Holt's in England and Germany

Holt's in England and Germany

Holt's in England and Germany

HOLT is an ancient and respected patronymic found in many shires in England, namely Warwick, Suffolk, Cambridge, Lancaster, Oxford and Chester: it is also found in Westphalia in Germany as von HOLT.

In the beginning the name was not HOLT but de CERSUN, dun’s de NEUTON, prior to 1248. About this date Sir Richard de Newton, Knt. moved his residence to a place called HOLT, and was thereafter called Richard del Holt. His brothers and a sister were not so designated. A pedigree exists giving eight descents from the original Sir Richard to William de Holt who was living in 1485 and was in possession of the manors of Wimbaldsley and Newton. Of this line is John del Holt whom Burke refers to as John atte Holt, and who can be shown to be the ancestor of all the Holts in England. The pedigree is that of the Cheshire family which spread to other parts of England and in due course to America.

HOLTS IN THE AMERICAN COLONIES

There is historic evidence that three individuals bearing the name HOLT left England, and one departed Germany, to settle in the colonies in North America.

NICHOLAS HOLT: probably the first of the name to settle in New England is said to have come from Ramsey in Hampshire in 1635 with his wife Elizabeth. His children were Mary, Samuel, Henry, Nicholas, James, John and Priscilla. He is credited as being

one of the founders of Andover, Massachusetts and is the patriarch of one of the northern lines of HOLTS.

WILLIAM HOLT: the exact locale of his family origin in England is not known; he is said to have emigrated before 1643 with his wife Sarah, and to have settled at New Haven, Connecticut. His children were John, Nathaniel, Mercy, Eleazer, Thomas, Joseph, Benjamin and Mary. His son Nathaniel was the only one to leave a clear record. Nathaniel was a resident of New London, Connecticut when he married Rebecca Beebe in 1680. Their children were William, and Nathaniel. These constituted a second northern line of HOLTS. This William is not to be confused with William Holt, descended from Randall of Virginia.

MICHAEL HOLT: He is the emigrant from Germany and is known to have come to the Germane Colony near Curlpaper, Virginia, in 1717 and to have founded one southern line of HOLTS. Strictly speaking Germane was not an English colony but a private venture of Governor Spotswood.

RANDALL HOLT. This is the fourth HOLT who is on record as having emigrated, from England, and will be discussed at some length as the founder of a second southern line of HOLTS.

RANDALL HOLT OF JAMESTOWN

It was Randall Holt, scion of the Cheshire line who brought the name to Virginia. He was born in Prestbury Pariah in the County Palatine of Cheater in 1607. Although no record has been found pertaining to his parents, the same Parish does record that on June 9, 1566, in the District or Wythington, Randolph HOLTE married Elizabeth Potte. These could be the parents of Randall and could indicate that Randall was a blood relative of Dr. John Pott, also of Prestbury Parish, and would account for Dr. Pott's interest in bringing the thirteen year old boy to America. For it was as Dr. Pott's apprentice that Randall came to Jamestown in 1620, in the ship George; and it was with Dr. Pott that be made his home for five years. Though not recorded it is also probable that Randall received many benefits of a personal nature from his patron, which were far in excess of those due to an apprentice by law.

It is an interesting fact, but not relevant, that Dr. Pott subsequently became Governor of the Virginia Colony. It is relevant that in 1625 Randall petitioned to be freed from his apprenticeship this was accomplished in 1626, at which time Dr. Pott gave him, as required by law, " a suit of apparel from head to foot and one barrel of corn." (another account says "four barrens of corn.") However that may be it is certain that Dr. Pott gave Randall more consideration than was legally required. During his apprenticeship Randall lived in Dr. Pott's house and doubtless, through the good offices of his patron, became acquainted with a neighbor, Mary Bailey, who was the daughter and sole heiress of John Bailey, "late planter in Virginia" Randall later (1636) married Mary. She had inherited 500 acres of land on Hog Island to which Randall added 400 acres, and in 1639 another 400 making a plantation of 1300 acres, which can be authenticated. He died in 1650 leaving one son, Randall II.

