[1] He was the son of a pharmacist in Helsingør, Johannes Holten (1741–1816) and his wife Anna Margrethe, born Abildgaard (1747–1826).
He was born in Helsingør on 11 July 1770, and was named Johan after his father, but preferred to be known as Hans.
[2] In 1799 while at Helsingør, he caught a rare fish, a John Dory (Zeus faber), and noticed some parasites on the gills which he called "gillworms".
[4] Holten's only literary work is the Fauna or Animal History of Denmark and Norway, of which only 1 booklet (mammal) was published (1800), and a systematic auction catalog of Johann Hieronymus Chemnitz's collection of cones (1802).
[2] On 19 February 1796, he married Fredensborg Juliane Marie Wittendorff (27 October 1770 – 13 March 1838), daughter of the royal cantor P.A.