Samuel Holden (1675–1740) was an English merchant, politician, and

nonconformist Nonconformity or nonconformism may refer to: Culture and society * Insubordination, the act of willfully disobeying an order of one's superior *Dissent, a sentiment or philosophy of non-agreement or opposition to a prevailing idea or entity ** ...

activist.

Life

The son of Joseph Holden by his second wife Priscilla Watt, he was employed when still young by the

Russia Company The Muscovy Company (also called the Russia Company or the Muscovy Trading Company russian: Московская компания, Moskovskaya kompaniya) was an English trading company chartered in 1555. It was the first major chartered joint s ...

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

. He became a successful merchant in London, a director of the

Bank of England The Bank of England is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694 to act as the English Government's banker, and still one of the bankers for the Government of ...

(1720–27 and 1731–40), its Deputy Governor (1727–29) and its

Governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

(1729–31).historyofparliamentonline.org, ''Holden, Samuel (c.1675-1740), of Roehampton, Surr''.
/ref> A Dissenter, Holden chaired from 1732 a committee for the repeal of the

Corporation Act The Corporation Act of 1661 was an Act of the Parliament of England (13 Cha. II. St. 2 c. 1). It belonged to the general category of test acts, designed for the express purpose of restricting public offices in England to members of the Church of ...

and other

Test Acts The Test Acts were a series of English penal laws that served as a religious test for public office and imposed various civil disabilities on Roman Catholics and nonconformists. The underlying principle was that only people taking communion in ...

. He entered Parliament as Member for in 1735. Undertakings by

Sir Robert Walpole Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, (26 August 1676 – 18 March 1745; known between 1725 and 1742 as Sir Robert Walpole) was a British statesman and Whig politician who, as First Lord of the Treasury, Chancellor of the Exchequer, and Leader ...

not to obstruct actively moves for repeal turned out to be largely irrelevant when Holden tried to introduce legislation in the area. He resigned from the committee in 1736, forced out in favour of

Benjamin Avery Benjamin Avery, LL.D. (died 1764) was an English physician. Life Avery was originally a Presbyterian minister at Bartholomew Close, London, but quit the ministry in 1720, in consequence of the Salters' Hall controversy on subscription, 1719. He ...

. He married Jane Whitehalgh of the Whitehaugh, Instones, Staffordshire, with whom he had a son and 3 daughters. In 1744 his daughter and co-heir Mary married John Jolliffe, the MP for

Petersfield Petersfield is a market town and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is north of Portsmouth. The town has its own railway station on the Portsmouth Direct line, the mainline rail link connecting Portsmouth a ...

Legacy

Holden left £60,000 on his death in 1740.

Holden Chapel Holden Chapel is a small building in Harvard Yard on the campus of Harvard University. Completed in 1744, it is the third oldest building at Harvard and one of the oldest college buildings in America. Early history In December 1741, Mrs. Samuel ...

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University, an Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636, Harvard College is the original school of Harvard University, the oldest institution of higher lea ...

was constructed with some of this money.

Notes

1675 births 1740 deaths English Dissenters English merchants Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1734–1741 Governors of the Bank of England Deputy Governors of the Bank of England {{England-GreatBritain-MP-stub