John Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle

Who was John Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle?

John Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, KG, PC was the son of the 3rd Earl of Clare and his wife Grace Pierrepont. Grace was daughter of The Hon. William Pierrepont and granddaughter of the 1st Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull. The Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne is a title which was created three times in British history. The first creation had become extinct when Henry Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne died with out a male heir. Holles became the 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, of the 2nd creation, in 1694.

Holles was born in Edwinstowe, Nottinghamshire. On 1 March 1690, he married Lady Margaret Cavendish, a daughter of Henry Cavendish. They had one child, Lady Henrietta Cavendish Holles, who married the 2nd Earl of Oxford and Mortimer and was mother to Margaret Bentinck, Duchess of Portland.

Correspondence and estate records of John Holles, including letters to his wife, are held at the department of Manuscripts and Special Collections, The University of Nottingham, principally in the Holles Papers, part of the Portland Collection.

A rivalry was formed between John and his sister, Elizabeth, when she married Christopher Vane, 1st Baron Barnard.