{{Short description|Lord Chief Justice of England 1689-1710}} {{Use British English|date=August 2011}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}} {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = [[The Right Honourable]] | name = Sir John Holt | image = Sir John Holt by Richard Van Bleeck.jpg | image_size = | caption = Portrait by [[Richard van Bleeck]], {{circa}} 1700 | nationality = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1642|12|23|df=yes}} | birth_place = [[Abingdon-on-Thames]] | death_date = {{Death date and age|1710|3|5|1642|12|23|df=yes}} | death_place = [[London]] }} [[File:St Mary's church in Redgrave - C18 monument - geograph.org.uk - 2049288.jpg|thumb|Monument to Sir John Holt in Redgrave Church, Suffolk]] '''Sir John Holt''' (23 December 1642 – 5 March 1710) was an English lawyer who served as [[Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales|Lord Chief Justice of England]] from 17 April 1689 to his death. He is frequently credited with playing a major role in ending the [[Witch trials in England|prosecution of witches]] in English law.
==Biography== Holt was born in [[Abingdon, Oxfordshire|Abingdon]] in Berkshire (now [[Oxfordshire]]), the son of Sir [[Thomas Holt (Serjeant-at-Law)|Thomas Holt]], MP for that town, and his wife, Susan, the daughter of John Peacock of [[Chieveley]], also in Berkshire. He was educated at [[John Roysse]]'s [[Free school (England)|Free School]] in Abingdon (now [[Abingdon School]]) from 1652 to 1658,<ref>{{cite book|last=Preston|first=Arthur Edwin|title=St.Nicholas Abingdon and Other Papers, pre isbn|year=1929|publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Hinde/St John Parker|first=Thomas/Michael|title=The Martlet and the Griffen|year=1977|publisher=James and James Publishers Ltd|isbn=0-907-383-777}}</ref> [[Gray's Inn]] and [[Oriel College, Oxford]].
He purchased [[Redgrave, Suffolk|Redgrave Manor]] in Suffolk, which had been the seat of the [[Bacon baronets|Bacon family]] in 1702, when debts forced the fifth baronet, [[Sir Robert Bacon, 5th Baronet|Sir Robert Bacon]], to sell the estate. A letter in the [[Bodleian Library]] reads: "The celebrated Dr Radcliffe, the physician ... took special pains to preserve the life of LCJ Holt's wife, whom he attended out of spite to her husband, who wished her dead." Sir John Holt's sister Susan was married to [[Francis Levett (merchant)|Francis Levett]], Esq., tobacco merchant and brother of Sir [[Richard Levett]], [[Lord Mayor of London]].<ref>Holt named his two Levett nephews, Richard and John, in his 1708 will.</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=ozMEAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA337 Pedigree of Sir John Holt, LeNeve's Pedigrees of the Knights Made by King Charles II, Peter LeNeve, George Marshall, 1873].</ref>
Holt's father, Sir Thomas Holt, possessed a small patrimonial estate, but in order to supplement his income had adopted the profession of law, in which he was not very successful, although he was appointed [[serjeant-at-law]] in 1677, and afterwards for his political services to the [[Tories (British political party)|Tories]] was rewarded with a [[knighthood]]. Sir Thomas Holt's father was Rowland Holt (d. 1634 according to the [[Berkshire]] [[herald's visitation]] of 1664–66), who was probably identical to the merchant Rowland Holt who was murdered by muggers in [[Clerkenwell]] Fields in January 1635 (1634 [[Old Style|OS]]). The crime was particularly notorious in the ballads and broadsheets of the time.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=mh2oAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Rowland+holt%22&pg=PA431 ''A Pepysian garland: black-letter broadside ballads of the years 1595–1639''], Samuel Pepys and [[Hyder Edward Rollins]], Cambridge University Press, 1922, p. 431.</ref>
After attending for some years the free school of the town of [[Abingdon, Oxfordshire|Abingdon]], of which his father was [[Recorder (judge)|recorder]], young Holt in his sixteenth year entered [[Oriel College, Oxford]]. He is said to have spent a very dissipated youth, and even to have been in the habit of taking purses on the highway,<ref>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle= Holt, Sir John |volume= 13 |page= 619 |short=1}}</ref> but after entering Gray's Inn about 1660 he applied himself with exemplary diligence to the study of law. He was [[called to the bar]] in 1663. A supporter of civil and religious liberty, he distinguished himself in [[state trials]] by the manner in which he supported the pleas of the defendants.
