Thomas Hollis

​Thomas Hollis (1720 to 1774) was the founder of Hollis Mead. He was a philosopher, benefactor and libertarian.

Thomas Hollis was born in London, England on April 14, 1720 into a family of prominent wealthy merchants and manufacturers. He was the only child of Thomas Hollis (d.1735). The name of his mother, a daughter of Mr. Scott of Wolverhampton, is not known.

Thomas Hollis embarked on an academic journey as a result of his family fortune which would have been enviable to his peers at the time. He started at the free school in Newport until the at the age of nine or ten he enrolled at St Albans. Several years later he spent fifteen months in Amsterdam studying languages and mathematics in preparation for a career in business.

His father died in 1735 when he was fifteen years old, leaving Thomas sole heir to a very large family fortune and when his grandfather died a further three years later his fortune and estate increased furthermore substantially.

He took chambers at Lincoln's Inn from 1740 to 1748, and although he read law he never pursued a legal or political career. In 1750 he was again embarked on a European tour visiting various countries across the continent over a four year period before returning to London. Due to his considerable inheritance, Hollis was never obligated enter professional life and was thus able instead to devote much of his time and energy towards travel, civic engagement, and philanthropy.

Thomas Hollis is widely known for his ardent, dedicated and enthusiastic promotion of civil and religious liberties (he was a liberal Whig, some would call a radical dissenter). He believed that all citizens throughout the world should be able to enlighten themselves through reflection and reading to the extent that they would have the knowledge and gravitas with which to hold their own governments to account. His most renowned endeavour which has left its biggest footprint in history is thus his huge personal financial investment in the production and distribution of books which explained the concept of liberty and how liberty could be successfully defended and promoted through the activity of citizenship.

Hollis thus mustered his financial resources to become a patron of many writers, printers, publishers who shared his ardent view on the pursuit of liberty. He is renowned today by bibliophiles for the distinctive books he commissioned which were of the upmost quality,  those that survive today are some of finest of the time period. Hollis’s books were distributed by his peers across the country and onwards to Europe however it was his North American literary adventures which he is most notorious for.

In the years preceding the Declaration of Independence in America Hollis was ardent and determined in the act of sending his commissioned books (some especially printed and bound across the Atlantic). He sought to encourage colonialists in their struggle against Great Britain and in his view the pursuit of “Liberty” and is said to have had direct correspondence with Benjamin Franklin despite never having visited America himself. On the other side of the Atlantic he attempted to explain the concerns and grievances of American colonists to his fellow Englishmen.

Hollis’s interest in American affairs culminated in his generosity towards Harvard College, which his family had previously been benefactors to. The 1764 fire in Harvard Hall destroyed most of the library’s books, the Library itself was the largest in British North America at the time. The destruction of the library thus prompted furthermore considerable generosity from Hollis, between 1763-1670 he donated thousands of books to Harvard College in the hope of encouraging the promotion of civil liberties amongst New England scholars.

In 1770 at the age of 50 Hollis seems to be disillusioned by life in London and the tireless pursuit of liberty and decided to retire to Dorset where he had numerous estates, the first of which he had acquired in Corscombe, Dorset in 1741. He named his various country farms and their fields after his heroes and interests such as Ludlow, Locke, Liberty and of course Harvard it was a process he recalled in his diary as “patronizing” his properties.

Although Thomas Hollis primarily resided in London his generosity extended to those living locally to his Estate in Corscombe, Dorset which he had acquired in 1741. In 1746 Thomas Hollis paid entirely on his own for the complete repair to the significantly damaged Church of St Marys in Corscombe, Dorset and rebuilding of the Vestry.
 
Thomas Hollis died suddenly on January 1, 1774 whilst talking to a labourer on his farm in Corscombe, Dorset and was buried in a ten feet grave alongside his horse in the same field as he fell. His grave was left unmarked and the field was then ploughed over as Hollis had instructed in the course of his death. As Hollis was never married and had no children his estate and fortune was left to longtime friend Thomas Brand on the condition that Brand added Hollis to his own name thus becoming Thomas Brand Hollis.

The American statesmen John Adam (future American president in 1797-1801) visited Thomas Brand Hollis at his estate in Hyde, Essex in 1796 during a visit to England. John Adam recalled in his personal diary seeing works of art on the walls of the house depicting and stating the burial place of Thomas Hollis at one of his farm estates in Dorset:
 
“There is only a farm house (Urles) upon it. Here are to be seen Hollis Mead and Brand Pasture. In Hollis Mead Mr Hollis is buried ten feet deep and then ploughed over; a whim to be sure but singularity was his characteristic. He was benevolent and beneficent however throughout”.

Hollis Mead Farm, part of Urless Farm has been owned for the last 20 years by Oliver Hemsley and his family.

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