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Thomas Hollis (1659 – January 21, 1731)Hollis died in January 1730 by the Old Style calendar in use at the time, but in 1731 by New Style (modern) dating. was a wealthy English merchant and a benefactor of Harvard University.
Harvard On-Line Library Information System (HOLLIS)
1659 births 1731 deaths Harvard University people Hollis Chair of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy Date of birth unknown Holliston, Massachusetts English merchants {{England-bio-stub
Thomas Hollis (1659 – January 21, 1731)Hollis died in January 1730 by the Old Style calendar in use at the time, but in 1731 by New Style (modern) dating. was a wealthy English merchant and a benefactor of Harvard University.
Benefactions
As a Baptist and a Calvinist, Hollis required his donations to be used for directed purposes. For example, in 1721, he established the Hollis Chair of Divinity at Harvard, with a salary of £80 per year, with the stipulation that Baptists be included for consideration. This broadening constituted a form of dissent from strict adherence to the orthodoxy of the day, where New England's reform Protestantism was being buffeted by ripples and uncertainties generated by theGlorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution; gd, Rèabhlaid Ghlòrmhor; cy, Chwyldro Gogoneddus , also known as the ''Glorieuze Overtocht'' or ''Glorious Crossing'' in the Netherlands, is the sequence of events leading to the deposition of King James II and ...
of 1688/9. In 1726, he also endowed the Hollis Chair of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy with the same amount. Hollis also convinced his younger brothers, John and Nathaniel, to contribute substantially to Harvard and thus helped establish a legacy of civil and religious liberty across the Massachusetts Bay Colony
The Massachusetts Bay Colony (1630–1691), more formally the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, was an English settlement on the east coast of North America around the Massachusetts Bay, the northernmost of the several colonies later reorganized as the ...
decades before the American Revolution.
Legacy
The town of Holliston, Massachusetts, is named for him; as is HOLLIS, the Harvard On-Line Library Information System.Notes
References
Further reading
*External links
Harvard On-Line Library Information System (HOLLIS)
1659 births 1731 deaths Harvard University people Hollis Chair of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy Date of birth unknown Holliston, Massachusetts English merchants {{England-bio-stub