In 1675 he married Ann Cropley, a daughter of [[Cropley baronets|Sir John Cropley, 1st Baronet]], of Clerkenwell, Middlesex, but the marriage was without issue.<ref>HOLT, Sir John (1642-1710), of Bedford Row, Mdx. and Redgrave, Suff. Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983 [https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1660-1690/member/holt-sir-john-1642-1710].</ref>
In 1685–1686 Holt was appointed [[recorder of London]], and about the same time he was made king's serjeant and received the honour of knighthood. His giving a decision adverse to the pretensions of the king to exercise [[Martial Law|martial law]] in time of peace led to his dismissal from the office of recorder, but he was continued in the office of king's serjeant in order to prevent him from becoming [[counsel]] for accused persons. Having been one of the judges who acted as assessors to the peers in the Convention parliament, he took a leading part in arranging the constitutional change by which [[William III of England|William III]] was called to the throne, and after his accession he was appointed Lord Chief Justice of the [[Court of King's Bench (England)|King's Bench]]. He is best known for the firmness with which he upheld his own prerogatives in opposition to the authority of the [[Houses of Parliament]]. While in sympathy with the [[Whig (British political faction)|Whig party]], Holt maintained on the bench political impartiality, and held himself aloof from political intrigue.
On the retirement of [[John Somers, 1st Baron Somers|Somers]] from the office of [[Lord Chancellor]] in 1700 Holt was offered the office, but declined it.
He died in London on 5 March 1710 and was buried in the [[chancel]] of [[St Mary's Church, Redgrave|Redgrave church]]. His magnificent monument was sculpted by [[Thomas Green (sculptor)|Thomas Green]].<ref>Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851 by Rupert Gunnis p. 179.</ref>
==Witchcraft trials== Historian John Callow argues in his 2022 book, ''The Last Witches of England'', that sceptical judges, especially Holt, had already largely stopped convictions for [[witchcraft]] under English law even before the [[Witchcraft Act 1735]] finally concluded such prosecutions. Callow particularly credits Holt with great courage in doing so in the face of religious pressure, mob violence, and popular [[Superstition|superstitious belief]] in witchcraft.<ref>{{cite book|last=Callow|first=John|title=The Last Witches of England: A Tragedy of Sorcery and Superstition|date=2022|chapter=Chapter 8, The politics of death, and Chapter 9, Disenchantment|publisher=Bloomsbury Academic|isbn=978-1-7883-1439-8}}</ref> [[Wallace Notestein]] was of the same opinion, that by "the decisions of Powell and Parker, and most of all by those of Holt, the statute of the first year of James I was practically made obsolete twenty-five or fifty years before its actual repeal in 1736".<ref name="WN" />{{rp|p=314}} For Notestein, "Holt did more than any other man in English history to end the prosecution of witches".<ref name="WN">{{cite book |last1=Notestein |first1=Wallace |title=A History of Witchcraft in England from 1558 to 1718 |date=1911 |publisher=The American historical association |url=https://archive.org/details/ahistorywitchcr00notegoog |access-date=21 December 2023 |language=English}}</ref>{{rp|p=320}}
