HOLLES, Francis (1627-90), of Winterborne St Martin, Dorset.

Francis Holles was the only surviving son of the important Presbyterian MP, Denzil Holles, and his early career was heavily influenced by his father. His formal education was disrupted by the first civil war, which broke out when he was 15, but he was granted a pass to join his mother in France in August 1645, the same month as his 18th birthday, and he travelled on the continent with his cousin John Holles (son of John Holles, 2nd earl of Clare).16Crawford, Holles, 165. Two years later his father also travelled to France, to escape prosecution as one of the Eleven Members, but in January 1648 Francis Holles was sent back to England, to take his seat in Parliament.

Holles had been elected for the Cornish constituency of Lostwithiel on 20 January 1647, alongside the leading Presbyterian (and another of the Eleven Members), Sir John Maynard*, in a contest almost certainly influenced by John 2nd Baron Robartes, who had become recorder of the borough only a few weeks before.17C219/43/43; CJ v. 4b; HMC Var. i. 335. Holles’s arrival in London in the new year of 1648 was noted by the newsbooks, with Mercurius Pragmaticus jeering ‘that you see hereafter we shall have little liberty or use of elections, the old stagers being become as good at spawning of patriots as privileges; and the commonwealth (whether she will or no) must take the young fry in adoption’.18Mercurius Pragmaticus no. 19 (13-25 Jan. 1648), sig. Tv (E.423.21). Holles certainly enjoyed good connections with his father’s political allies, and on 9 February, when he was admitted to the Middle Temple, his manucaptors (or sureties) were two MPs: Sir William Constantine* and Nicholas Lechmere*.19MTR ii. 960. Holles’s involvement in the turbulent politics of 1648 was, however, very limited. He entered the Commons on 14 January and took the Covenant on 23 February, but his only other mention in the Journal of that period was to record his absence from the call of the House on 24 April.20Perfect Occurrences no. 55 (7-21 Jan. 1648), 401 (E.520.27); CJ v. 471a, 543b.

Holles was secluded at Pride’s Purge on 6 December 1648, but he did not retire from politics thereafter.21A Vindication (1649), 28 (irregular pagination) (E.539.5). In January 1651 Viscount Lisle (Philip Sidney*) reported that the Commons were hesitant in issuing new writs to replace certain secluded MPs, whose cases were ‘received in favour’, including ‘Mr Holles the younger’.22Underdown, Pride’s Purge, 289. In local politics, Holles’s rehabilitation was proceeding apace, and he was restored to the commission of the peace in Dorset in March 1650, and to its Wiltshire counterpart in March 1653.23C231/6, pp. 176, 254.

Holles’s return as MP for Wiltshire in the first protectorate Parliament of 1654-5 indicates his continued standing among the Presbyterians of the west country. Edmund Ludlowe II* saw the Wiltshire contest as a conspiracy led by the conservative clergy, who ‘exceedingly bestirred themselves, making their party as strong as ever they could, that they might promote and carry on their Scottish interest’.24Ludlow, Mems. i. 388-9, 545. Holles certainly sided with the Presbyterian interest in the House of Commons. On 10 October he was named to a committee to consider the ordinances made by the protector since coming to power in the previous winter – legislation considered by many MPs to be illegitimate.25CJ vii. 375b. On 6 November he joined the leading Presbyterian John Bulkeley as teller in favour of putting the question that the ordinance against ‘scandalous ministers’ be suspended – a motion only narrowly defeated by the Cromwellians led by Lord Broghill (Roger Boyle) and John Disbrowe.26CJ vii. 382b. Holles’s general hostility to the regime can also be detected in his appointment to the committee on public accounts on 22 November and his co-option (on 7 Dec.) to the committee for the maintenance of ministers, chaired by another prominent Presbyterian, Lambarde Godfrey.27CJ vii. 387b, 397b. This open opposition to the protectorate limited Holles’s involvement in politics during the later 1650s, although he was appointed to the assessment commissions for Dorset and Wiltshire in June 1657.28A. and O.

Holles returned to the Commons when the secluded members were re-admitted in February 1660, and on 2 March the House made special provision that he should be added to the assessment commissions for Dorset and Wiltshire.29CJ vii. 859b. He stood for Northallerton in 1660, but was not elected, and immediately after the Restoration he was created a baronet in his own right.30CB. He returned to the House, as MP for Dorchester, in 1679, and in 1680 succeeded his father as 2nd Baron Holles. Holles died in 1690, leaving one son from his second marriage, and on the latter’s death in 1694 the barony became extinct.31HP Commons 1660-90; CP.