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Moses HOLLIDAY (1805–1878)
His second wife Mrs Caroline HOLLIDAY, née Ivory (1813–1898)
Three of his children by his first wife: Charles Harvey HOLLIDAY (1835–1864),
Elizabeth HOLLIDAY (1837–1899), and Jane HOLLIDAY (1840–1928);
and one daughter by his second wife: Harriet Mary HOLLIDAY (1849–1929)
St Mary Magdalen section: Row 7, Grave D70

Moses Holliday was born in Oxford in 1805 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 24 March. He was the son of John and Jane Holliday, and he had at least two brothers: Joseph Holliday who was baptised at St Aldate’s Church on 2 January 1799 and John Holliday, who was born on 18 March 1802 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 21 March. Both his brothers were matriculated as

Moses’s father John Holliday was appointed Yeoman Bedel of the University, probably at the time he was matriculated as a privileged person on 30 May 1812. His son Joseph was also matriculated at the age of 21 as a tonsor (barber) on 9 July 1819 (see his wife's grave).

Moses in turn was appointed University Marshal (the man in charge of the University Police or “bulldogs”) at a young age, as he was already in the post on 21 August 1828, when at the age of 23 he married his first wife Ann Ward (probably the girl of that name born to Joseph and Elizabeth Ward on 6 July 1806 and baptised at St Michael’s Church the same day). Ann was still living in St Michael’s parish at the time of her marriage, as her parents kept the Granby’s Head pub at 36 Cornmarket; but the marriage took place at St Mary Magdalen Church in Moses’s parish. Jackson’s Oxford Journal reported on 23 August 1828: “On Thursday last was married Mr. Moses Holliday, University Marshal, to Ann, youngest daughter of Mrs. Ward, of the Granby’s Head, Corn Market.” They had the following children:

• Charles Ward Holliday (born at Pudding Bag Lane, Oxford in 1829 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 18 June); died aged five months and buried in its churchyard on 26 October
• Elizabeth Holliday (born at Pudding Bag Lane, Oxford in 1830 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 19 July);
  died aged 3 and buried in its churchyard on 8 September 1833
• Ann Holliday (born at Pudding Bag Lane, Oxford in 1832 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 29 May)
• Moses Holliday junior (born at Pudding Bag Lane, Oxford in 1833 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 29 July); died aged 16 and buried in its churchyard on 8 April 1850)
• Charles Harvey Holliday (born at Pudding Bag Lane, Oxford in 1835 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 8 April)
• Elizabeth Holliday (born in Oxford in 1837 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 31 March)
• Alfred Holliday (born at Victoria Court, Oxford in 1838 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 28 November)
• Jane Holliday (born at Victoria Court, Oxford in 1840 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 16 December)

Moses Holliday continued to work as the University Marshal after his marriage, and he and his first wife Ann lived in St Mary Magdalen parish: first at Pudding Bag Lane (now called Gloucester Street), and then from 1838 at Victoria Court (which lay behind the north-east end of George Street).

Moses’s first wife Ann Holliday died at Victoria Court, George Street at the age of 34 in February 1841 and was buried in St Mary Magdalen churchyard on 19 February. (St Sepulchre’s Cemetery would not be open for another seven years.)

The 1841 census was taken just after her death, and Moses Holliday, a widower of 36, was living at Victoria Court with his six surviving children: Ann (9), Moses (5), Charles Henry (6), Elizabeth (4), Alfred (2), and Jane (six months). A 43-year-old lady called Marian Bissayer was living with him and probably looked after the children; there was also a 17-year-old servant girl.

Two doors away was the family of his brother John Holliday junior, who was a college manciple; and next-door again was his father John Holliday senior (66), who was still working as a yeoman bedel. Both died at Victoria Court within five years: his brother died at the age of 41 in 1843 and his father at the age of 73 in 1846: again both were buried at St Mary Magdalen churchyard.

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Caroline Ivory (Moses Holliday’s second wife) was born in Oxford in 1813 and baptised at St Mary-the Virgin Church in December. She was the daughter of John Ivory, a billiard-table keeper, and his wife Mary. (Her parents may well be the John Ivory who married Mary Hamlett at Cumnor on 17 December 1805.) Mary had four older siblings: Elizabeth (1806), Harriet (1808), John Hiller (1809), and John Jackson (1811), all baptised at St Mary-the-Virgin Church. The family lived at Swan Court, whose entrance lay between 110 and 111 High Street.

