Sir Thomas de Holland, KG (1314 – 1360) 1st Earl of Kent, 1st Baron Holand – Founder Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter

Stall No. 23
Sir Otho Holland

Sir Thomas was the 13th out of twenty-five knights Edward III Plantagenet (1312- 1377) King of England dubbed into the Most Noble Order of the Garter in 1344. He and the others are considered founder knights of the oldest and most revered society of chivalry in English history. His brother Sir Otho was also invested as one of the founding knights chivalric order.

Thomas fathered four children with Joan Plantagenet “The Fair Maid of Kent” (1328 – 1385). A year after his death in 1360 she married her cousin Edward the Black Prince (1330 – 1376), Edward III’s son. The royal couple’s son Richard II reigned in England from 1377 to 1399.

John Holland (1352–1400), Thomas’ second son and half-brother of Richard II, was created first Duke of Exeter in 1397. After his execution for treason two years later, the title was recreated in 1416 for Thomas Beaufort (1377–1426), who died without issue. King Henry V (1386 – 1422) restored the title and all honors to the Holland family in 1439 in recognition of the faithful service of John Holland to the throne. The title went extinct after Henry Holland (1430 – 1475), John’s only son and claimant to the throne himself, became attainted as a Lancastrian in 1461, thereby forfeiting the peerage and his estates to his wife, Anne of York, Duchess of Exeter (1439 – 1476).

Francis Gabriel Holland and his brother Richard were the first of Sir Thomas’ direct descendants to immigrate to America from England during the early 17th century. He skippered the ship Supply which sailed from Bristol, England for Jamestown, Virginia on September 18, 1620. The ship landed at Berkeley, Virginia on February 8, 1621, less than two months after the Mayflower anchored in Plymouth Harbor.

Sir Thomas was an agnatic descendant of Hugh Capet (939 – 996) 1st “King of the Franks” and Clovis I Meroving (466 – 511) 1st King of Franks, 1st Christian Ruler of Gaul, Primogenitor of the Monarchy of France .

By Steven Wood Collins

I spent most of my life unaware of my ancestral heritage. Sure, I knew of the personal history of my more immediate relatives; but beyond that, I never had any inkling as to my ancestral heritage. Then one day many years ago my sister said to me, “I sometimes wonder about our family background.” And so my quest to discover our genealogical roots commenced.

I started building my family tree with the very basic relationships, going back in time from my grandparents, one ancestor at a time. That initial effort proved to be the hardest part of the pursuit, mainly due to my lack of expertise as a novice genealogical researcher. As I gained familiarity with the databases and how to efficiently mine them, my progress gained ever-increasing momentum. Today, The Patricians! tree (Ancestry.com) contains nearly 120,000 individuals, stretching over 135 generations, 5,800 of which are my direct ancestors in a genealogical sense.

During this trek back in time, I encountered fascinating figures in both history and obscurity. This blog contains many stories about their genealogical relationship to me (and many of you). By far and away, as a student of history, the historically obscure individuals are of particular interest to me. I cite Baron “Blue Beard” Montmorency-Laval de Rais (1405 – 1440) as an example of a historically maligned personage whose real contribution to history, as both a playwright and hero of France, has yet to be properly recognized. Another example is Earl Edward de Vere (1550 – 1604), who’s yet to gain widespread recognition as the actual author of the body of literary work wrongly ascribed to William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616).

My life-long interest in international economics and finance continues unabated. I primarily demonstrate this professional involvement as a contributor to the Long Room, the members-only international finance professionals' forum hosted by the Financial Times of London.

I'm an avid recreational scuba diver who enjoys traveling to exotic dive sites. My love of the sea and marine life gives me an unbounded appreciation and support of “green” issues, especially those devoted to the conservation of endangered species and coral reefs.

He continually posts results of his personal genealogical research to his Goodreads Authors Blog. Entitled The Patricians - The Ancestral Heritage of Steven Wood Collins, the work represents thousand of hours of his research efforts and related commentary.

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