Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Holt, Thomas

by Lionel Henry Cust

HOLT, THOMAS (1578?–1624), architect, a native of York, born about 1578, is noteworthy for the important works in Renaissance architecture executed by him at Oxford. In 1613 and the following years he designed the great quadrangle of the examination schools there, now part of the Bodleian Library, introducing some new architectural features. He also designed the whole structure of Wadham College, which was built between 1610 and 1613. Other buildings at Oxford are ascribed to him with less certainty, though he probably prepared designs for many of them. Holt is registered as a privileged person in the university, aged 40, on 30 Oct. 1618; he is described as ‘Faberlignarius Coll. Novi.’ He died on 9 Sept. 1624, and was buried in the churchyard of Holywell Church, Oxford, where a monument was erected in his memory. His daughter married Dr. Samuel Radcliffe, principal of Brasenose College.

[Dict. of Architecture; Redgrave’s Dict. of Artists; Oxf. Univ. Reg. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.); Sir J. Peshall and A. à Wood’s Antient and Present State of the City of Oxford, 1773.]

L. C.