Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 27.djvu/217

 baronetcy became extinct. In 1858 Aston Park Company bought the Hall which Dugdale says ‘for beauty and state much exceedeth any in these parts’ (Antiquities of Warwickshire, 1656 p. 639), and some forty-three acres of the park, as a place of public recreation. As the company did not prove a success, the corporation of Birmingham became the purchasers in 1864. Holte left money for the erection of an almshouse in Aston, which was built by his grandson, Sir Robert Holte, in 1655-6. A full-length portrait of Holte by Van Somer was lent by Mr. J. G. Robins to the Loan Collection of National Portraits of South Kensington in 1866 (Catalogue, No. 389). A lithograph of this portrait forms the frontispiece to Davidson's 'A History of the Holtes of Aston.' A half-length duplicate portrait by Van Somer was (1854) in the possession of Mr. Charles Holte Bracebridge of Atherstone Hall, Warwickshire, a grandson of the last baronet.

 HOLTZAPFFEL, CHARLES (1806–1847), mechanician, was the son of a German who in 1787 settled in London as a worker in tools and lathes. In addition to careful training in the workshop, Holtzapffel received a good English education, and by assiduous study and practice became a skilled mechanician. In 1838 he published his ‘New System of Scales of Equal Parts applicable to various purposes of Engineering, Architecture and General Sciences,’ followed by ‘List of Scales of Equal Parts’ suitable to his new method. His principal work, ‘Turning and Mechanical Manipulation, intended as a work of general reference and practical instruction on the Lathe,’ was designed to fill five volumes; but only three, published in 1843, were completed. The first of these treated of ‘Materials, their different Choice and Preparation;’ the second of ‘The Principles of Construction, Action, and Application of Cutting Tools;’ the third of ‘Abrasive and Miscellaneous Processes which cannot be accomplished with Cutting Tools.’ The two concluding volumes, which were completed by his son, set forth in order the ‘principles and practice of hand or simple turning, and those of ornamental or complex turning.’ Holtzapffel throughout displays a masterly knowledge of technical art and of the scientific principles underlying it.

Holtzapffel was a member of council of the Institute of Civil Engineers, and was chairman of the mechanics’ committee of the Society of Arts. He died on 11 April 1847, aged 41, leaving a widow and family.

 HOLWELL, JOHN (1649–1686?), astrologer and mathematician, born on 24 Nov. 1649 (Ashmole MS. 240, f. 237 b), was probably the John Holwell, son of Thomas and Catherine Holwell, who was baptised at St. James’s, Clerkenwell, on 28 Nov, 1649 (Harl. Soc. Registers, ix. 173). According to a biography in the ‘Asiatic Annual Register,’ vol. i., he was descended from the Holwells of Holwell House, near Tavistock, Devonshire, and his father and grandfather were engaged in Penruddock’s plot in 1655, fell in the royalist cause, and as a consequence forfeited the family estates. We know that a John Holwell of Sampford was actually sequestered in 1655 (Royalist Composition Papers, 1st ser. vol. lxxx. F. 159), but in 1652 a Captain John Holwell, probably the same person, appears as giving information against alleged papists to the officers of the Commonwealth (ib. lv. ff. 361, 383), and there is no proof of his connection with Penruddock’s plot. The same account states that after the Restoration Holwell was made royal astronomer and surveyor of the crown lands, while his wife obtained a place at court, which is possible, and that he was preceptor to the Duke of Monmouth, which his age makes unlikely. He is further alleged to have written anonymously in support of the Exclusion Bill, and to have given such offence by his ‘Catastrophe Mundi’ that he was brought before the privy council, but to have defended himself so skilfully that no charge could be established against him. He usually describes himself on the title-pages of his books as ‘philomath,’ and once as ‘teacher of the mathematicks and astrology.’ In his advertisements (e.g. Catastrophe Mundi, p. 40) he announces that ‘Arts and Sciences are mathematically professed and taught by the author … at his house on the east side of Spittle Fields, over against Dorset Street … He also measureth buildings and surveyeth land for any man, having the most experience in surveying of any man in England.’ His writings show that he was a firm protestant. The biography already referred to gives an unauthenticated story in 1685 the government, fearing his pen, sent him to America to survey the town of New York,