Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 27.djvu/145

 many plays, was York to Kean's Richard II, the original Hassan to his Selim in the ‘Bride of Abydos,’ the original Mendizabel to Kean's Manuel in Maturin's play of ‘Manuel,’ 8 March 1817, and Buckingham to Kean's Richard III, 8 Nov. 1819. He was the Earl of Angus in ‘Flodden Field,’ an adaptation of ‘Marmion,’ and Cedric in the ‘Hebrew,’ Soane's adaptation of ‘Ivanhoe.’ On 24 April 1820 he played Gloucester to Kean's Lear, repeating the character on several succeeding nights. Gilliland speaks of him as having a delicacy of nerve that interfered with his success, says his intellect was under the direction of a refined education, and adds that his figure was not ungraceful and his deportment not inelegant. A contributor to ‘Notes and Queries’ recalls him as a fine-looking man, and says ‘he died in 1849.’ His sister Elizabeth married Joseph Constantine Carpue [q. v.] 

HOLLAND, CORNELIUS (fl. 1649), regicide, is said by Noble to have been a native of Colchester, and there is good reason to believe that he was a son of Ralph Holland, who settled in the parish of St. Laurence Pountney, London. Cornelius Holland, born 3 March 1599, entered Merchant Taylors' School in January 1609–10. He matriculated at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge (as ‘gentleman’), in 1614, and graduated B.A. in 1618. The register of St. Laurence Pountney records the baptism (17 Feb. 1627–8) of ‘James, son of Mr. Cornelius Holland, gent., and Sybell.’ Soon after this date Holland was in the service of Sir Henry Vane, but in 1635 was clerk-comptroller in the household of the Prince of Wales. He had also an office under the board of green cloth, and amassed a considerable fortune, but ‘when the court wanted assistance he deserted it, refusing to contribute to the expenses of the Scotch war in 1639’. In 1640 (22 Oct.) he was elected M.P. for New Windsor, and again in December of the same year, the previous election having been declared void. He took no prominent part in the debates of the Long parliament, and seems to have acted generally under the guidance of his old master, Vane. In 1643 he signed the solemn league and covenant, and three years later was chosen one of the commissioners for settling the treaty of peace with Scotland. He became a member of the council of state in 1649, and had, it is said (Clarendon Papers), the chief hand in drawing up the charges against the king, but he was not present when the sentence was pronounced, nor does his name appear upon the warrant for execution. His services to the parliament were rewarded by grants of land both in England and in the Bermudas, while lucrative offices, including the keepership of Richmond Park, were bestowed upon him. Noble says that he had ten children, and gave one of them (possibly Elizabeth, wife of John Shelton of West Bromwich) a marriage portion of 5,000l. At the Restoration he was excepted absolutely, both as to life and estate, from the Bill of Indemnity, but managed to escape to Holland, and join, it is said, his fellow-exiles at Lausanne, where he ended his days. The date has not been traced. 

HOLLAND, GEORGE CALVERT (1801–1865), physician, was born at Pitsmoor, Sheffield, 28 Feb. 1801. He had practically no early education, and his father, a respectable artisan, apprenticed him to a trade. When about sixteen years old he suddenly discovered that he had a facility for writing verses. He thereupon studied the poets, and learned Latin, French, and Italian. On the completion of his apprenticeship his friends, under the advice of Dr. Philipps of the Upper Chapel, Sheffield, placed him with a unitarian minister with a view to his joining the unitarian ministry.

After a year he determined to enter the medical profession, and went to Edinburgh, where he graduated M.D. in 1827 with high honours, and, joining the Hunterian and Royal Physical Societies, became president of both. He spent a year in Paris, taking the degree of bachelor of letters, and after another year in Edinburgh began practice in Manchester. Here he made for himself a distinguished position, but a fierce controversy, in which his advocacy of the new discoveries of Gall and Spurzheim involved him with his professional brethren, led to his finally removing to Sheffield. His career in his native town was from the first a success. He at once took a prominent and important position in the Literary and Philosophical Society, Mechanics' Library, and Mechanics' Institution, and an active part in promoting the return of liberal members during the first and second elections for Sheffield under the Reform Act of 1832. His works, ‘An Experimental Enquiry into the Laws of Animal Life,’ Edinburgh, 1829, 8vo, and ‘The