1750–1799
This section brings together the recorded appearances of the Holt family in the Victoria History of the County of Lancaster (1906). Each entry is drawn from contemporary legal, manorial, and ecclesiastical documents, tracing the family’s landholding, obligations, disputes, and social roles across the centuries. These chronological notes provide a documentary framework for understanding the Holts’ presence and influence within the evolving landscape of Lancashire.
| 1750 | Exact date uncertain – Hall of Habergham sold to Mr Holt of Goodshaw Fold. He left it to William Preston and was succeeded by his son, who took the name Thomas Preston Holt (vol 6). |
| 1755 | INCLOSURE ACT |
| 1757 | Warrington Academy for Protestant nonconformists founded. John Holt was a tutor at one time (vol 3). Also noted in the Dictionary of National Biography: John Holt (1743–1801), author, lived near Liverpool, made the agricultural survey of Lancashire in the 1790s, etc. He had no children. |
| GEORGE III 1760–1820 | |
| 1763 | As mentioned in the Lancashire wills at Chester, Thomas Holt of Blackwater in Rochdale was a felt hat maker. |
| 1770 | Dorothea Holt founded a free school for six poor girls and continued her mother’s charity — capital had reached £80 (p201). |
| 1788 | Holt charity founded (p232). |
| 1798 | Edward Holt was one of the principal landowners in Shevington and Standish, according to land tax returns at Preston (vol 6). |
