Nat Gould

Thomas Hollis 1634-1718

Thomas Hollis was born in Rotherham in 1634, being baptised there on 4 September in that year. He was apprenticed to his maternal uncle John Ramsker, a Sheffield cutler.

He was a deeply religious man, having been impressed by the ministry of the former Vicar of Sheffield who was ejected from his benefice for refusing to conform under the Act of Uniformity 1662. Thomas Hollis became an enthusiastic dissenter and a Baptist (1).

In 1654 his uncle sent him to London to manage his wholesale cutlery and hardware business there in the Minories (2). He worked hard to build up the family business and became prosperous. He became a Freeman of the City of London and a member of the Drapers' Company (3).

In 1658, four years after his arrival in London, he married Mary Whiting (4). They had the following children:

Thomas Hollis 1659-1731
Nathaniel Hollis
John Hollis 1666-1735
Mary Hollis

His second wife was Ann Thorner of East Ham, now in London but then in Essex (5).

In 1678 Thomas Hollis leased Pinners' Hall situated in Old Broad Street in London for use as a place of nonconformist meetings. "The Independents had worship in the hall in the morning; the Baptists and other religious persuasions used it during the remainder of the day". Although a Baptist himself, Thomas Hollis was tolerant of other denominations. The Reverend Jeremiah Hunt ministered there from 1707 till 1744, was "thoroughly acquainted with the Hollis family, and preached funeral sermons for five of its members, all of which were published." (6) Hunt was an Independent (7).

Thomas Hollis took the Association Oath of loyalty to the sovereign in 1696 as a member of the Drapers' Company along with 220 other members. The Association Oath resulted from the discovery in 1696 of a plot to assassinate King William III (8).

In 1702 he took into his home, the hymn writer Isaac Watts, who lived with the family until 1710 (9).

In Sheffield, Thomas Hollis contributed generously to the building of New Hall, the first dissenter chapel, and in 1700 to constructing a larger one. He founded schools and chapels in Rotherham and Doncaster. In 1703 he bought New Hall and an adjoining house, which he converted into a hospital or almshouses for widows of workers in the Sheffield cutlery trade (10). He was a benefactor of St Thomas’s Hospital in London and the newly founded Harvard College in Massachusetts (11).

By 1702 Thomas Hollis had become blind (12). He died in London on 4 September 1718.

At his funeral Jeremiah Hunt said of Thomas Hollis that “His temper and complexion were naturally warm - His faith was strong - His patience was remarkable; though he was so unhappy as to be blind many years, I never heard him make the least complaint - He trained up his children in the knowledge and practice of religion - and was so happy as to see his pious care successful. If he had given any offence, as sometimes it would happen through the warmth of his temper, he would not disdain to ask pardon, though of an inferior - His charity was not confined to a party, though it might extend more to those who were of his own persuasion, being sincere, and thinking himself in the right. He denied himself, and lived frugal, that he might more extensively express his goodness - He erected and founded two churches at Rotherham and Doncaster, and established schools at each place for teaching youth; communicating in his life to their maintenance, but bequeathing some encouragement after his decease.” (13)

Yet Thomas Hollis was no saint. His patience could be remarkable for being short, and he could be a severe and perhaps even unjust master. A Sheffield lad named Field Sylvester "on 11th of May 1670 was bound apprentice to Mr. Thomas Hollis, a wholesale cutler in London, whom he served eight years, during which time he went twice into France and once into Flanders and Zealand. He served his master at Sheffield one year for £20; but was then cast off for refusing to go to France again on hard terms, and in a time of danger."(14) Nor was "his pious care" for his children so successful as his friend the pastor claimed. His second son Nathaniel proved to be a wastrel unable to provide even for his own child.

Even the liberality to his own denomination, eulogised by Jeremiah Hunt, was questioned. “Were the benefactions he bestowed to promote the cause of religion, and education, and humanity, at Rotherham, and Doncaster, and Sheffield, given to the Baptists at those places?" asked a Baptist historian. "If this were the fact, we have never yet known it: or, if that were not the case, it is pleasant to be informed from so good an authority, that these, though liberal were inferior to many other works of charity among those of his own denomination.” (15)

But Thomas Hollis should not be judged harshly. He lived through a time of civil strife. He worked hard to build up a successful business and donate as generously as he could afford to charities both within and outside his own religious sect. By the end of his days he was blind and enduring a painful illness. The kingdom to which he had sworn allegiance was threatened by the son of the exiled Roman Catholic James II. Only three years before Thomas Hollis died was the "Old Pretender" finally defeated at the Battle of Preston. Thomas Hollis had laid down a tradition of hard work and generous giving for his sons and their descendants to follow.

