merchant, he sailed for England, but was arrested on landing at Dover. He declined to take the oath of supremacy; was examined before, Cecil, secretary of state; and was detained in custody at London, and afterwards at Wisbech and Framlingham, where he occupied himself with literary work. On his liberation Holywood returned to the continent. After some time passed at Douay, Amiens, Rouen, and St. Malo, he returned to Ireland on 16 March 1604. As a superior of the jesuits’ mission in Ireland, he laboured zealously amidst difficulties and perils, some of which he describes in letters, still extant, addressed to the general of jesuits. James I, in his speech to the agents from Ireland at Whitehall in April 1614, denounced Holywood for his efforts to induce the Irish catholics to send their children to the continent for education. Holywood died on 4 Sept. 1616. His name has been latinised Holiuudius, but he appears himself to have used the equivalent ‘a sacro bosco.’
His works—replies to Dr. William Whitaker and other protestant controversialists—are entitled:
- ‘Defensio decreti Tridentini et sententiæ Roberti Bellarmini, S. R. E. cardinalis, de authoritate Vulgatæ editionis Latinæ, adversus sectarios, maxime Whitakerum. In qua etiam fuse admodum refutatur error sectariorum de Scripturæ interprete et judice controversiarum. Authore Christophoro a Sacrobosco, Dubliniensi Societatis Jesu, olim sacræ theologiæ in alma academia Dolana professore.’
- ‘De investiganda vera ac visibili Christi ecclesia libellus.’ Both works were published in 8vo at Antwerp in 1604, and the first was reissued in 1619 with additions by the author.