According to Callow, judges like Holt found "creative and practical ways around the statute book in order to prevent the execution of witches", with Holt "skilfully combining directions to jurymen that permitted religious faith and even the law's acceptance of the validity of witchbelief with measures to seek acquittals through the raising of questions of reasonable doubt and the unmasking of fraudulent cases of possession".<ref name="JC">{{cite book |last1=Callow |first1=John |title=The last witches of England: a tragedy of sorcery and superstition |date=2022 |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |location=London |isbn=978-1-7883-1439-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LiNLEAAAQBAJ&pg=PP1 |access-date=21 December 2023}}</ref>{{rp|pp=209–210}} At the end of one trial, that of Sarah Moordike, accused of witchcraft by Richard Hathaway, Holt ruled that Moordike's fees should be paid by Hathaway and that he should be arrested and imprisoned on charges of perjury for bringing false accusations about Moordike and for pretending to be bewitched. Hathaway was convicted at his own trial and, according to Callow, "the two trials of July 1701 and March 1702 registered highly significant verdicts in the history of witch persecution as they registered, respectively, not just the acquittal of an accused witch but the prosecution and punishment of her persecutor as a deterrent to others who might have been tempted to levy similar charges in the future".<ref name="JC" />{{rp|pp=236–239}}
[[George Lyman Kittredge]] wrote Holt "has a highly honorable name in the annals of English witchcraft" because all of the dozen to twenty trials he presided over resulted in acquittal.<ref name="GLK">{{cite book |last1=Kittredge |first1=George Lyman |title=Witchcraft in Old and New England |date=1929 |publisher=Harvard University Press |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |page=365 |url=https://archive.org/details/witchcraftinoldn00kitt_0 |access-date=21 December 2023}}</ref>{{rp|p=365}} Contemporary with Holt, [[Lancelot Blackburne]], [[Archdeacon of Cornwall]], somewhat disturbed by Holt's actions in a trial, wrote to the [[Bishop of Exeter]]<ref name="JB">{{cite book |last1=Barry |first1=Jonathan |title=Witchcraft and Demonology in South-West England, 1640–1789 |date=2012 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |isbn=978-0-230-36138-6 |pages=103–123 |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230361386_4 |language=en |chapter=The Politics of Pandaemonium|doi=10.1057/9780230361386_4 }}</ref> that the "Lord Chief Justice by his questions and manner of summing up the Evidence seem'd to me to believe nothing of witchery at all".<ref name="GLK" />{{rp|p=364}} Jonathan Barry, Professor of History at the [[University of Exeter]], wrote that Holt, along with other sceptics like [[Francis Hutchinson]] and [[Francis North, 1st Baron Guilford|Francis North]], "clearly regarded the witchcraft statute, and the uses to which it could be put by factious politicians feeding on the passions of the people, as the real danger to the establishment in state and church".<ref name="JB" />
==Cases== {{main|List of Sir John Holt's cases}} *''[[Crosse v Gardner]]'' (1689) Cart. 90, Lord Holt CJ held that 'An affirmation at the time of a sale is a warranty, provided it appears on evidence to be so intended.' *[[Robert Charnock]] *[[Thomas Vaughan (pirate)|The tryal and condemnation of Capt. Thomas Vaughan for high treason]] (1696) *''[[Slavery at Common Law#Butts v. Penny and defining people as property|Harvey v. Chamberlain]]'' (1696) (antagonism to slavery) *''[[Turberville v Stampe]]'' (1697) 91 ER 1072 (nuisance and vicarious liability) *''[[Medina v Staughton]]'' (1699) 1 Salk. 210, again on affirmations and warranties. *''[[Moordike v Hathaway]]'' (1701) and ''[[King v Hathaway]]'' (1702) *''[[Rose case]]'' (1701–1703)<ref name=":Elmer2004">{{Cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vPpvlIrVSMkC&q=william+rose+apothecary&pg=PA347|title=Health, Disease