He had made his Will on 27 January 1713/14, and added a Codicil on 11 January 1716/17. Probate was granted on 23 September 1718 to his executors, his sons Thomas Hollis and John Hollis.

In his Will Thomas Hollis made bequests to his wife Ann Hollis, his sons Thomas Hollis and John Hollis and for his son Nathaniel, his daughter Mary Ladds, his grandsons Thomas Hollis (son of his son Nathaniel), William Ladds (son of his daughter Mary Ladds), granddaughters Mary Winnick, Mary Rennalls, and Isaac, Samuel, Jacob, Timothy, Hannah, Ann and Elizabeth Hollis (children of his son John Hollis); to his cousins Hannah Hulton (for her children), Daniel Sheldon,and Ann Ramskar ; to the children of his deceased sisters Hannah Brunt and Mary Gold “of Derbyshire” ; to William Creswick and his sister Elizabeth Creswick ; to his friends William Woolaston and Robert Rennalls for the poor of his acquaintance; and to Jeremiah Hunt. In the Codicil he increased the bequests to his wife and to Jeremiah Hunt, and bequeathed an income for his widowed cousin Dorothy Malin and her two children (16).

Ann Hollis died in 1729, and was buried at Holy Trinity Minories on 3 November in that year.

(1) A History of the English Baptists J. Ivimey (1823) volume III page 387.
(2) The parish of Holy Trinity, Minories was a haven for expelled clerics and dissenters of all persuasions. It was one of the privileged liberties of London outside both the civil jurisdiction and ecclesiastical control, lying just north of the Tower of London and outside the medieval Aldgate. The congregations were able to choose their own clergy, which obviated any difficulties with episcopal and civic authorities. John Robinson and the English Separatist Tradition T. George (1982) page 24. The establishment of his London business there by John Ramsker suggests that the dissenting tradition in the Hollis family went back in the family beyond Thomas Hollis.
(3) "The Hollis family were cutlers by trade though Drapers by company." The New England Historical and Genealogical Register : Genealogical Gleanings in England H F Waters volume 45 (1891) page 51. A brief Hollis genealogy is given on that page, the first wife of Thomas Hollis being incorrectly named as Ann Whiting instead of Mary Whiting.
(4) Some Memorials of the Hollis Family G. Hester (1895) page 8. The year of his arrival is given as 1654, so the marriage would have been in 1658. However Hester gives the name of his bride as Anne Thorner, who was in fact his second wife.
(5) The date of the second marriage is said to be 1701, but it is likely that they were already married by 1690. Her brother Robert Thorner made his Will in that year, in which no provision was made for his sister. Thomas Hollis was an executor of the Will.
(6) Some Memorials of the Hollis Family G. Hester (1895) page 8.
(7) A History of the English Baptists J. Ivimey (1823) volume III page 377.
(8) His name appears in the Rolls for the City of London Livery Companies dated that year. Oaths of allegiance were used to secure the loyalty to the sovereign and to help identify potential opponents.
(9) Some Memorials of the Hollis Family G. Hester (1895) pages 12 and 13.
(10) The hospital had an inscription "This Hospital for sixteen poor aged inhabitants of Sheffield or within two miles round it, and school for fifty children, were founded by Thomas Hollis, of London, cutler, in I703; and was further endowed by his sons, Thomas Hollis, I724, and John Hollis, I726, and rebuilt more commodiously by the Trustees, 1776.” Reminiscences of Sheffield in the Eighteenth Century (1905) R.E. Leader.
(11) The New England Historical and Genealogical Register : Genealogical Gleanings in England H F Waters volume 45 (1891) page 51. He sent a donation of £100. Memoirs of Thomas Brand-Hollis, Esq. J. Disney (1808) page 46. John Disney 1748-1816 was a Unitarian minister whose family came from Lincolnshire; he inherited the estate of Thomas Brand Hollis.
(12) Some Memorials of the Hollis Family G. Hester page 12.
(13) A History of the English Baptists J. Ivimey (1823) volume III page 377.
(14) Hallamshire : the History and Topography of the Parish of Sheffield in the County of York J. Hunter (1819) page 166 footnote 1.
(15) A History of the English Baptists J. Ivimey (1823) volume III pages 387 and 389. (page 377).
(16) See the transcription or the summary of the provisions of the Will for more details.