| AdminHistory | HOLLIS HOSPITAL TRUST:
Thomas Hollis (1634 - 1718) established a hospital (an ancient name for a charitable house) in 1703. The objectives of the Hollis Hospital Trust were to support, in the Hollis Hospital, 16 poor persons, to assist poor dissenting ministers in Sheffield, Rotherham and Doncaster and teach reading to poor children in those towns.
The original Hollis Hospital building, adapted by Hollis for the purpose in 1703, was the ancient New Hall in the Bridge Street and Newhall Street area of Sheffield. From 1678 the New Hall had been used as Sheffield's first dissenting chapel and, after the congregation removed to the new Upper Chapel in Norfolk street in 1700, Hollis purchased the New Hall and an adjoining house in 1703 for his charity. An inscription, on what was probably part of the original buildings, reads: 'This hospital for sixteen poor aged inhabitants of Sheffield, or within two miles round it, and school for fifty children, were founded by Thomas Hollis, of London, cutler, 1703. And further endowed by his sons, Thomas Hollis, 1724, and John Hollis, 1726, and rebuilt more commodiously by the Trustees, 1776' (J.E. Manning, History of Upper Chapel, 1900, p.24).
The Hollis Hospital was later rebuilt by the trustees in 1776 on the same site and the almshouses continued there until their purchase by Sheffield Corporation for street improvements, resulting in the demoliton of the building in 1901 (see Picture Sheffield for photographs of this building). The Hollis Hospital moved to Whirlow Bridge, where Whirlowdale Road now joins Ecclesall Road South, which is where the charity is still based today.
The trustees were to be living in or near Sheffield or to be near kindred of Thomas Hollis the younger, even though they might be residing in London. In fact, several of the trustees during the eighteenth century were founders' kin and lived, like the Hollises themselves, in London. The correspondence between the trustees in Sheffield and the trustees in London forms an interesting part of the present collection.
The Hollises were dissenters and the Trust maintained a strongly dissenting complexion and throws light on the dissenting congregations of Sheffield, Rotherham and Doncaster during the period concerned.
Hollis's Hospital is still registered as a charity with the Charity Commission and continues to provide sheltered accomodation for femal pensioners, the payment of pensions and the payment of grants to the ministers of certain nominated nonconformist chapels. The charity also funds the payment of educational grants and grants to specified disadvantaged people within Sheffield.
THOMAS HOLLIS:
Thomas Hollis, son of Thomas Hollis, whitesmith, of Rotherham, was born in 1634 (baptised 4 Sep). In 1648 he was apprenticed cutler in Sheffield to his uncle Ramskar. Hollis was said to have been a Baptist. He left Sheffield for London in 1654 to manage his uncle's cutlery business in the Minories. In 1658 he married Anne Thorner. In London, Hollis worshipped at Pinner's Hall, and in 1678 he leased the hall for the use of nonconformists. He also contributed funds for the first Meeting House in Sheffield, and when this became too small for the growing congregation and a new chapel had to be built in 1700, he contributed largely to the expense of the building, and also purchaed the old chapel and converted it into an almshouse. Thomas Hollis died in 1718 aged 84. |
| RelatedMaterial | Sheffield City Archives:
Agreement, Samuel Paramore to convey to John Stacey a piece of ground near Hollis's Hospital, 18 Nov 1783. Endorsed with a mem. that Stacey holds in trust for the Trustees of the Hospital (WC 1336).
Abstract of title to Hollis's Hospital lands, 1787 (WC 1206).
Memorial for registration of a deed between the Trustees of Hollis's Hospital, concerning part of Broccohill Close in Sheffield demised by the Trustees to John Kay, 27 Jan 1791 (WC 188).
Maps of the lands belonging to Hollis's Hospital, on the Brockoe in Sheffield, and at Dore, by W. Fairbank and J and W.J. Fairbank, 1787 and 1827 (WC 1467-1470; 2041).
Inventory of deeds belonging to the Trust, taken 1845 (WC 2327).
Agreement, William Webster on behalf of the Trustees with William Tyzack, sawmaker, to let Whirlow Wheel from year to year for £28 p.a., 28 Feb 1831 (WC 2328).
Agreement, John Poole of Sheffield, publican, and John Shore the younger, banker, of Sheffield on behalf of the Trustees of Hollis Hospital, room in Water Lane, 31 Dec 1819 (WC 2329).
Declaration of Trust, Offley Shore in favour of Trustees of Hollis Hospital, two shares in the Dearne and Dove Canal Navigation, 17 Aug 1835 (WC 2330).
Assignment, James Hoole of Crookes and Joseph Matthewman of Birley Carr, Ecclesfield; to John Birks of Walkely, tanner, with the consent of William Woodrove now of Lightwood, Norton, Derbyshire. Land and buildings at Creswick close (lying south of West Bar) which was leased in 1726 by the trustees of Hollis Hospital, 6 Feb 1743 (WC 2425).
Counterpart of lease, Timothy Hollis, Hollis Edwards and the other trustees of Hollis Hospital; to John Green, table knife cutter. A piece of ground called Brocco Hill in Hollis Street for 800 years, 2 Feb 1787 [not signed] [plan] (WC 2426).
Lease as above, alterations in pencil (Timothy Hollis' name erased), 1796 (WC 2427).
Various plans, deeds and field books of the Hollis Hospital, drawn up by the Fairbank family, surveyors, Sheffield, 1720 - 1844 (FC).
Correspondence with the Hollis Hospital Trustees regarding land at Burbage and Whirlow Wheel and the 1929 - 1930 Sheffield Corporation Bill, Nov - Dec 1929 (CA629/41).
Charity accounts, Hollis Hospital Trust, 1901 - 1954 (SY614/K70/4).
Agreement for sale of 1872/3 square yards of the yard of Hollis Hospital to be thrown down to a footpath for public use in Bridge Street, Sheffield, 11 May 1858 (TT/131).
Transcript of admission register c.1865 - 1889 (by Roy Bullen), 1998 (MD7596)
J.E. Manning, History of Upper Chapel, A Bicentennial Volume, with an Appendix Containing Timothy Jollie's Register of Baptisms, 1900 (MAN/PAR HIST) - includes information on Hollis's Hospital (p.24).
Sheffield Local Studies Library:
'The Hollis Hospital Trust. Interesting Sheffield Charity.', Sheffield Telegraph, 10 May 1904 (Sheffield Telegraph newspapers, microfilmed).
Roy Bullen, Hollis's Hospital: applications for admission to a Sheffield almshouse (in Sheffield History Reporter annual, 1998, pp.16-22), (942.74 SQ).
[List of trustees], Hollis Hospital - copy of the list of trustees from a manuscript. Dates of appointment from 1703 - 1913, [20th cent copy] (MP 1604 L).
Sheffield Reference and Information Library:
Charity Commission, Endowed Charities of the West Riding of Yorkshire', vol.1, Southern division, 1897 (361 Q)
Other records of the Trust remain in the custody of firms of solicitors and accountants in Sheffield and were reported on third stage report forms in 1954. For deeds etc, see NRA Report 3rd stage 217, 218. |