and Society in Europe, 1500-1800: A Sourcebook|last1=Elmer|first1=Peter|last2=Grell|first2=Ole Peter|date=2004|publisher=[[Manchester University Press]]|isbn=9780719067372|pages=347|language=en|chapter=131. Challenging the physicians monopoly in London; The Rose Case of 1704}}</ref> *''[[Coggs v Bernard]]'' (1703) 2 Ld Raym 909 (bailment) *''[[Ashby v White]]'' (1703) 2 Ld Raym 938 (the right to vote) *''[[Cole v Turner]]'' (1704) 87 ER 907 (definition of battery) *''[https://deedpolloffice.com/change-name/law/case-law/Walden-v-Holman-1704 Walden v Holman (1704) 6 Mod 115, Ld Raym. 1015, 1 Salk. 6]'' ([[abatement in pleading|pleading in abatement]]; the legal name of a person) *''[[Cockcroft v Smith]]'' (1705) 11 Mod 43, self-defence *''[[Smith v Gould]]'' (1705–07) 2 Salk 666 (antagonism to slavery), but see 91 ER 566 *''[[Keeble v Hickeringill]]'' (1707) 11 East 574, Holt 19 (interference with property rights, "the duck pond case")
==See also== * [[List of Old Abingdonians]]
==References== {{reflist|30em}} Reports of Cases determined by Sir John Holt (1681–1710) appeared at London in 1738; ''John Paty and others'', printed from original MSS., at London (1837). See Burnet's ''Own Times; Tatter,'' No. xiv.; a ''Life,'' published in 1764; Welsby, ''Lives of Eminent English Judges of the 17th and 18th Centuries'' (1846); Campbell's ''Lives of the Lord Chief Justices;'' and Foss, ''Lives of the Judges''.
==External links== {{wikiquote}} * [https://books.google.com/books?id=7nRbAAAAQAAJ&dq=%22richard+levett%22&pg=PA121 Will of Sir John Holt, The Life of the Right Honourable Sir John Holt, Knight, Lord Chief justice of the Court of King's-Bench, J. R. (A Gentleman of the Inner Temple), Printed for the Author and Sold by J. Worrall, 1764] * [http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/redgravehistory/holt/johnholt.htm Sir John Holt (1642–1710): a biographical sketch, with especial reference to his witchcraft trials] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180704220348/http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/redgravehistory/holt/johnholt.htm |date=4 July 2018 }} * [https://archive.org/details/liveseminenteng00welsgoog/page/n103 <!-- pg=90 quote=life of sir john holt. --> Sir John Holt, in: Welsby, W.N. (ed): Lives of eminent English judges of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (London, 1846)]
{{s-start}} {{s-par|en}} {{succession box | title=Member of Parliament for [[Bere Alston (UK Parliament constituency)|Bere Alston]] | with = [[Sir John Elwill, 1st Baronet|John Elwill]] | before=[[John Maynard (1604–1690)|Sir John Maynard]]<br />[[Sir John Elwill, 1st Baronet|John Elwill]] | after=[[Sir John Elwill, 1st Baronet|John Elwill]]<br />[[John Trevor (speaker)|Sir John Trevor]] | years=1689 }} {{s-legal}} {{succession box | title=[[Lord Chief Justice]] | before=[[Robert Wright (judge)|Sir Robert Wright]] | after=[[John Parker, 1st Earl of Macclesfield|Sir John Parker]] | years=1689–1710 }} {{s-end}}
{{House of Stuart Lord Chancellors}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Holt, John}} [[Category:1642 births]] [[Category:1710 deaths]] [[Category:Alumni of Oriel College, Oxford]] [[Category:18th-century English judges]] [[Category:Lord chief justices of England and Wales]] [[Category:English MPs 1689–1690]] [[Category:People educated at Abingdon School]] [[Category:People from Abingdon-on-Thames]] [[Category:People from Redgrave, Suffolk]] [[Category:Members of Gray's Inn]] [[Category:Members of the Parliament of England (pre-1707) for Bere Alston]] [[Category:17th-century English judges]] [[Category:Members of the Privy Council of England]]