"The earliest mention of an undoubted member of the house of Holland occurs in a Final Concord made at the Lancaster Assizes, dated 5th November 1202.* In this, Uhtred de Chyrche, who seems to have had some claim or right in the manor of Upholland, in consideration of the sum of six marks of silver, releases his right in fourteen oxgangs of land in Upholland in favour of Matthew de Holland.

"Fourteen oxgangs' of land meant about 210 acres of arable land, and the possession of this arable land carried with it certain rights to pasturage and meadowing, so that the release referred to represents the transfer of a considerable parcel of land, subject, of course, to the fulfilment of certain specified services to the overlord, which were done instead of a payment of rent in money.

"Matthew de Holland we find still living in 1212, when, in the Inquisitio Comitatus Lancastrian^ we are told that Henry de Melling holds four teamlands of the King in thanage and pays twenty-two shillings, of which Matthew and Alan hold two teamlands in fee-farm for twelve shillings." A teamland was about 120 acres of arable. ... Some years later than this a claim to two teamlands in Upholland was released by Simon de Halsall in consideration of five marks of silver paid to him by Robert de Holland . This was confirmed by a fine levied at Westminster 29th October 1224.*

"Thus between the dates 1212 and 1224 Matthew must have died and been succeeded by Robert, in all probability his son and heir; for though the relationship between these two does not appear on record, still, as Robert de Holland held the manor of Upholland in the latter year, he clearly held it by inheritance, and was therefore almost certainly Matthew's son and heir."[2]


forgottenbooks.com p.2 p.3 THE LANCASHIRE HOLLANDS of Hollands, but unrelated to those of Lancashire.^ Down to the fifteenth century the name was always spelt Holand , and its bearers were called John de Holand, Thomas de Holand, "c., but in this book the later spelling has, as a rule, been used throughout.

The manor of Upholland appears in Domesday Book as ' Holland,' and was in the possession of ' Steinulf ' in the days of Edward the Confessor. The Hollands appear in the reign of John as donors to Cockersand Abbey, but their name is first mentioned in connection with this manor in a ' final concord ' made at the Lancaster Assizes dated November 5, 1202.^ In this deed Uhctred de Chyrche releases his right in fourteen oxgangs of land in Upholland to Matthew de Holland. This would mean about 210 acres of arable land together with rights of meadowing and pasturage, perhaps the manor as a whole, under this form. Two later deeds show that between 1212 and 1224 Matthew de Holland died and was succeeded by his son Robert. Robert de Holland was still alive in 1241. In that year he and his son Thurstan were in prison on the charge of having set fire to a house belonging to the Rector of Wigan and occupied by John Mansel. The Sheriff, however, was directed to release them on bail. Thurstan did not appear on the day appointed for trial, ' but Robert came and defended his whole action and put himself for good or evil upon the country, to wit, upon twelve knights above suspicion and ^ The record of these Lincolnshire Hollands, who owned Estovening Manor in the parish of Swineshead, begins with an Otho Holland before the Conquest, and continued in that region down to the end of the sixteenth century. One of them, Sir Thomas Holland, te7np. Henry VI, ' spent his life in the Holy Land and came home but every seventh year.' No wonder, for he was married to Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Piers Tempest, whom men called ' the Dovilish Dame.' One would like to know more about this couple, who would have been a good subject for au

Ingoldsby Legend.' " In the Cockersand Chartulary, published by the Chetham Society, are printed two deeds of grant of land in Upholland to the then new Abbey, one by Matthew de Holland, the second by his son Robert.
HOLLANDS OF UPHOLLAND four vills of the neighbourhood of Wigan.'

A day was given him by the Justices at the next Assizes, and the Sheriff was directed in the meantime to ' let him have peace, and in no wise to trouble him or permit him to be troubled.' Thurstan appeared before the Justices on July 23, but no prosecutor attended the Court. The Justices asked Thurstan ' how he would acquit himself concerning the fire if any one would speak against him,' and he too claimed trial by jury, and was given a day at the Assizes. It does not appear what further happened in this case.

In 1242-3 Thurstan had probably succeeded to his father, for he represented the family in an inquiry then held to ascertain the knights' fees in that ' Hundred ' chargeable to the Gascon Scutage. Robert de Holland had other sons besides Thurstan : Adam, the ancestor of the Hollands of Euxton ; Richard, from whom came the Hollands of Sutton; Matthew, Robert, Roger, and William. In 1268 Thurstan Holland, with his brothers Matthew, Richard, Robert and William, and Thurstan's own son Robert, were all summoned to answer a charge of trespass.

Thurstan de Holland first married the daughter of Adam de Kellet, through whom the Hollands acquired manors in north Lancashire, as Lonsdale, Furness, and Cartmel. By this wife he had five sons, Robert, William, Richard, Roger, Adam, and a daughter, Margaret. Thurstan next married Juliana, a daughter of John Gellibrand, and had four more sons, Thurstan, Adam, Elias, and Simon. He married thirdly a daughter of Henry de Hale, an illegitimate son of Richard de Meath, Lord of Hale. An old Norman French petition from the ' loyal tenants of Hale ' states that as Henry de Hale lay dying ' came one Thurstan de Holland, who had married the daughter of the said Henry and as he lay at the point of death [come il launguist a la mort] his memory lost, the said Thurstan took the said


APA: Holland, Bernard Henry. . pp. 2-3. The Lancashire Hollands. London: Forgotten Books.

MLA: Holland, Bernard Henry. The Lancashire Hollands. 1917. Reprint. London: Forgotten Books, 2013. 2-3. Print.

↑ A history of the family of Holland of Mobberley and Knutsford in the country of Chester, p. 3 footnote. For more on the family of Alan de Lydiate , see A History of the County of Lancaster, Vol. 3.
↑ A history of the family of Holland of Mobberley and Knutsford in the country of Chester, pp. 3-4