Sir John Holt (23 December 1642 – 5 March 1710) was an English lawyer who served as Lord Chief Justice of England from 17 April 1689 to his death.

A letter in the Bodleian Library reads: "The celebrated Dr Radcliffe, the physician ... took special pains to preserve the life of LCJ Holt's wife, whom he attended out of spite to her husband, who wished her dead."

He is said to have spent a very dissipated youth, and even to have been in the habit of taking purses on the highway,[6] but after entering Gray's Inn about 1660 he applied himself with exemplary diligence to the study of law.

Having been one of the judges who acted as assessors to the peers in the Convention parliament, he took a leading part in arranging the constitutional change by which William III was called to the throne, and after his accession he was appointed Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench.

Callow particularly credits Holt with great courage in doing so in the face of religious pressure, mob violence, and popular superstitious belief in witchcraft.

[10]: 320 According to Callow, judges like Holt found "creative and practical ways around the statute book in order to prevent the execution of witches", with Holt "skilfully combining directions to jurymen that permitted religious faith and even the law's acceptance of the validity of witchbelief with measures to seek acquittals through the raising of questions of reasonable doubt and the unmasking of fraudulent cases of possession".

[11]: 236–239 George Lyman Kittredge wrote Holt "has a highly honorable name in the annals of English witchcraft" because all of the dozen to twenty trials he presided over resulted in acquittal.