Randall Holt II, son of Randall I and Mary, was born in Surry Co. Virginia in 1642. About 1661 he married Elizabeth, daughter of Colonel John Hansford and his wife Elizabeth, of York Co. Virginia. One of his wife's brothers was Col. John Hansford, a supporter of Nathaniel Bacon in Bacon's Rebellion against Governor Berkeley. The rebellion was put down and Bacon was killed in an Indian skirmish. Governor Berkeley had been forced to legalize Bacon's command, but following the latter's death the Governor took revenge on Bacon's followers John Hansford was executed with so many others that King Charles II was moved to exclaim, "The old fool" (Gov Berkeley) "has put to death more people in that naked country than I did here for the murder of my father". This indicated that, in the judgment of the King, Hansford and others were not guilty of treason as some accounts of this matter suggest.

Randall II was appointed a Justice in Surry on December 22, 1668, the only public office he held. He made his will on April 26, 1679, which was probated September 26, 1679 in Surry.

An indication that Randall Holt was loyal to the Stuart Kings was the action of one John Goring a witness to the will of Randall II. Goring, a Cavalier officer in the army of Charles I. Who had escaped to Virginia, provided in his will that if his son, Charles Goring, died before he reached the age of twenty one, his estate was to go to " William and Thomas Holt, sons of Mr. Randall Holt. His motives are not revealed. Any relationship must have been feudal since no blood relationship can be shown. The

children of Randall II and Elizabeth Holt were John, William, Thomas, Jane, Lucy and Elizabeth.

William Holt I, the second son of Randall II and Elizabeth (Hansford) Holt is the one relevant to the line being documented. He was born in Surry Co. Virginia in 1665. He married Elizabeth, the daughter of William Seward about 1669. William Holt lived until 1725: his will was probated in Surry Co, in 1726: The children of William and Elizabeth were William II, Charles, Thomas, Tappahanes, Elizabeth, Anne and Mary.

In his will William I practically ignored his son William II to whom he gave "My trooper's arms" But to his third son Thomas, he gave "all my land on the south side of the Nottaway River, where he now lives". The remainder of the estate was to be divided equally. Elizabeth Holt's will took care of Tappahanes, Anne, Mary and Charles. Her will was probated in 1735.

Thomas Holt, son of William Holt II, who is next in this line, was born about 1700. From his father he inherited some 300 acres of land on the Nottaway River, which lies in Southampton Co., and it becomes apparent at this point that this line of the Holt family had left Surry Co. Although the Inventory of his estate was filed in Surry in 1775. Thomas lived until 1788. He had married Anne Newsom about 1725: the Children were Charles, Thomas II, Jesse, Amy, Sarah, and Frederick.

Next in this line is Thomas Holt II son of Thomas Holt I. He was born between 1726 and 1729 probably on the plantation willed to his father by William Holt: land on the Nottaway River In Southampton County.

On August 9, 1750 Thomas I sold to Thomas II this same plantation for 10 Ibs and about the same time Thomas married Anne Arrington, daughter of John Arrington. The land, given by his father in 1750, he sold in 1771. His father had willed him the home place and on April 10, 1789 "Thomas Holt and Anne, his wife, of the County of Halifax, State of North Carolina, sold this plantation to Ethelred Taylor of Southampton County, Virginia."

It was Thomas II Holt who migrated from Virginia to North Carolina. The transition was not too difficult since Southampton Co Va. almost adjoins Halifax Co. North Carolina. It is not so recorded but the business in which Thomas II was engaged may have been a factor in bringing about the change. During the Revolutionary war he sold provisions to the Continental Army, and presumably had given up farming as a way of life and had added merchandising to his other endeavors. The children of Thomas II Holt and Anne Arrington Holt were Joseph, Rebecca, Thomas III, James, Arrington, Patience and William III.

