Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 27.djvu/130

 were omitted by Singer in his editions of that collection. The substance of the 1768 edition of ‘Remarks’ was embodied in ‘Miscellanea Virgiliana. By a Graduate of Cambridge, editor of the Theatre of the Greeks and Miscellanea Græca Dramatica,’ Cambridge, 1825, a collection compiled by Philip Wentworth Buckham.

Holdsworth's plan of rebuilding Magdalen College in the Palladian style was approved of and commenced in 1733, but only a block, called the New Buildings, was executed. To the building fund he bequeathed 100l. 

HOLDSWORTH, RICHARD (1590–1649), theologian, was the youngest son of the Rev. Richard Holdsworth, vicar of Newcastle-on-Tyne, where he was born in 1590. His father died in 1596, leaving his child to the care of a son-in-law, the Rev. William Pearson or Pierson, who was curate and lecturer in the parish church of Newcastle (, Newcastle, i. 312). Holdsworth was educated at the grammar school of that town, whence he proceeded to Cambridge, and was admitted scholar of St. John's College on 2 Nov. 1607. He took the degree of B.A. in 1610, was elected fellow of St. John's on 20 March 1613, and took holy orders soon afterwards. He shared in the educational work of the college, and among his pupils was Sir Simonds D'Ewes, who speaks of him with admiration (Autobiography, i. 107). In 1617 he was incorporated M.A. at Oxford (, Fasti, i. 828), and in 1620 was one of the university preachers at Cambridge. Soon after this he became chaplain to Sir Henry Hobart [q. v.], and was presented to a benefice in the West Riding of Yorkshire, which he at once exchanged for the rectory of St. Peter-le-Poer in Broad Street, London.

Early in 1624 he entered upon his parochial life in London, and gained great credit for the zealous discharge of his clerical duties during the plague of 1625. He soon became one of the most famous preachers in London, and was reckoned as belonging to the moderate puritan party. In consequence of his reputation for learning and eloquence he was appointed on 28 Nov. 1629 professor of divinity in Gresham College, where his Latin lectures were attended by crowded audiences. It is a sign of the repute in which he was held that he was called to the deathbed of Sir Robert Cotton in 1631 (, Court and Times of Charles I, ii. 112).

The management of St. John's College under the mastership of Owen Gwynne had not been creditable, and on his death in 1633 the younger fellows, wishing for a man of high character from outside, chose Holdsworth as their candidate. The senior fellows chose the president, Dr. Lane, known as a genial boon companion. Lane sent a friend to Charles I, who wrote from Berwick recommending Lane for election. Each side claimed to have carried its candidate, and both were presented to the vice-chancellor, who refused to admit either, and the matter was referred to the king. Charles I appointed a commission to investigate; and after eight months' dispute, the king, on 20 Feb. 1634, declared against both elections, and issued his mandate for the election of a third person, William Beale (the copious records of this struggle, which is interesting in academical history, are to be found in Cal. State Papers, 1633–4, pp. 105, 120, 185, 269, 270, and the MSS. University Library, Cambridge, Patrick Papers, pp. 22, 16). Holdsworth, although worsted in the contest, succeeded to the archdeaconry of Huntingdon and prebend of Buckden, which had been held by the late master.

Holdsworth again applied himself to his Gresham lectures, but was elected to the mastership of Emmanuel College on 25 April 1637. The first master, Laurence Chaderton [q. v.], was still alive, though he had been induced to resign his office in 1622 with a view of modifying the rigid puritanism which had marked the early years of the college. He had outlived two successors, and Holdsworth came as the third. It says much for Holdsworth that he treated Chaderton, who lived close by the college, with great respect, and assured him ‘that he was still master in the college, though he was not master of the college.’ Chaderton looked with growing approval on Holdsworth's government, and said that he was ‘the only master he ever saw in that house.’

Holdsworth retained the confidence of the London clergy, and in 1639 was elected president of Sion College. He continued to hold the position of a moderate puritan, and was one of those who in 1640 protested against the continuance of convocation by royal writ after the dissolution of parliament (, Church History, ed. 1845, v. 163). Although a puritan, however, he was a staunch churchman. He had suffered for his opposition to Laud, but he was still less in favour of any