John Holland

John Holland assumed the pastorate of the Unitarian chapel, Bank-street, Bolton, upon the death of his uncle Philip Holland in 1789.  The elder Holland trained under Doddridge at Northampton, but was a decided Arian when he began his ministry, first at John-street, Wolverhampton, Staffordshire from 1745-54; then at Noble-street, Wem, in Salop, from 1754-55; then at Bank-street, Bolton, from 1755-89 (see Gent. Mag. 1789, I, p. 88; and DNB).   John Holland was immediately ordained in 1789, with Dr. Barnes of Manchester and Mr. Turner of Wakefield taking part, and George Walker of Nottingham preaching the memorable sermon (published in Monthly Repository, 4: 673).  Some of the congregation were leary of young Holland, for he was zealous of the doctrines of Unitarianism, and he was “ardent in his feelings, and glowing with sentiments of civil and religious liberty, he had imbibed the spirit with the opinions of Dr. Priestley,” of whom he was a great admirer. He read his works “with avidity and studied with care, adopted most of his speculative as well as his philosophical and theological views, and to the utmost of his ability he gave currency to them all” (64).  According to Baker, “His intrepidity in persisting to preach the doctrines of Unitarianism, denounced on all sides as they were as destructive to Christianity and hostile to civil government, drew upon him the frequent remonstrances of many of the more timid of his own friends, besides an accumulation of odium from religious and political opponents.  His utter disregard to all opposition, when truth and justice [required him to speak and act, rendered him still further obnoxious to the cry of ‘Church and King,’ which then echoed through the country.  On one occasion he was burnt in effigy, and on another he was represented riding on an ass, as chief mourner, in a procession intended as a mock celebration of the funeral of the author of ‘the Rights of Man.’  These disgraceful scenes, like the riots at Birmingham, were only the ebullitions of party rancour, rendered frantic by the French Revolution, and the progress of public opinion to more patriotic principles of government and wider extension of religious liberty!” (67-68).  References above are from Franklin Baker, The Rise and Progress of Nonconformity in Bolton. . .  (London: E. T. Whitfield, 1854), 64-70; also Monthly Repository, 1826, 430, 495.