The fifth generation from Randall Holt of Jamestown, in this line now under

discussion was James Holt, the third son of Thomas II Holt. He was born in Halifax

County North Carolina about 1755; there he lived until sometime in the early 1800's

when he took his family across the mountains into Tennessee and settled in Wilson County near the town of Lebanon. A deed, still extant, shows that in addition to other land, James Holt also owned a tract of land in Montgomery County, Tenn., which he purchased from William Sullivant on September 29, 1807. It consisted of "194 acres on the east side of the Middle prong of Barton's Creek" for which he paid 388 silver dollars. James Holt married Lydia Read, daughter of Moses Read and his wife of Halifax Co N. Carolina. The children were Jesse, 1780; Laban 1782, Mary 1784; Sarah 1786; Anna 1790, Elizabeth 1792 and Margaret 1794. James died in Tennessee in 1837.

This completes the line of descent from the original emigrant from England, Randall Holt I, to James Holt. This line can be carried on from three children of James Holt up to 1971; namely from Jesse. Laban and Lydia.

DESCENT FROM JESSE HOLT

Jesse, the eldest son of James and Lydia Read Holt, was born in Halifax Co. N. C. about 1780. In 1804, when his father moved the family to Wilson Co Tennessee, Jesse was about 24 years old, had married Elizabeth Davis, and a son, James, had been born. Jesse's other children, Nancy, Isham, Jesse Washington, Laban (not to be confused with Jesse's brother Laban) and Elijah, were all born in Wilson Co. About 1819 his first wife, Elizabeth Davis, died: he then married Lucretia Crossland and had nine more children. Besides this he served in the War of 1812. His permanent home was in Wilson Co.; he made his will there and died there around 1844. Two of his sons did leave home. The oldest, James, joined the Mormon movement, and after many arduous experiences following the death of Joseph Smith, he went to Utah and established himself as a rancher in what was called Holt's Canyon. An exhaustive account of his adventures is found in "The Reminiscences of James Holt, a Narrative of the Emmett Company."

Jesse Holt's fourth son, Laban, born in 1814, also left Wilson Co. and is listed in the 1840 census of Bedford Co. Tenn., whence he went to Attalla Co. Mississippi. There he married Zerelda Scott Robinson, a widow with two children. Subsequently La¬ban and Zerelda had five more, among them John Jesse Holt.

The story of Zerelda Scott Robinson Holt is both interesting and romantic. She

was born in Kentucky in 1815, the daughter of an aristocratic Virginia planter who went

to Kentucky in the early days. At the age of sixteen she ran away from school and eloped with Mr. Robinson. After being married by a Baptist minister the couple rode south across Kentucky and Tennessee into the Territory of Mississippi. A day's journey on horseback was about forty miles, so it must have taken at least ten days to reach their destination called Red Bud Springs, now Kosciusko.

The route followed by the Robinson's is not recorded. It is certain that there were no roads, few white settlements, and no inns. The only stops available for refreshment and rest were Indian villages and it was in these they spent the nights. This suggests that Mr. Robinson must have been an expert at Indian affairs or that Indians were less hostile than the history books would have us believe.

John Jesse Holt was born in Attalla Co. Mississippi in 1844. He married Julia Ann Pander. Five children were born, Including Laban Chappell.

Laban Chappell Holt was born in 1872 in Attalla Go. He married first Maul Mirah Jackson. There were three children, William Sanford Holt, James Carson Holt, and Maudie Leo Holt. He married three times more, the latest wife being Ludie Mae Gregg, and from this marriage their six children.

It Is Maudie Leo Holt Rickbourg Black, a great great grand daughter of Jesse Holt who supplied most of the data on which this history is based.

PEDIGKEE from JAMES HOLT

1775 James Holt

1780 Jesse Holt

1814 Laban Holt

1844 John Jesse Holt

1872 Laban Chappelle Holt

1901 Maudie Leo R. Black

Lydia Read

Elizabeth Davis

Zerelda Robinson

Julia Ann Pender

Maud M. Jackson