Hugh Holland

Writer and Poet

Hugh Holland, poet and writer, was buried in the south transept of Westminster Abbey near the door leading into "the monuments" ie. near St Benedict's chapel, on 23rd July 1633. He has no monument or inscribed gravestone. He was a son of Robert Holland of Wales and was born in Denbigh. Attending Westminster School, where he was a Queen's Scholar, he is called Hugh Holland alias Roberts. In his contribution to a manuscript volume of verses to Elizabeth I he signed himself Hugo Roberts (the volume is in Westminster Abbey Library). After attending Cambridge university he travelled abroad and was imprisoned in Constantinople by the English Ambassador there for abuse of the Queen. The Duke of Buckingham became his patron and one of his sonnets was prefixed to the first folio of Shakespeare. He married Ursula, widow of Robert Woodard. A daughter and son Martin pre-deceased him but son Arbellin survived (his daughter was baptised at St Margaret's Westminster in 1632).

Further reading

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Buried

23rd July 1633

Occupation

Writer; poet

Location

South Transept

Hugh Holland
South Transept

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