He was baptized in Whitby Flowergate[3] Presbyterian Chapel on 28 July 1751.

 Flowergate Chapel from the balcony

Flowergate Chapel, though much changed, still survives though appears not to attract the large congregations it once did.

By 1751 his parents were almost certainly living in the house in Baxtergate (now the George Hotel), and it would be here that he grew up. The house has been much altered over the last 250 years.

Although nearly all his children were baptised as Presbyterians, John Holt had a pew in Whitby Parish Church. We do not know how this worked out in terms of regular attendance on Sundays; but it is possible that Thomas was taken on occasion to sit in the family pew in the South East transept of the Church.

Thomas was taught seamanship by his father John. The first mention of Thomas that we know of in the records is of him on board the Prince of Wales in 1769[4] as second mate on a voyage that started in May 1769, when he was still 17, though he will almost certainly have been at sea for a number of years as an indentured servant prior to this.  The owner and master of this vessel was his father. Thomas remained second mate in 1770, but by 1771 he was Mate, still with his father as Master. His father was no doubt a strict teacher, who would not be lenient on his son as he wished him to learn well and quickly. And presumably Thomas did easily assimilate all the relevant skills, because in 1772 we find him as Master and owner of the newly built ship Pallas[5]. This was the year he came of age, and Pallas may have been a 21^st Birthday present to Thomas from his father. Thomas’ brother William acquired his first ship at the same age.  Pallas survived long enough for compulsory registration[6]. She was surveyed on 24 February 1787. She was then described as a square-sterned ship[7] of 333.41 tons[8], built in Whitby in 1772.  She had three masts, two decks and was 107.7[9] foot long 28.3 wide and 5.7 ft between decks.

 It will have been unusual for a ship of this size to have a single owner; it was common to spread the risk by inviting others to invest by buying a part-share. In the 1787 register the owners of the Pallas are given as: Thomas Holt, John Holt [his brother], Robert Bentley; Wm Skinner & Sam Campion [both his uncles], the execs of Wm Parker; the execs of Thomas Holt [his uncle] & J Reynolds [whose son William was to marry Thomas’ cousin Elizabeth Skinner].  W Coates Esq of Sleights [another uncle] & Wm Linskill N Shields ropemaker, were also owners in their capacity as executors of Taylor Storm [another uncle], Ilfracombe, gentleman. This collection of part-owners neatly exemplifies the pattern of the interconnection of business and family ties in the 18^th Century.

On 22 February 1773, while Thomas was still 21 he married Esther Stockton. Esther was the daughter of Isaac Stockton and Esther Chapman, who were both Quakers. It was unusual for Quakers to “marry out”, and this often resulted in them being expelled from their community. However, as Esther was not twenty when she married, she must have done so with her parents consent[10].  Possibly there was a shortage of eligible Quakers, possibly being a baptized Presbyterian rather than an Anglican was much in Thomas’ favour. Isaac Stockton was a master mariner who lived at Hawsker Hall. He died 19 March 1800, and was buried in the Quaker Burial Ground at Whitby.

Esther Chapman was born 8 November 1728. She was the daughter of Abel Chapman (1694-1777) master mariner, by his second wife[11] Elizabeth Walker. The Chapman family is (allegedly) able to trace its ancestry through Abel’s mother Mary Temple to Leofwine, Earl of Mercia[12] in the 11^th Century. The Chapman family was very important in Whitby being major shipowners and bankers. Many were still Quakers, though some Chapman shipowners had left the Religious Society of Friends as their extreme pacifist stance forbad shipowners to carry guns on their ships in times of war. Many sailors were naturally reluctant to sail in unarmed merchant ships when Britain was at war (ie much of the 18^th Century), though the Quakers were always prepared to pay any ransom if their ships were taken.

Elizabeth Walker (1701-1735) was the sister of the Quaker John Walker (1705-1785), master mariner and merchant who employed the young James Cook as Servant and later as Mate in his collier ships Freelove, Three Brothers, and Friendship between 1747 and 1755[13].

Esther Stockton was also the co-heiress[14], of Isaac Stockton, and therefore very eligible. Clearly Thomas Holt must have been similarly eligible in the eyes of Esther’s parents.

Thomas was master of the Pallas until 1775. He then remained the main (part) owner of the Pallas though it had a series of masters: in 1777-79 it was George Bell, Joshua Robb in 1780-81, Jonathan Tindill in 1782-83, Thomas Chilton in 1784, James Dunning from 1791-93 and Jonathan Peacock in 1793-4. Between the Muster Rolls and Lloyds Registers we can piece together some information about the ship Pallas in these years. She was sheathed[15] in 1776, possibly as part of preparations for her being involved in the Transport Service during the War of American Independence. We know that she served in that role certainly from 1778 to 1782, during which time she was armed with six four-pounder guns.

