the general, the Earl of Loudoun, decided that nothing could be done without more force. As the season, however, wore on, he determined to parade his fleet before Louisbourg, possibly in the hope that the French would accept his challenge. Their effective strength, however, was terribly reduced by a pestilence, and they remained in port; but while Holburne waited on the coast his fleet was caught on the night of 24 Sept. by a violent storm, which drove some of the ships on shore, and wholly or in part dismasted almost all. After such refit as was possible Holburne returned to England, where he arrived in the beginning of December. A few days later he was appointed to the command in chief at Portsmouth, a charge which he held, either continuously or more probably with a break, for the very unusual term of eight years, the latter part of the time being enlivened by a curious inquiry into an alleged plot in November 1764 to set fire to all the dockyards. The several commanders-in-chief and resident commissioners were ordered to investigate the matter; but this was done with the utmost secrecy, and the report cannot now be found. On 5 Aug. 1767 Holburne attained the rank of admiral of the blue, and of admiral of the white on 28 Oct. 1770; about the same time he was appointed rear-admiral of Great Britain. He was one of the lords of the admiralty from February 1770 to January 1771, when he accepted the post of governor of Greenwich Hospital, in which he died 15 July 1771.
Holburne married at Barbadoes the widow of Edward Lascelles, collector of the island, and by her had one son, Francis, who in 1772, on the death of his cousin, Sir Alexander, the third baronet, and a captain in the navy, succeeded to the baronetcy. A portrait of Admiral Holburne, with his son as a little boy, is in the Painted Hall at Greenwich.
[Charnock's Biog. Nav. v. 33; Beatson's Nav. and Mil. Memoirs; Entick's Hist. of the late War; official correspondence in the Public Record Office; Troude, Batailles Navales de la France, i. 340.]
HOLCOMBE, HENRY (1690?–1750?), musical composer, was born about 1690, probably at Shrewsbury, and was a chorister there. While still a boy he came to London, and took part in the ‘Anglo-Italian’ operatic performances at Drury Lane. His two recorded impersonations are Prenesto in ‘Camilla’ in 1706, and again in 1708, and the Page in ‘Rosamund,’ 1707. He left the stage when his voice broke, and became a successful teacher of singing and of the harpsichord. He died in London about 1750.
He published two collections of songs, ‘The Musical Medley; or a Collection of English Songs and Cantatas set to Musick,’ London, 1745, and ‘The Garland; a Collection of eleven Songs and Cantatas,’ London, 1745. He was also the composer of ‘Six Solos for a Violin and Thorough Bass, with some pieces for the German Flute and Harpsichord,’ London, 1745.
Two of his songs, ‘Happy Hour all Hours Excelling’ (printed in the ‘Musical Miscellany’), and ‘Arno's Vale,’ enjoyed much popularity.
[Grove's Dict. of Music, i. 743; Fétis's Biog. Univ. des Musiciens, iii. 357; Holcombe's music in British Museum.]
HOLCOT, ROBERT of (d. 1349), divine, is said to have been a native of Northampton, but the statement seems a mere inference from his surname, Holcot being a village in Northamptonshire. It has been conjectured that he was a kinsman of Robert of Holcot, who sat, according to Bridges (Northamptonshire, i. 9 b), as a knight of the shire in the parliament of 1328–9; but the latter appears in the parliamentary return (Accounts and Papers, 1878, vol. xviii. pt. i. p. 88) as ‘Hotot,’ and the correctness of this name is supported by other evidence (Palgrave, Parliamentary Writs, 1834, ii. 1024). Holcot's own derivation of his name is given in his commentary on the book of Wisdom (Prælect. i. 4, ed. 1586): ‘Sicut enim nomen a robore derivatum, ita cognomen habeo a foramine casæ datum; et ideo, sicut nomen meum Robertus in robore, ita Holkot cognomen intueor in foramine petræ,’ in allusion to Cant. ii. 14.
Wood states, without citing his authority, that Holcot was ‘primo iusticiarius, postea frater prædicator’ (Antiq. of the City of Oxford, ii. 320, ed. A. Clark, 1890), which may possibly mean that he was a student of law, or a lawyer, before he entered the Dominican order. He was brought up probably in the house of his order at Oxford, and became a doctor in theology of the university, for the statement cited from two Paris manuscripts by Quétif and Echard (Scriptt. O. P. i. 629 a, 630 a) that he belonged to Cambridge is unsupported by other evidence. On 23 March 1331–2, ‘fr. Rob. Holcote ordinis minor.’ (if this be the same person) was admitted to hear confessions by the Bishop of Lincoln. Richard of Bury, presumably after his appointment to the see of Durham in 1333, entertained, according to William Chambre, a number of clerks in his household, whom he chose for their theological attainments, and among those named are Bradwardine, Fitzralph, and Holcot. How long Holcot remained in