Caroline’s father was a servant at Brasenose College and a billiard-table keeper, probably at the Betteris establishment in St Mary’s Passage. He died on 16 March 1834, and his death notice in Jackson’s Oxford Journal read: "On Sunday last died, aged 63, Mr. John Ivory, of this city, billiard table keeper, and upwards of forty years a servant of Brazen-Nose college".

At the time of the 1841 census Caroline and her older sister Eliza were living with their widowed mother Mary in Bear Lane. The latter died at the age of 73 on 27 December 1846, and again the death was announced in Jackson’s Oxford Journal.

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On 26 August 1845 at St Mary-the-Virgin Church, Oxford, Moses Holliday married his second wife Caroline Ivory. They had the following children:

• John Ivory Holliday (born at Victoria Court, Oxford in 1846 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 18 September)
• Harriet Mary Holliday (born at Victoria Court, Oxford in 1849 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 25 July)

At some point between 1841 and 1846, Moses ceased to be the University Marshal and took up the post of Manciple of Corpus Christi College. In 1849 he was also appointed Verger of the University following the death of Richard Norris.

His son Moses Holliday junior died at the age of 16 in April 1850: his burial is recorded in the register of St Mary Magdalen Church, but it is unclear where he is buried.

At the time of the 1851 census Moses (46), now described as both Manciple of Corpus and University Verger, was living at 2 Victoria Court, and the enumerator added: “This person occupies two houses”. With him were his wife Caroline (38) and their children John Ivory (4) and Harriet Mary (1), as well as three children from Moses’s first marriage, namely Ann (18), Charles (16), who was a cook, and Elizabeth (14). Caroline’s sister Miss Eliza Ivory (43), a fundholder and house proprietor, was living with them. The other two children from the first marriage were away at boarding school: Alfred (12) at Temple Cowley and Jane (10) at Sutton Courtenay.

By 1861 Moses’s son Charles had succeeded his father as Manciple of Corpus, and Moses (56) was now the Bailiff of the college; he still held the secondary post of Verger to the University. He and his wife Caroline were still living at Victoria Place with their two children John Ivory (14) and Harriet Mary (11), as well as with four children from Moses’s first marriage: Ann (28); Charles (26), Elizabeth (24), and Jane (20). Once again Caroline’s sister Miss Eliza Ivory (53) was living with them. The missing son, Alfred (22), who was a journeyman jeweller, was lodging at the Black Swan in Faringdon.

Moses Holliday’s son Charles died in 1864:

† Charles Harvey Holliday died at George Street at the age of 28 on 9 January 1864 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 14 January (burial recorded in the parish register of St Mary Magdalen Church).

On 19 November 1864 it was reported that Moses Holliday was elected to Local Board by the Vestry of St Mary Magdalen Parish.

By 1869 Moses’s son Alfred Holliday had opened his own jeweller’s/optician shop at 17 Broad Street (now the Oxfam shop: see English Heritage photograph), and on 30 March that year he married Charlotte Harriet Wicks, the daughter of John Wicks, a bootmaker of 4 Ship Street, at St Michael’s Church.

At the time of the 1871 census Moses and Caroline were still living at Victoria Place with their children John Ivory Holliday (24), who was a land surveyor, and Harriet (21), who was a governess. Also living with them were Moses’s two unmarried daughters from his first marriage, Elizabeth (34) and Jane (30), who were both described as fundholders, and Eliza Ivory Holliday. The other stepdaughter, Ann (38) is hard to find from this census onwards.

Moses Holliday was still working as Bailiff of Corpus Christi College when he died in 1878:

† Moses Holliday died at 1 Victoria Place or Court, George Street at the age of 73 on 26 March 1878 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 1 April (burial recorded in the parish register of St Mary Magdalen Church).

A simple death notice appeared in Jackson’s Oxford Journal. His estate came to nearly £6,000.

At the time of the 1881 census his widow Caroline (67) was still at 1 Victoria Place, living off the income of house property, with her daughter Harriet (31), who was still working as a governess. Her stepdaughters Elizabeth (44) and Jane (40) continued to live with her, and they still had one servant.