From 1778 when the French entered the War, with Spain and Holland later participating, the nature of the conflict changed considerably. Britain found itself having to defend its interests in Canada and the West Indies (both areas with which Britain did enormously more trade than it had done pre-war with the American colonies), as well as to concern itself with India, Gibraltar, Minorca and other places. In addition it had to defend its own home waters. The British Army was enormously overstretched, and now dispersed among a number of areas which put even greater strain on the transport service: previously supplies had been shipped to Quebec and to the main army base in America, now they had to supply more places, with longer passage times, and a larger number of coastal voyages[16].  The Government’s strategy of dispersal began with orders to evacuate Philadelphia, to reinforce Florida and Nova Scotia, and to take St Lucia from the French. A force of 5,000 troops sailed from New York and had taken St Lucia by the end of 1778. Pallas may well have been involved in transporting troops for this invasion; certainly she takes part in a muster of transport vessels on 1 Jan and 15 Jan 1779 (a matter of days after the island was captured) in the Grand Cul de Sac at St Lucia[17], the collected ships including a number of other Whitby vessels. Pallas is listed in the muster records as being 344 tons, with George Bell as Master and Richard Siplin (or Sipling) as Mate. In addition to these two there was a crew of 16, including two boys, one of which was George Bell (possibly the Master’s son).  It was probable that the ships were assembled partly to transport troops to other British possessions in the Lesser Antilles, partly to go home (to return prisoners, fetch reinforcements and new supplies), and partly to find food nearer at hand. They would travel in convoy for protection.  Pallas was not immediately sent back to England in the groups that had returned by 21 February.

In 1782 Pallas underwent serious repairs, including re-sheathing. In that year in addition to acting as a transport, she also went on a trip to the Baltic, during which (at Elsinore on 15 July) the Mate Richard Simpling[18] drowned. The following year she made a journey to Riga, with the crew being paid off on 13 August 1783. It is possible that both these voyages were made to get raw materials for the war effort, as the Government was desperately short of transports in the latter years of the war and did not allow any ships in the transport service to leave. The Treaty of Versailles was signed in September 1783, and the war was over.

Pallas continued to trade after the war for another ten years. On 18 September 1793, with John Peacock as Master and with a crew of twenty others Pallas set out on her last voyage[19]. The employment of Lawrence Moor, the cook, ended on 13 June 1794 (no explanation given), the Mate, Henry Boynton, died on 20 June (again no explanation given). The ship itself was Burnt at Sea, but John Preston, Robert Knaggs (the 2^nd Mate), John Scrafton (the Carpenter) and 16 seamen (names unknown) were listed as being on the books until 18 August. This seems likely to have been the date the ship was destroyed; the absence of mentions of the deaths of any of these men implies they all escaped alive.

Meanwhile Thomas was becoming a family man. It is possible that he is the Thomas Holt who was living in Flowergate according to the Poor Rate Assessment Book of 1778. If so, it was there that was the home for their children, namely:

Martha, named for her paternal grandmother (who was already well over sixty and was to survive for another 35 years or so), was born in 1775, but she seems not to have been baptized in Whitby Parish Church. This may be because there were objections from Thomas’ Quaker in-laws, and her birth could have been registered in the Quaker records[20].  Martha married Edward Chapman on 21 April 1794, at the Parish Church, Whitby, by licence. The witnesses were: Martha and Robert Holt[21], Margaret Holt (Martha’s 16-year-old sister), Martha Atty (Martha’s first cousin, the daughter of Joseph Atty and Elizabeth, Thomas’ sister) and Robert Clark[22]. The absence of any of Martha’s maternal relatives among such a crowd of witnesses may be indicative: Quakers regarded churches (steeple-houses) with distaste. Edward (1769-1836) was the son of John Chapman who was the brother of Esther Chapman, and so was the first cousin of Martha’s mother, though only six years older. Edward[23] Chapman later became a magistrate, and was also Deputy Lieutenant of the North Riding of Yorkshire. Martha and Edward had several children. She died 6 November 1861, aged 86.

Esther, named for her mother, was born 30 November 1776, and baptized at the Parish Church at Whitby on 30 June 1777. I have no further information about her: it is possible that she died fairly young.

Margaret, named for her paternal great-grandmother, was born 9 March 1778 and was baptized at Whitby Parish Church on 3 April.  She married George Frederick Lockley at Whitby Parish Church on 19 February 1798 by licence. She would have been not quite twenty years old. The witnesses were Alice and John Ellerby[24]. George Frederick Lockley, described in the parish register as a gentleman, was an Army Surgeon, presumably stationed at or near Whitby at the time[25]. He was born in 1778, the son of John Lockley, page to the Prince of Wales[26], and Elizabeth née Laverocke; and family tradition says that he was a godson of the Prince[27]. Family tradition also says that it was an elopement, and was only later regularised in church. By the end of the war George Frederick was listed as Deputy Inspector of [military] Hospitals, and from 1811 to 1821 he held the honorary post of Apothecary Extraordinary to the Prince Regent. He set up a practice at 81 Half Moon Street in Piccadilly. Margaret and George Frederick had several children. Margaret died 21 July 1822.

