Holyland-one-name-study blog

  Willoughby Holyland was born in 1868 in Lutterworth, Leicestershire; there is no entry for his mother’s maiden name on the birth registration, implying that he was illegitimate. He was listed in 1871 as “Willie”, the 1 year old son of Charles Holyland, a shoeing smith in Lutterworth, and his wife Ann. Three other children were listed in the same family, including a William apparently only one year old than “Willie”. Immediately this duplication of names sounds suspicious! Charles repeated that he was Willoughby’s father, as well as William’s, in 1881. In 1891, Willoughby, now a tailor by trade, was still in Charles’ and Ann’s household, but this time described as Charles’s nephew. Willoughby’s marriage certificate sheds light on his true parentage. In August 1899, he married Lily Sarah Beatrice Davies at St Jude’s Church, in Birmingham. In my experience of looking at Victorian marriage certificates, those born illegitimately usually either have a line drawn through the box ...

  One of the first Holyland death entries on FreeBMD is in the second quarter of 1837; that of William Holyland, whose death was registered in the Blaby Union district of Leicestershire. His age, according to the GRO website, was given as 39, and initially I was confused by this; my database contains no-one by that name, born around 1798, in the Blaby district. This first puzzle was solved when I visited the graveyard in the village of South Croxton, which is about 15 miles from Blaby on the other side of Leicestershire. I found the gravestone I had been looking for – but I also found the grave of William Holyland, who died on August 1837 age 39 (the exact day is unclear on the stone). This being next to other gravestones from the same family, identified William as the son of William Holyland and his wife Mary Geary; he had been baptised 15 miles away at Ratby on 13 March 1796, making him at least 41 when he died. His parents had subsequently moved to South Croxton and were als...