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Holliland – a name rescued from extinction

 My Holyland one-name study lists Holiland, Hollyland and Holliland as variants of interest. The first two of these variant names seem no longer to be in use, but Holliland survives as a current, albeit rare, variation.

So how do the Hollilands fit into the Holyland lineage?

 extract from parish records of 1610 from St Martins' Church, Desford, Leicestershire,

Going back into the earliest available records on the internet, Holliland was a relatively common variant of Holyland in the 16th century, especially in the south east of England; however it had mutated there into the more common Holyland by the 18th century.

The majority of Holyland families were (and still are) in Leicestershire and here, the first use of the Holliland spelling in parish records appears in 1610 in Desford, when Luke White married Elizabeth Holliland. The Holliland spelling was used sporadically in various parish records across the county and further afield throughout the 17th century but its use was decreasing by the 18th century and by the mid 1800s it appeared to be on the verge of extinction.

It is probably only due to the vagaries of 19th century record keeping that the name survived.

The 1861 census shows John Holliland, his wife Caroline and their young children living in the Leicestershire village of Whetstone. John had not been baptised Holliland; he was one of eight children born to an agricultural labourer by the name of Stanford Holyland, who presumably was illiterate – at any rate, Stanford had not corrected the parish clerk when no fewer than five different variants of his name had been used in the baptisms of his children! However, none of these was Holliland, and the 1861 census seems to be the first time this spelling was used.

Subsequent censuses show that the spelling was still far from fixed, with John and his children variously appearing as Holyland and Holland. However, John’s oldest son William signed his name Holliland on his marriage certificate and William's only surviving child, George Clipson Holliland, kept this spelling throughout his life, passing it on to his descendants. Those descendants are still living today in Leicestershire as well as other parts of the UK, with a few family members in Scandinavia (where I imagine the name may well undergo further changes in the future).

 

William Holliland's signature

According to the website Forebears.io, in 2014 there were 43 bearers of the Holliland name across the word, and another 6 with a double –barrelled version hyphenated with another surname.  The name is clinging on – my records suggest just 7 births registered as Holliland in England and Wales in the first 20 years of this century (compared with 96 Holylands). Having explored the lineages, I believe that every Holliland today is descended from Stanford Holyland through his great-grandson, George Clipson Holliland. But as always, I welcome any comments or further information!

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