Reverend William Holland
(1797-1867)

Born on 13 February 1797, William Holland was the son of Reverend William Holland of South Molton in Devon.

Educated at Christ Church, Oxford (BA 1819, MA 1821), he was ordained a deacon in 1820 and a priest in 1821. In 1824 he was appointed the Rector of Cold Norton in Essex. His income for ministering to the community’s 207 inhabitants was £435 per annum, with a glebe of 42 acres.

Reverend Holland married twice. His first wife was Mary Brown, daughter of Francis Brown of Greetweel in Lincolnshire. She died, aged 37, on 19 August 1840 (Bury and Norwich Post, 26 August 1840).

In 1851 Reverend Holland was a widower living with his unmarried sister Margaret and four servants at the Rectory in Cold Norton. Also present on the night of the census was his unmarried sister-in-law Ann Brown. The clergyman gave as his profession ‘Rector of Cold Norton Essex and Justice of the Peace for Essex.’

On 29 October 1857 at St Mary’s in London’s Bryanston Square he married secondly Matilda Bullock, daughter of Reverend John Bullock.

The couple appear on the 1861 census living at Rectory House in Cold Norton with four servants, including a butler and a groom.

Reverend William Holland died, aged 70, on 1 December 1867 at Cold Norton Rectory. He left an estate valued at £35,000.