Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Holland, Richard (1596-1677)
HOLLAND, RICHARD (1596–1677), mathematician, born at Lincoln in 1596, was educated at Oxford, but appears to have taken no degree there. His life was mainly spent as a teacher of mathematics and ‘geology’ to the junior university students, and he wrote two books for the use of his pupils. The first, entitled ‘Globe Notes,’ Oxford, 1678, reached a second edition in 1684. It contains many of the simple propositions in astronomy still occurring in some elementary text-books, with definitions of such terms as colure, solstice, equinoxial. The other book is ‘Notes how to get the Angle of Parallax of a Comet or other phenomenon at two Observations,’ Oxford, 1668. It contains diagrams, with practical directions implying some knowledge of trigonometry.
According to Wood, Holland had such repute as a teacher that he became wealthy. He died on 1 May 1677, and was buried in the parish church of St. Peter-in-the-East, Oxford. Another Richard Holland, of Emanuel College, Cambridge, was incorporated M.A. at Oxford in 1679; was rector of Stanford, Lincolnshire, and author of five sermons published between 1698 and 1702.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, iii. 1109; Fasti, ii. 371.]