HOLLES, Denzil (1675-94)

Denzell Holles was the only surviving son, and indeed only surviving child, of Francis Holles, 2nd Baron Holles. He died while still a minor of pleurisy, and at his death the barony of Holles became extinct. His estate, estimated to be worth £5,000-6,000, passed to his closest male Holles relation, his 2nd cousin John Holles, 4th earl of Clare (later duke of Newcastle). Verney ms mic. 636/47, J. to Sir R. Verney, 26 Jan. 1694. When Clare inherited the estate, with its lands in Sussex, Surrey, Hertfordshire, Kent, Wiltshire, Dorset and Yorkshire, it was encumbered with a debt of over £40,000, including interest. The income was calculated at £6,000 p.a. but at least half of the lands were mortgaged as well. P. Crawford, Denzil Holles, 1598-1680, p. 226; Renaissance and Modern Studies, ix. 26-27; PA, HL/PO/JO/10/1/448. In February 1697, the duke of Newcastle (as Clare had become), pushed through Parliament an ‘Act for the speedy satisfaction of the debts of Francis, Lord Holles’, which effectively allowed him to set aside the detailed charges placed on the estate in the 2nd baron’s will and devote the entirety of the income and sales of the Holles estate to clearing his debts. UNL, NeD 91. However, as late as 1715, when the estate had passed to Thomas Pelham Holles, duke of Newcastle, creditors were still petitioning Parliament for the satisfaction of their claims on the estate. UNL, NeD 570; HMC Lords, n.s. xii. 231.