baronet 27 June 1660, died 1 March 1690. The peerage became extinct with the death of Denzil, third lord Holles, 25 Jan. 1693–4 (Collins, p. 162).
In addition to the published speeches already mentioned, Holles was the author of many pamphlets, most of them anonymous. 1. ‘The Grand Question concerning the Judicature of the House of Peers Stated and Argued,’ 8vo, 1669 (Halkett and Laing, Dict. of Anonymous and Pseudonymous Literature, p. 1042). 2. ‘A True Relation of the Unjust Accusation of certain French Gentlemen, published by Denzil, Lord Holles,’ 4to, 1671; an account of the endeavours of Holles to save some Frenchmen accused of highway robbery, and of his consequent quarrel with Chief-justice Keeling (see Journals of the House of Lords, xii. 440, 444, 452). 3. ‘The Long Parliament Dissolved,’ 4to, 1676 (Halkett and Laing, p. 1509). ‘Some Considerations upon the Question whether the Parliament is Dissolved by its Prorogation for Fifteen Months,’ 4to, 1676, which is also attributed to Holles by Halkett and Laing (p. 2423), is probably the same pamphlet with a different title. 4. ‘A Letter to Monsieur Van B[euninghen] de M——, at Amsterdam, written Anno 1676, by Denzil, Lord Holles,’ 4to, n. d.; reprinted in ‘Somers Tracts,’ viii. 32, ed. Scott. 5. ‘The Case Stated touching the Judicature of the House of Lords in Point of Impositions,’ 8vo, 1676. 6. ‘A Letter of a Gentleman to his Friend, showing that Bishops ought not to be Judges in Parliament in Cases Capital,’ 8vo, 1679. 7. ‘Lord Holles his Remains, being a Second Letter to a Friend concerning the Judicature of the Bishops in Parliament, in the Vindication of what he Wrote in his First, &c. It contains likewise part of his intended Answer to a second Tractate, entitled “The Grand Question touching the Bishops' Right in Parliament Stated and Argued,”’ 8vo, 1682. On this controversy see Burnet's ‘Own Time,’ ii. 214–19, and Oldmixon, p. 632. 8. ‘Memoirs of Denzil, Lord Holles, from the Year 1641 to 1648,’ 8vo, 1699. This was written in the winter of 1647–8. The dedication is dated, ‘at St. Mère Eglide in Normandy, this 14th of February 1648.’ The book is in part a vindication of his own conduct, especially during 1647, but mainly an attack on Cromwell, the army, and the independents. It is violent, prejudiced, and generally untrustworthy. Walpole criticises it with great justice (Royal and Noble Authors, ed. Park, iii. 223). It is reprinted in Baron Maseres's ‘Select Tracts relating to the Civil Wars in England,’ 1815.
[Authorities cited in the text; Collins's Historical Collections of the Noble Families of Cavendish, Holles, &c., 1752, pp. 100–62; Guizot's Portraits politiques des Hommes des différents partis, 1852, translated by A. R. Scoble, under the title of Monk's Contemporaries, 1851.]
HOLLES, Sir FRESCHEVILLE (1641–1672), captain in the navy, only surviving son of Gervase Holles [q. v.], antiquary, probably served as a volunteer in the naval campaign of 1665, but his first commission was as captain of the Antelope in 1666. He is said by Charnock to have lost an arm in the four days' fight off the North Foreland, 1–4 June; but this seems improbable, for he is described by Pepys (24 March 1667–8) as playing the bagpipes ‘beyond anything of that kind that ever I heard in my life, and with great pains he must have obtained it.’ He was, at any rate, able to command the Henrietta, a third rate, in the action of 25 July 1666, previous to which he had been knighted (State Papers, Dom., Charles II, clxiv. 124). In 1667 he was captain of the Cambridge at Portsmouth, but was employed by a special commission in command of the fireships for the protection of the Thames in June (Cal. State Papers, Dom., freq.; Pepys, 10 June). At this time he must have piqued Pepys's vanity, for the many entries concerning him in the ‘Diary’ are all abusive. According to these the men brought up from the Cambridge were ‘the most debauched, damning, swearing rogues that ever were in the navy,’ worthy of their commander, who was profane (14 June), useless (25 June), a coward (9 Aug.), a liar (28 Sept.), and as ‘idle and insignificant a fellow as ever came into the fleet’ (18 Feb. 1667–8).
After the peace with the Dutch, Holles appears to have held a commission in the land service, and (24 March 1667–8) while on guard entertained Pepys in a handsome room, with drink and the bagpipes, a ‘mighty barbarous music.’ In 1667 he was returned to parliament for Grimsby as his father's colleague. In 1672 he commanded the Cambridge in the squadron under Sir Robert Holmes [q. v.], which attacked the Dutch Smyrna fleet on its passage up Channel (13 March); and when Holmes's ship, the St. Michael, was disabled, he went on board the Cambridge. Holles fell in the battle of Solebay, 28 May, and was buried in St. Edmund's Chapel in Westminster Abbey (Nichols, Collect. vii. 376).
In 1662, being then ‘a bachelor,’ aged 21, he married Jane, daughter of Mr. Richard Lewis of Marr in Yorkshire, and widow of Mr. Crome, described as of St. Gabriel, Fenchurch, aged 30 (Chester, London Marriage Licenses, 24 Nov. 1662). By his will,
