Rev. Henry Evans Holder II

1. Appears to be the son of Brig. General Henry Evans Holder I of Joe's River, Barbados, and Abel Dudley Holder (née Alleyne). He married Rebecca Hothersall (1757-1787) on 5 Sept 1779 in St John, Barbados and they were the parents of Henry Evans Holder III (q.v.). His second marriage was to Elizabeth Murray Holder (1766-1848) in St Joseph's, Barbados on 3rd January 1788. The Marriage Settlement transfers into both their names 'all that plantation or parcel of land commonly called and known by the name of Joes River...being in the said Parish of St Joseph...' and includes details of items on the property, its location, and a list of 'all those several nego and other slaves...names and sexes...'.

2. He was the author of A short essay on the subject of negro slavery, with a particular reference to the island of Barbadoes (London, 1788), Fragments of a Poem, intended to have been written in consequence of reading Major Majoribanks's Slavery (Bath, 1792), and Discourses on various subjects, delivered in the island of Barbadoes (4 vols., London, 1791-1792). The Short Essay and the Fragments of a Poem offer an unashamed defence of slavery and of slave owners.

3. In his extraordinary will made in 1800 and proved 18 May 1802, he left his son Henry Evans Holder jun. an annuity of £200 p.a. 'his neglect for me having induced me to deprive him of his succession to my landed property.' He left £200 p.a. to Mary Taylor 'known now by the name of Mrs Holder who resided with me in the Fleet Prison,' and the residue of his estate to Thomas Lenox Prescott and the Rev. Mr Wm Jones 'both now prisoners with me in the King's bench.'

1. Geni family tree. Email from Yvie Holder 25/08/2016 sourced to Bristol Records Office; Ancestry.com Caribbean Marriages 1591-1905 [database online]; Holder family papers 89731/1 Marriage Settlement of Henry Evans Holder and Elizabeth Murray Holder.

2. For some commentary on Holder and a comparison with another defender of slavery in Barbados, the Rev. John Duke of St Michael, see Jerome Handler, ‘A Rare Eighteenth-Century Tract in Defense of Slavery in Barbados: The Thoughts of the Rev. John Duke, Curate of St Michael’, Journal of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society, LI (2005), pp. 58-65.

3. Will of Rev. Henry Evans Holder proved 18/05/1802: PROB 11/1374/174.

We are grateful to Yvie Holder for her assistance with compiling this entry.