ton, near Haddenham in Buckinghamshire. He was educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford, and in 1512 became a fellow of New College. He graduated B.C.L. 1514, M.A. 1518, and B.D. 1526. He left his college about 1526, and became rector of Colerne, but for the sake of books and literary society settled in Exeter College, Oxford. Where he remained until he became a monk in St. Mary’s Abbey, Reading. There he soon acquired a great reputation for learning and sanctity. In 1530, by desire of Hugh Farindon, the abbot [q. v.], he applied to be excused from preaching at Oxford on taking his D.D. degree, in order that he might preach against the Lutheran heresy at St. Paul’s Cross (Wood, University of Oxford, ed. Gutch, ii. 32). In 1531 he proceeded D.D. He opposed the divorce of Henry VIII from Queen Catherine, advocating the validity of their marriage by writing and preaching (cf. Letters &c. of Henry VIII, vii. 38). He was obliged in consequence to remove to Handborough, near Woodstock, of which he appears to have been rector, In 1535 his abbey was dissolved, and for several years he lived in retirement, partly at Handborough and partly in Exeter College. He became vicar of Wing, Buckinghamshire, 3 May 1546.
On Mary’s accession Holyman was promoted to the bishopric of Bristol, and was consecrated in London on 18 Nov. 1554. In the Bristol Museum and Library are official manuscript copies (made in April 1823) of the original papal letters appointing Holyman to the bishopric (Nicholls and Taylor, Bristol, Past and Present, 68). Though a zealous Romanist, Holyman gave general satisfaction as a bishop. He was included in a commission to try Ridley and Latimer for heresy, and took part at Oxford in the disputation with Cranmer (1554) and in the trial of Bishop Hooper, but was never active in persecution. He refused to be present when Dalby, his chancellor, sent three men to the stake at Bristol for their religious profession.
In 1558 Holyman died and was buried in the chancel of Handborough Church. By his will, dated 4 June 1558, and proved 16 Feb. following, he bequeathed to Winchester College the works of St. Augustine, St. Jerome, and St. Cyprian, and others, which were afterwards chained in the library. He wrote, among other works, ‘Tract. Contra doctrinam M. Lutheri;’ and ‘Defensio matrimonii Reginæ Catharinæ cum Rege Henrico octavo.’
[Wood’s Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), i. 275, ii. 779; Wood’s Fasti (Bliss), i. 40, 47, 74, 85; Foxe’s Acts and Monuments, ed. 1684, iii. 749, 855; Pryce’s Hist. of Bristol, p. 82; Nicholls and Taylor’s Bristol, Past and Present, vol. ii.; Evans’s Hist. of Bristol, p. 146; Coate’s Reading, p. 256; Lipscomb’s Bucks, iii. 526; Strype’s Cranmer and Eccl. Mem.; Kirby’s Winchester Scholars, p. 101]
HOLYOAKE, FRANCIS (1567–1653), lexicographer, was born at Nether Whitacre, Warwickshire, in 1567. About 1582 he studied as a commoner at Queen’s College, Oxford, though it does not appear that he took a degree. Afterwards he taught a school, first at Oxford, and then in Warwickshire. In February 1604 he was instituted to the rectory of Southam, Warwickshire, (Dugdale, Warwickshire, ed. Thomas, i. 340). In 1625 he was elected a member of convocation. In 1642 he was forced from his house by the parliamentarians, his wife was so ill-used as to hasten her death, his servant was killed, and his estate of 300l. a year was sequestered, so that he and his family were obliged to subsist on charity (Cal. State Paper, Dom. 1660–1, pp. 133, 350). He died on 13 Nov. 1653, aged 86, and was buried in the church of St. Mary at Warwick.
Francis Holyoake compiled a ‘Dictionarie Etymologicall,’ which was annexed to ‘Riders Dictionarie corrected,’ 2 pts., 8vo, London, 1617. The work was reissued in 1626, 4to, with additions by N. Gray, and in 1640, 4to. But Holyoake had meanwhile contributed so much to the work that a fourth edition was published as almost wholly his own, with the title ‘Dictionarium Etymologicum Latinum,’ &c., 3 pts., 4to, London, 1633. The sixth edition is stated to be ‘compositum et absolutum a Francisco de Sacra Quercu,’ 4to, 1648. His son Thomas (see below) made great additions to the work, but, dying before he could complete the edition, it was published by Thomas’s son Charles, as ‘A large Dictionary in three parts,’ fol., London 1677–1676.
Francis Holyoake presented a manuscript to Queen’s College library, entitled ‘Huguccionis, seu Huguitionis, Pisani, ep. Ferrariensis, Lexicon alphabeticum,’ &c. (Coxe, Cat. of Oxford MSS., pt. i. pp. 76–7).
By his wife Judith Holyoake had an only son, Thomas Holyoake (1616?–1675) born at Stoneythorpe, Warwickshire, who attended Coventry grammar school; entered Queen’s College, Oxford, in Michaelmas term 1632 (B.A. 1636; M.A. 1639) (Wood, Fasti Oxon. ed. Bliss, i. 487, 508); and became chaplain to his college. He was chosen captain of a foot company, consisting chiefly of undergraduates at Oxford at the beginning of the civil war, in which capacity, doing good service to the royal cause, he was created D.D. by Charles’s express desire (Wood, Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iii. 1040–1). After the surrender of
