Rowland Holt

Rowland Holt (c. 1723–1786) of Redgrave Hall, Suffolk, was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1759 and 1780.

[1] Holt was elected Member of Parliament for Suffolk in a by-election on 20 April 1759 as a stop-gap on the death of Sir Cordell Firebrace, Bt.

As the 1768 general election drew near neither of the sitting Members was prepared to abide by the agreement of 1761, and as Rous was determined to stand, all three were nominated at the county meeting on 6 November 1767.

But three days later Holt, reflecting on having been forsaken at the meeting by gentlemen on whose support he had counted, took his ‘final leave’ of the electors in a letter to them.

[1] In another letter to electors Holt explained his decision and concluded by asking leave for the future to build his enjoyments ‘with more durable materials than the popular breath of such folks as constitute a majority at most public meetings’.