Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Holtby, Richard
HOLTBY, RICHARD (1553–1640), jesuit, born at Fryton, Yorkshire, in 1553, was the second son of Lancelot Holtby of that place by Ellen [Butler] of Nunnington, in Ryedale, Yorkshire. After spending two years at Christ's College, Cambridge, and migrating to Caius College 19 Aug. 1573, aged 20, he removed to Oxford, where in 1574 he joined Hart Hall, the principal of which, Philip Rondell, was a papist, ‘but durst not show it.’ Wood adds that Holtby was a fellow-pupil with and tutor to Alexander Briant [q. v.], who suffered death for the catholic faith. Leaving Oxford without a degree, Holtby proceeded to the English College at Douay, where he arrived in August 1577, and was received into the Roman catholic church. He was ordained priest at Cambrai 29 March 1578. A year later he was sent to English mission, and he laboured with great zeal in the northern counties. In 1581 Father Edmund Campion [q. v.] paid him a visit, and while staying in his house composed the famous ‘Decem Rationes,’ and urged him to join the Society of Jesus. Holtby accordingly went in the following spring to Paris, where he was admitted into the society in 1583, and he passed his novitiate at Verdun. After spending four years in the study of theology in the university of Pont-à-Mousson, he was appointed about 1587 superior of the Scotch College there. The father-general, Aquaviva, sent him back to England in 1589. In 1603 he was professed of the four vows. After the execution of Father Henry Garnett [q. v.] he was appointed superior or vice-prefect of the English mission, and during his three years’ tenure of that office he appears to have resided in London. When the question of the new oath of allegiance to James I was proposed, and the archpriest George Blackwell [q. v.] declared that it might be conscientiously taken by catholics, Holtby at first forbade the jesuits to write or preach against the oath, while leaving them free to give private advice on the subject; but after the condemnation of the oath by Pope Paul V he firmly denounced it.
On vacating his office he returned to the north of England, where he exercised much influence among the catholics. A government spy in a report to the privy council in 1593 describes him as ‘a little man, with a reddish bearde,’ and adds that he chiefly resided at Mr. Trollope’s house at Thornley, co. Durham. In order to evade arrest he assumed the aliases of Andrew Ducket, Robert North, and Richard Fetherston. He was a skilful mechanic, and constructed many cleverly contrived hiding-places for the persecuted priests. He could also ply the needle to make vestments and altar-cloths. In 1602-3 hew was at Heborne, the residence of Mr. Hodgson, three miles from Newcastle; and in 1605-6 he was at Halton, Northumberland, the seat of Lancelot Carnaby. He died in the Durham district on 14 May (O.S.) 1640. ‘Of no other English jesuit,’ remarks Dr. Jessopp, ‘can it be said that he exercised his vocation in England for upwards of fifty years, and that, too, with extraordinary effect and ceaseless activity, without once being thrown into gaol or once falling into the hands of pursuivants; and quietly died in is bed in extreme old age.’
His works are:
- ‘On the Persecution in the North,’ 1594 manuscript at Stonyhurst College, printed by Morris in ‘Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers,’ iii. 103-219, and partially printed in Dodd’s 'Church History,’ ed. Tierney, iii. 75-148.
- ‘Account of Three Martyrs’ (namely Page, Lambton, and Waterson, priests), manuscript at Stonyhurst College; printed by Morris in ‘Troubles of our Catholic Forefathers,’ iii. 220-30.