Henry Holcroft

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Sir Henry Holcroft (1586–1650) was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1624 to 1629 and held offices in Ireland, including at Dublin Castle. He also translated a major Greek history into English—the History of the Wars of Justinian by Procopius—which was published in 1653 after his death and became the standard edition for many years.

Holcroft came from a notable family. He was the son of Thomas Holcroft of Battersea and Joan Roydon, and the grandson of Jeffrey Holcroft of The Hurst in Lancashire. After his mother remarried Sir Oliver St John in 1592, Henry lived for a time as the stepson of Viscount Grandison; Grandison died in 1630 and Henry’s mother died in 1631. A bust of his mother is in the Grandison monument in St Mary’s Church, Battersea.

He studied at St John’s College, Cambridge (around 1601) and joined Lincoln’s Inn in 1604. On 30 August 1616 he became Chief Secretary for Ireland under Sir Oliver St John, the Lord Deputy of Ireland, and on 13 March 1617 he was named Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland. He bought land in Limerick and Kerry. By 1620 he was married to Lettice Aungier, daughter of Francis Aungier; they had five sons and four daughters.

Holcroft was knighted on 1 May 1622 and soon after became the King’s Secretary for Irish affairs. His ally, the Duke of Buckingham, helped him keep this role after Charles I became king in 1625. In 1624 he was elected Member of Parliament for Stockbridge and in 1628 for Newton, sitting until 1629 when Parliament was dissolved by the king’s decision to rule without parliament for eleven years.

He helped negotiate early 1628 concessions with Irish settlers in exchange for money to defend Ireland. After Buckingham’s assassination, he served on a new committee for Irish petitions and grievances. He also invested £500 in the East India Company’s 1629 voyage.

Holcroft retired from his London and Dublin duties in 1634 and became a justice of the peace in Essex, living at Greenstreet House, East Ham. During the Civil War he supported Parliament and was part of John Pym’s council of war in 1643. In 1649–50 he was a parliamentary trustee for the disposal of crown lands.

He died in London at about age 64. His will left eight volumes of St John Chrysostom. In 1653 his English translation of Procopius’s History of the Wars of the Emperour Justinian was published in London by Humphrey Moseley and became the standard English edition for many years. He used sources such as a Greek edition edited by David Haeschelius and based on other manuscripts; his translation aimed for sense over literal accuracy, with later corrections by Edmund Chilmead. Holcroft was brother-in-law to Gerald Aungier, 2nd Baron Aungier of Longford. Henry and Lettice had five sons and four daughters, and Lettice survived him as his executor.