Henry Holcroft

Sir Henry Holcroft (1586–1650) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1624 and 1629 and held appointments in the Dublin Castle administration in Ireland. He translated the History of the Wars of Justinian by Procopius of Caesarea from the Greek, which was published in 1653 in London (after his death) and became the standard edition.

Biography Holcroft was (according to the Essex Visitation of 1634) the son of Thomas Holcroft of Battersea, Surrey, and Joan, daughter and heir of Henry Roydon (also of Battersea), and grandson of Jeffrey Holcroft of The Hurst, Lancashire. In 1592 his mother remarried, to Sir Oliver St John. Henry matriculated Fellow-commoner from St John's College, Cambridge in about 1601,

The influence of Holcroft's ally, George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, ensured that he retained the role after the accession of Charles I of England in 1625. In 1624, he was elected Member of Parliament for Stockbridge. He was elected MP for Newton in 1628 and sat until 1629 when King Charles decided to rule without parliament for eleven years. He played an active role in the preparation of the royal concessions that were negotiated in the early months of 1628 with representatives of the settler communities in Ireland, in return for a substantial contribution to the costs of defending Ireland. and died in London at the age of about 64: According to the Preface to this work, Holcroft made use of the Greek edition of David Hœschelius, published in Augsburg in 1607, which had been based principally upon a manuscript in the library of the Duke of Bavaria compared with two others furnished by Joseph Scaliger and Isaac Casaubon. Holcroft, who also translated the Secret Histories (Ἀπόκρυφη Ἱστορία) of Procopius, gave sense for sense rather than a pedantically verbal rendering, and supplied lacunae from the Latin editions: the final corrections and edits were in the hands of Edmund Chilmead, to whom Holcroft had formerly exhibited.

Holcroft was brother-in-law of Gerald Aungier, 2nd Baron Aungier of Longford (c. 1594-1655), of East Clandon, Surrey, whose accomplishment in antique languages was highly commended by his kinsman and tutor, William Oughtred.

Family Sir Henry Holcroft and his wife the Hon. Lettice (Aungier) had five sons named in their father's will: Henry Holcroft, born in Dublin c. 1620, inherited his father's volumes of St John Chrysostom. Educated at Bishop's Stortford school, he matriculated from Christ's College, Cambridge in 1638, where he graduated BA in 1641-42 and MA in 1645, becoming a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge 1645-1650. Charles Holcroft, living 1649 Gerald Holcroft, living 1649 Francis Holcroft, was admitted pensioner at Clare College, Cambridge in 1647. He graduated BA in 1650 and MA in 1654, and was a Fellow there, 1651-1660, when he was ejected: he was vicar of Bassingbourne, Cambridgeshire in 1655. An independent preacher, he was imprisoned in Cambridge Castle from 1663 to 1672, and at another time in the Fleet prison in London. He died in January 1692-93 and was buried in the Dissenters' churchyard at Triplow, Cambridgeshire, though his monumental inscription is in the church of Oakington.

and daughters:

Elizabeth Holcroft, living 1649 Lettice Holcroft, living 1649 Douglas Holcroft (named for her maternal grandmother Douglas FitzGerald), living 1649 and also: Anne Holcroft (in Essex Visitation 1634)

Dame Lettice Holcroft survived her husband and was his executor.