Isaac Stockton, named for his grandfather, and the couple’s only son was born 8 September 1779 and baptized on the 14^th. Sadly he survived only a couple of weeks and was buried on the 26th. Both ceremonies were at the parish church.

Thomas and Esther had no more children, even though they were both still under 30. Thomas is described as a master mariner in all these parish records.

Although Britain was at war, and Thomas was part-owner of shipping either directly involved in the transport service, or as merchant traders whose business would be more disrupted and dangerous, it was believed that Whitby itself would be fairly safe. The American John Paul Jones brought the war to Britain with his daring attacks and raids. In 1779 he was off Whitby, causing a great deal of fear and alarm. On 3 September he, in his ship the Bonhomme Richard and with two ships lent him by the French, attacked a fleet of 41 merchantmen returning from the Baltic which were being escorted by the fifth-rater HMS Serapis and the corvette, Countess of Scarborough. The skirmish took place off Flamborough Head[28] and was fiercely fought, eventually Jones being successful. However it was something of a Pyrrhic victory as, though John Paul Jones captured both the British vessels, his own ship was lost. I do not know what happened to the merchant vessels, some of which were probabbly Whitby vessels; I suspect they made their escape. John Paul Jones never threatened Whitby again, though his name is said to have been used for many years afterwards to frighten naughty children.

Thomas was a shipowner, though it is not easy to be certain about which ships he did own apart from Pallas[29]. He was probably a part-owner of Wisk[30] (with, among others, his brother John), and less certainly of Martha[31] and Harpooner[32] (the owners of both vessels included both his brother William, and Joseph Holt, brother of his cousin Thomas), Prince William Henry[33] and Fanny[34].

The cost of the war caused another sharp surge of inflation, which caused a number of problems for sailors and merchants. However, any problems caused to Thomas must have been compensated for by the fact that he became a very rich man after the death of his father in October 1783. Under the terms of the will Thomas received a farm at North Ottrington which his father purchased from Reed Wade. This farm was worth some £2,300; but he had to contribute a sum of £1,100 back into the estate (to equalise the value of the farms that each son inherited). All the rest residue and remainder of his father’s messuages Lands tenements, Hereditaments and Real Estate whatsoever and wheresoever, as well as all his Ships Shipping and Parts and Shares of Ships, Money out at Interest and Securities for Money together with the Residue and Remainder of his Personal Estate and Effects whatsoever, wheresoever, and of what Nature of kind soever is then to be divided among John Holt’s six surviving children, namely John Holt, Margaret Campion, Elizabeth Atty, Mary Richardson, Thomas Holt and William Holt.

Peace did not last for long. In 1793 Britain was at war with Revolutionary France. Apart from a brief few months after the Peace of Amiens in 1802, war with France was to continue for the rest of the lives of both Thomas and Esther.

It was in the 1790s that their daughters Martha and Margaret were married.

The Whitby Ship Register transcripts suggest that Thomas (and brother John) moved to Runswick by 1799 (see footnote 30). However this is almost certainly a transcription error for Ruswarp. Much of the town of Whitby, including the “new” developments of Silver Street and Skinner Street was actually in the parish of Ruswarp.

Wisk, of which Thomas was (almost certainly) a part-owner, continued to trade during the war years. There was the constant risk that merchant vessels would be taken by the enemy, and insurance premiums were high. From 1803 Napoleon was planning to invade Britain, and the country was in a state of alert bordering on panic, that was only reduced after the Battle of Trafalgar. The navy was in competition for sailors to man its fleet with the merchant navy.  In 1803 Wisk seems to have been on a normal trading voyage, with Thomas’ nephew Thomas Holt as master. On that trip Robert Miller, the carpenter, who had been with the ship since April, was impressed into the Navy at London in November. Weatherill states that Wisk was eventually condemned at London 1811. But by then both Thomas and Esther were dead.

Esther died aged 52, and was buried in the Quaker Burial Ground at Whitby on 19 March 1805. She is described as wife of Thomas Holt of Ruswarp.  Esther seems to have remained a strict Quaker all her life, as Thomas was an Anglican  (at least officially; he was baptized as a Presbyterian, though how far he remained true to the religious ideas of his parents is unknown). Thomas died on 25 January 1810[35], aged 58. He was buried at Whitby parish church on 31 January 1810. In the register he is described as a gentleman, of Ruswarp. He was buried with his father. His mother died the following year, and is in the same grave.