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John Ivory Holliday (born 1846)

John Ivory Holliday, the son of Moses Holliday by his second wife Mary Ivory, married Sophia Berry (born in Aylesbury in 1856/7) in Thame in 1876, and the following notice appeared in Jackson’s Oxford Journal: “June 29, at St. Mary’s Church, Thame, by the Rev. E. B. Corbett, Vicar, assisted by the Rev. E. Greensill, John Ivory, youngest son of M. Holliday, George-street, Oxford, to Sophia, 2nd daughter of R. Berry, High-street, Thame.”

Their first two children were born at 4 St John Street, Oxford and baptised as follows at St Mary Magdalen Church: Margaret Ida Holliday (10 October 1877) and Henry Berry Holliday (30 December 1878). They then moved to Chiswick, and their son Francis Holliday was born there at the end of 1880.

At the time of the 1881 census John (34), a surveyor and land agent, was living at 15 Arlington Park Gardens in Chiswick with Sophia (24) and their first three children.

In 1883 John arbitrarily gave up working as a land surveyor on a salary of £250 a year, leaving his mother Caroline and his wife’s father Richard Berry to support him, his wife, and their four surviving children. In September 1889, when they were living in Linslade in Bedfordshire, Sophia went to court to get a judicial separation, and his ill-treatment of her is reported in the Bucks Herald of 16 November that year: he knocked her down in the kitchen of their home, kicked and pinched her, regularly got up in the night and disturbed the children, threatening to “do for” some of them, chased her around the house with a knife, and threatened to throw a paraffin lamp over her. This had started early: on the second day after the marriage he had apparently locked his wife in a room all day. It was reported that he was entitled to £,3000 on the death of his mother, and that since the issue of a summons, he had obtained an advance on his furniture and had set out for South Africa. He was fined £15 or two months’ hard labour, Sophia was granted a judicial separation and custody of the children, and John was required to contribute £1 a week towards their maintenance. Their daughter Margaret gave corroborative evidence in court.

He disappears from UK records after his separation from his wife in 1883, and probably remained abroad.

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Mrs Holliday and her daughter and stepdaughters

By 1891 Mrs Caroline Berry had moved to 2 Norham Road with her daughter and two unmarried stepdaughters. She died there in 1898:

† Mrs Caroline Holliday née Ivory died at 2 Norham Road at the age of 84 on 29 January 1898 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 1 February (burial recorded in the parish register of St Mary Magdalen Church).

Her effects came to £1,318 1s. 4d., and one of the executors was William Holliday, a cashier in the Old Bank.

Her daughter Elizabeth died the following year:

† Miss Elizabeth Holliday died at 2 Norham Road at the age of 62 on 4 December 1899 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 7 December (burial recorded in the parish register of St Mary Magdalen Church).

Her effects came to £2,329 15s.

At the time of the 1901 census Miss Jane Holliday (60) was the head of the household at 2 Norham Road, and her stepsister Harriet (51), who was still working as a governess, was paying her a visit. By 1911 Harriet was living off private means and had come to live with her permanently.

Jane and Harriet Holliday continued to live at 2 Norham Road for the rest of their lives. Jane died there in 1928:

† Miss Jane Holliday died at 2 Norham Road at the age of 87 on 8 January 1928 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 11 January (burial recorded in the parish register of St Mary Magdalen Church).

Her effects came to £2,485 13s.

Her stepsister Harriet died the following year:

† Miss Harriet Mary Holliday died at 2 Norham Road at the age of 81 on 27 August 1929 and was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery on 30 August (burial recorded in the parish register of St Mary Magdalen Church).

Her effects came to £5,091 2s. 6d.

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Other surviving children of Moses Holliday

• Ann Holliday (born 1832) is hard to find in the censuses from 1871 onwards, and was probably married.
• Alfred Holliday (born 1838) and his wife Charlotte had two children: Herbert Alfred Holliday (born in 1870 and baptised at St Michael’s Church on 23 January) and Ronald James Moses Holliday (born in 1878 and baptised at St Mary Magdalen Church on 11 April). At the time of the 1871 census he and his wife were living over their jeweller’s shop at 17 Broad Street with their first child and a servant. By 1881 Alfred was employing two men and two boys, and there were two servants; and by 1891 Herbert (21) was his father’s assistant. In 1901 only one of their sons, Herbert (31), was at home, and he was a photographic dealer. His wife died at 17 Broad Street at the age of 59 in 1903. Holliday & Son continued to operate at these premises until 1914.