1785 –08/10/1859
Berkhamsted wheelwright
Relatives
Research:
John Holliday was a local man whose family had been in Berkhamsted and Northchurch back to the early 1700’s. He was baptised at St Mary’s Northchurch on 26th June 1785, the eldest son of William and Susan Holliday. His siblings were Susannah (baptised 15th September 1776), Ann (baptised 20th January 1782), Alice (baptised 16th September 1787) and William (baptised 25th Jan 1778).
His wife was Mary Atkins of Berkhamsted and they married at St Peter’s Church, Berkhamsted on 8th November 1806. John and Mary had six children, of whom five grew up into adulthood. Their children were all baptised at St Peter’s Church, as follows:
- George on 15th November 1807. He was born on 5th October 1807
- William on 4th February 1810. He was born on 17 December 1809 and buried 22nd November 1812, aged 3
- John on 15th November 1812. He was born on 26th August 1812
- Charles on 12th January 1817. He was born on 25th November 1816
- Ann on 23rd May 1819. She was born on 1st March 1819
- Frederick on 11th April 1824. He was born on 3rd February 1824
John was a wheelwright by trade, an occupation which would have been essential in the town because in 1792 the Sparrow’s Herne Turnpike Trust road was completed, linking Bushey and Aylesbury. This meant Berkhamsted could boast ‘London in a day and reasonable tolls’, so horse-drawn traffic through the town would have been considerable. At the time the Turnpike Road was opened, there were three blacksmiths, two saddlers and collar-makers and a wheelwright.
By 1823, there were two coach builders; a currier and leather cutter, employed to help with the increase in business for coaches, saddles and collars (as well as boots and shoes). In 1839 Berkhamsted had enough trade to support two wheelwrights, John Holliday and William King, both based in the High Street.
According to the 1839 tithe map for Berkhamsted, a shop in the High Street was owned by executors of Charles Gordon Esq, and wheeler John Holliday was the tenant. On the map, the line of Holliday Street was visible but it was not yet a thoroughfare such as Ravens Lane. It seems likely that when it was developed, Holliday Street was named after John and his business on the corner.
In 1841 John and his family were living in Berkhamsted High Street. John, enumerated as a 55-year-old wheelwright, was living with his wife Mary, and four adult children, George, Charles, Ann and Frederick. John junior had moved out, but was still living in the High Street, at Rectory House, the home of John Crofts.
In 1851 John and Mary still had four grown up children living with them, George, Charles, Ann and Frederick who in the intervening 10 years had married and had two children, Frederick born circa 1844 and Mary born circa 1846 in Aylesbury. Sadly Frederick was widowed and back with his parents with his two young children. He later married his second wife, Elizabeth Viles, at Clerkenwell in 1853. They had a daughter, Ellen, baptised 27th January 1855 at St Peter’s.
Between the 1851 and 1861 censuses major events happened in the family as can seen from the gravestone. Mary died on 22nd September 1859, and then John died 16 days later on the 8th October. 1859 was a really terrible year for the Holliday family, not just with the deaths of Mary and John, but their son Frederick died on 6th August 1859 at Berkhamsted, predeceasing both his parents.
On 3rd August 1860 Letters of Administration for the personal estate, valued at under £100, of Frederick Holliday wheelwright of Berkhampstead, deceased, were granted to Elizabeth Holliday, his widow of Tring.
On 22nd March 1860 Letters of Administration (with the Will Annexed) for the personal estate of John Holliday, wheelwright of Berkhampstead, deceased were granted to his son George Holliday of Great Berkhampstead, the date of John’s death being the same as that on the Gravestone 8th October 1859. John’s estate was valued at under £100.
At this point things become interesting. John had written his will on 16th October 1855 and it shows that he was a man with some property. He gave to his executors “all those my six freehold messuages or dwelling houses with the piece of land now used as my garden with all yards, outbuildings and appurtenances thereunto belonging”, naming as his executors his wife Mary and one James Holliday of Bottom Lodge. We know that Mary predeceased John by 16 days which left just one executor, James Holliday. The extract below shows that James “renounced the Probate and Execution thereof” so that John’s eldest son George was sworn to administer his father’s will.
Who exactly was James Holliday? His relationship to John is not given in John’s will. The census for Northchurch indicates that James had a rather responsible position in the area as Bailiff of Ashlyns Hall. As bailiff at Ashlyns Hall, James would have been employed by Augustus John Smith (1804-1872), “King” of the Scilly Islands. James was not only employed by Mr Smith but he and his family appear to have been well-favoured by their employer as two of his sons, William Holliday (1817-1895) and Charles Holliday (1822-1898) accompanied the Smith family to Scilly. William was married on Scilly in 1846 and is recorded as Smith’s bailiff there in the 1851 and 1861 census before returning to Berkhamsted by 1871 where he has replaced his father as the bailiff at Ashlyns. His brother Charles is recorded as a footman and house-servant on Scilly in 1851 and 1861.
Research into the parish registers seems to indicate that John the wheelwright and James the bailiff were actually first cousins. James Holliday was baptised on 14th January 1787 at Northchurch (Berkhamsted St Mary) the illegitimate son of Fanny (Frances) Holliday who was sister John’s father William and therefore John’s Aunt.
James Holliday died on 6th February 1879, at The Cottage, Dean Field, Northchurch, at the ripe old age of 92 year of bronchitis. As this was 20 years after the death of John and Mary one cannot imagine ill-health as being the cause of this refusal to administer the will. Who knows what rift may have occurred in the family maybe this was the reason for the inscription – “When He giveth quietness, who then can make trouble.”
Buried with John and Mary was their youngest child Ann, who appears to have lived with them until their deaths in 1859. The 1861 shows here living as a lodger with John Hutchinson in a street just off the Hight Street identified only as “Pightle”. She remained a spinster all her life and appears to have left no will. A sadly unremarkable life.
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Holliday Street & 60 High Street
Personalities of the Past
Memorial Symbolism
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