Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 27.djvu/203

 , he died on 18 Nov. 1692 (monumental inscription). His will was proved on the next day, 19 Nov. He was buried in Yarmouth Church, where there is an ornate monument to his memory. This monument was seen in 1704 by the Rev. Thomas Pocock, who has given in his journal a correct description of it, and a copy of the inscription as it then was (Memoirs relating to the Lord Torrington, Camd. Soc. vol. xlvi. new ser. p. 180). He adds: ‘This marble was going to France, and the ship being cast away on the back of the isle, was made wreck, and belonged to this gentleman, who prepared all things for his funeral and this monument before his death.’ The inscription seen by Pocock was apparently not approved of, and the present one, giving a pretty full biographical sketch (, Hist. of the Isle of Wight, p. 266), was substituted for it not long after. No tradition of the change remains (information from the Rev. G. Quirk, rector of Yarmouth), nor is there any record of the earlier inscription, except that noted by Pocock. The account of the monument given by Pocock is contradicted by the present inscription, which ends: ‘Honoratissimo patruo infra sepulto hoc monumentum posuit Henricus Holmes.’ Neither account is strictly accurate. Holmes, by his will, left 300l. to erect the monument, which therefore was not, in the spirit of the words, erected by his nephew.

It does not appear that Holmes was ever married; he had no legitimate children; and by his will, after making an ample provision for an illegitimate daughter, Mary Holmes, he devised the bulk of his property to his nephew, Henry, son of his eldest brother, Thomas Holmes of Kilmallock, co. Limerick, subject to the condition that he married the illegitimate daughter within eighteen months. The marriage was duly carried out. The children of this union included Thomas, first lord Holmes of Kilmallock, and Admiral Charles Holmes [q. v.] Mary, Mrs. Holmes, was buried at Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, on 7 March 1760, aged 82 (Yarmouth Register, communicated by the Rev. G. Quirk).

 HOLMES, ROBERT (1748–1805), biblical scholar, baptised at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, London, on 30 Nov. 1748, was the son of Edmund Holmes of that parish. He became a scholar of Winchester College in 1760, whence he was elected to New College, Oxford, matriculating on 3 March 1767 (, Winchester Scholars, p. 256;, Alumni Oxon. 1715-1886, ii. 682). He won the chancellor's prize for Latin verse, the subject being 'Ars Pingendi,' in 1769, the year of it institution. He proceeded B.A. in 1770, was elected fellow of his college, and graduated M.A. in 1774, B.D. in 1787, and D.D. in 1789. He was presented to the college rectory of Stanton St. John's, Oxfordshire. His first publication was a sermon preached before the university of Oxford, entitled 'The Resurrection of the Body deduced from the Resurrection of Christ,' 1777 (2nd edit. 1779), which attracted some attention from the novelty of the arguments. In 1778 he published an imitation of Gray, called 'Alfred, an Ode. With six Sonnets.' In 1782 he was chosen Bampton lecturer, and during the same year published his eight lectures 'On the Prophecies and Testimony of John the Baptist, and the parallel Prophecies of Jesus Christ.' He succeeded John Randolph as professor of poetry in 1783, and composed 'An Ode for the Encoenia held at Oxford July 1703.' In 1788 he issued a defence of some of the essential doctrines of the church in 'Four Tracts: on the Principles of Religion as a Test of Divine Authority; on the Principles of Redemption; on the Angelical Message to the Virgin Mary; on the Resurrection of the Body; with a Discourse on Humility.' He became prebendary of Lyme and Halstock in Salisbury Cathedral on 23 May 1790 (, Fasti, ed. Hardy, ii. 678-9), prebendary of Moreton-with-Whaddon in Hereford Cathedral on 12 Aug. 1791 (ib. i. 514), prebendary of the seventh stall in Christ Church, Oxford, on 28 April 1795 (ib. ii. 530), and dean of Winchester on 20 Feb. 1804 (ib. iii. 23). On 14 Dec, 1797 he was elected F.R.S. (, ''Hist. of Royal Soc''. Appendix iv, p. lxv), He died at his house in St. Giles, Oxford, on 12 Nov. 1805 (''Gent. Mag''. 1805, pt. ii. p. 1086). Most of his treatises and discourses already referred to were republished with others' in 1806.

In 1788 Holmes commenced his collation of the manuscripts of the Septuagint, and published in Latin an account of the method which he thought should be followed. The 