John Smith's Family Tree Website

Holland family

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Part 1: Richard Holland (c1773 - 1855)

The earliest known Holland was Richard Holland. He was born c1773 in Shobdon, Hertfordshire, England. Little is known about his early life. It is most likely he married Mary Hill 14 April 1804 in Lyonshall, a couple of miles south-west of Shobdon. Mary probably died before 1841 and there is no confirmed record of her except on four of her five children’s baptism records.

Richard most likely spent his working life as an agricultural labourer as that was what he was recorded as on the 1841 census when he was living with his daughter Ann’s family in Pembridge. He was able to work and contribute to the family’s finances but by 1851 he was declared a ‘pauper’ and would have been reliant on his daughter and son-in-law to look after him. The alternative was the workhouse. He died in 1855, aged about 82.

Children of Richard and Mary

Richard (c1804 - 1881) was baptised 04 November 1804 in Lyonshall. He married Ann Stanbury (c1795 - c1871) 02 February 1828 at St Nicholas’ Church, Hereford. Ann was about ten years older than Richard and there is no indication whether she had previously been married. It is most likely she was born in Shropshire but gave both Ludlow and Stoke as her birthplace on different census records. Richard worked at different times as a joiner or a carpenter (one census record listed him as both). The difference between the two occupations was a joiner was considered more skilled and would join wood together in a workshop environment, rather than build on site like a carpenter.

Richard and Ann had no children. In 1841 they were living in Hope Under Dinmore, partway between Hereford and Leominster. They later moved to Leominster. Richard was absent from home for the 1851 census. He was at King’s Acre, Breinton, a couple of miles west of Hereford. He was living with two other married carpenters of a similar age so it is possible they were working together on a job. Ann died c1871, aged 76. Richard’s niece Fanny and her husband later came to live with him and he died in 1881, aged 76.

Mary (c1808 - ?) was baptised 14 February 1808 in Lyonshall. There is a record of a Mary Holland living with her ‘brother-in-law’ [sic] Samuel in 1851 as a servant but nothing else is known about her life.

Betty (c1811 - ?) was baptised 20 June 1811 in Pembridge. Nothing else is known about her life.

More information about Ann (c1812 - 1875) appears in Part 2.

Samuel (c1815 - 1889) was born in Pembridge c1815. No baptism record has been found to confirm his parentage but it is most likely he was part of the same Holland family as there were no others known to be in Pembridge at the time. He moved to Birmingham and worked as an engine smith (making and repairing engines) and later a blacksmith and shoeing smith. He married Sarah Taylor (c1816 - 1886) 15 November 1836 at St Peter and St Paul Church, Aston.

Samuel and Sarah had four children but sadly only one lived to be an adult: Catherine (1838 - c1843), Henry (1839 - 1847), Mary Elizabeth (c1850 - 1851) and Richard Sam (1855 - 1933). The family lived in Warwick for a time and then returned to Aston, Birmingham where they lived the rest of their life. They took in some of their young relatives: Sarah’s dressmaker niece Sarah Emma Round (who had been baptised the same day as her cousin Richard) and Samuel’s great-nephew Arthur Higgins who was a shoe smith. Sarah died in 1886, aged 65, and was buried 15 March at St Saviour’s Church, Saltley, in burial plot 262W. After Sarah’s death it seems Samuel moved in with his son Richard. He died aged about 74 and was buried with his wife 09 January 1889.

Next: Ann Holland

Footnotes

[1] Source: Dictionary of American Family Names (Oxford University Press: 2013) (https://www.ancestry.com.au/name-origin?surname=holland)