The Hollimans of England, Part 7

 by Glenn N. Holliman

With this post, we conclude an exploration into the lineage of Lindsay Holliman of England, a distant cousin of most American Hollimans (various spellings) who shares our same ancestor, Thomas Hollyman of Cuddington, Buckinghamshire, England (d 1558).  Whereas my Hollyman forebearers left for Virginia in 1650, Lindsay's remained in England.  

In the 1500s, Hollymans were a prominent family.  One of Thomas's son, Christopher (d 1588 and my 9th great grandfather) married into the distinguished Lee family of Denton, Buckinghamshire, a family that acquired Hartwell House, now a National Trust property near Aylesbury.  However, whereas first born sons inherited real property, second and third born sons did not, so after several generations, these offspring became members of the commercial and laboring classes. 

Both Lindsay's and my paternal ancestors were those second and third sons for several generations in a row.  My 7th great grandfather, Christopher Hollyman (1618-1691) sought his fortune in Isle of Wight, Virginia.  If one will review the previous blog posts, one can read of the economic development of Lindsay's branch, moving from farm workers to commerce to academic endeavors over a period of several centuries.

With Lindsay's father, Frederick George Holliman,  a Cambridge University graduate, the family achieved the apex of academic learning in the United Kingdom.  George's  achievements and contributions to his country and the British Commonwealth are described below by Lindsay, his son.


Frederick George Holliman (1920 – 2001)  
by Lindsay Holliman

Frederick George Holliman in 1940

 Lindsay writes: 

"My father was born on 9 January 1920 in Cambridge and went to school and university there. A scholarship to Trinity College in 1938 launched him on his academic career and set its form. 

An attempt during World War II to join the Royal Fleet Air Arm was deflected into wartime research. That research mixed unconventional and dangerous work on flames and poisons and resulted in PhD in stereochemistry. He was elected to a fellowship at Trinity in 1943 and to a university demonstratorship in 1945. 

Below, Dora Circuit Holliman, Lindsay's mother.

He married Dora Circuit at the Bedford Salvation Army Citadel on 12 July 1945. They had two children - Lindsay in 1946 and Philip in 1950. In 1947 he left to teach at the University of Cape Town, South Africa (UCT) and was made professor of organic chemistry 1950, aged 30. Later in 1955, he became head of the chemistry department and, a few years later, Dean of the Faculty of Science. 

During this time apartheid was being developed and Fred, along with others, was very active in trying to keep South African universities open to all – at Cape Town University he was chairman of a committee fighting the changes. 

 Right, Dora and young Lindsay, 1949.


Left, Dora and Fred in the late 1960s, back in England.



 In 1962 the family returned to England, living in Harrogate in Yorkshire where Fred was a professor at Leeds University. He retired in the early 1980s and eventually lived in Market Harborough, Leicestershire where he died on 13 November 2001, two months after my mother Dora." - Lindsay Holliman

Below, Lindsay and wife, Magdeleine, outside their home near Market Harborough, England.  Retired from a career in human resources, Lindsay is an avid golfer, playing as often as three times a week.  Will there be other generations of Hollimans in England?  Yes, Lindsay has two sons!

If an American Holliman has ever wondered what happened to those left in England by those who migrated to the New World, well, now we have one story of just such a branch of our family! 

My thanks to Lindsay for sharing his ancestral story and for his friendship across the Atlantic. - GNH


For information on Hollimans and allied families, please refer to the 28 March 2015 blog for an inventory of available manuscripts and data on Hollimans and allied families.

Have questions about Holliman family history? You are invited to join the Hollyman Email List at Hollyman-Subscribe@yahoogroups.com and the Hollyman Family Facebook Page located on Facebook at "Hollyman Family". Post your questions and perhaps one of the dozens Holyman cousins on the list will have an answer. For more information contact Tina Peddie at desabla1@yahoo.com, the list and Facebook manager for Hollyman (and all our various spellings!).

We are all on a journey.  Through genealogy we can discover how families better themselves generation to generation.  When we understand the past, we know ourselves more fully and are more generously equipped to travel through our own time and place in the Cosmos. - GNH