Holywell Cemetery, Oxford: Famous people

Below: The grave of Walter Pater (Historic England HT00127):

People with entries in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

The following are the 88 people buried in Holywell Cemetery (plus eight more who had cremation burials) with full entries in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. The number is high because when it opened the cemetery covered all but eight of the old colleges of the University, and also many eminent people who lived in a parish in north Oxford covered by St Sepulchre's Cemetery are none the less buried here.

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ACLAND, Sir Henry Wentworth (1815–1900)
Physician

ACLAND, Sarah Angelina (1849–1930)
Photographer

ANSON, Sir William Reynell (1843–1914)
Politician and Warden of All Souls

ARMSTRONG, Edward (1846–1928)
Historian and college administrator

ARMSTRONG, Archibald (1840–1852)
Historian and college administrator

BOYD, Henry (1831–1922)
CofE clergyman and Principal of Hertford

BRADLEY, Andrew Cecil (1851–1935)
Literary scholar

BRADLEY, Francis Herbert (1846–1924)
Philosopher

BRIGHTMAN, Frank Edward (1856–1932)
Liturgical scholar

BURGON, John William (1813–1888)
Dean of Chichester and biblical scholar

BURROWS, Montagu (1819–1905)
Historian and university administrator

BUTLER, Arthur Gray (1831–1909)
Headmaster

CAIRNS, Sir Hugh William Bell (1896–1952)
Neurosurgeon

CANNAN, Charles (1858–1919)
Aristotelian scholar and publisher

CHASE, Drummond Percy (1820–1902)
Principal of St Mary Hall

COTTON, Richard Lynch (1793–1880)
Provost of Worcester

COX, George Valentine (1786–1875)
Author

DANIEL, (Charles) Henry Olive (1836–1919)
Printer and Provost of Worcester

DAVIDSON, James Lee Strachan (1844–1916)
Classical scholar

DONKIN, William Fishburn (1814–1869)
Astronomer and mathematician

DRUCE, George Claridge (1850–1932)
Botanist

EARLE, John (1824–1903)
Philologist

EDGEWORTH, Francis Ysidro (1845–1926)
Economist and statistician

ELLIOTT, Edwin Bailey (1851–1937)
Mathematician

FRAENKEL, Eduard David Mortier (1888–1970)
Classical scholar

GANDELL, Robert (1818–1887)
Orientalist and biblical scholar

GARROD, Heathcote William (1878–1960)
Literary and classical scholar

GEORGE, Hereford Brooke (1838–1910)
Historian and geographer

GIFFORD, Edwin Hamilton (1820–1905)
Biblical scholar

GOLIGHTLY, Charles Pourtales (1807-1885)
CofE clergyman and religious controversialist

GOODRICH, Edwin Stephen (1868–1946)
Zoologist

GORDON, George Stuart (1881–1942)
President of Magdalen and literary scholar

GRAHAME, Kenneth (1859–1932)
Writer and Secretary of the Bank of England

GREENIDGE, Abel Hendy Jones (1865–1906)
Ancient historian

GRENFELL, Bernard Pyne (1869–1927)
Papyrologist

GRIFFITH, Francis Llewellyn (1862–1934)
Egyptologist

GROSE, Thomas Hodge (1845–1906)
Classicist and university administrator

HAIGH, Arthur Elam (1855–1905)
Classical scholar

HATCH, Edwin (1835–1889)
Theologian

HERBERTSON, Andrew John (1865–1915)
Geographer

JELF, Richard William (1798–1871)
Principal of King's College, London

JOHNSON [née Todd], Bertha Jane (1846–1927)
Promoter of women's higher education

JONES, William West (1838–1908)
Archbishop of Cape Town

LANCASTER, Thomas William (1787–1859)
CofE clergyman and writer

LODGE, Sir Richard (1855–1936)
Historian

MACDONNELL, Arthur Anthony (1854–1930)
Sanskritist

MAITLAND, Agnes Catherine (1849–1906)
Principal of Somerville College

MAUD, John Primatt Redcliffe, Baron Redcliffe-Maud (1906–1982), Public servant

MERRY, William Walter (1835–1918)
Classical scholar

MICHELL, Richard (1805–1877)
Principal of Hertford College

MONRO, David Binning (1843–1905)
Classical scholar

MOORE, Aubrey Lackington (1840–1900)
Theologian and philosopher

MOWBRAY, Alfred Richard (1824–1875)
Church publisher and printer

MÜLLER, Friedrich Max (1823–1900),
Sanskritist and philologist

NETTLESHIP, Henry (1839–1893)
Latin scholar

NICHOLSON, Edward Williams Byron (1849–1912)
Librarian

ODLING, William (1829–1921)
Chemist

PATER, Clara Ann (bap. 1841–1910)
Tutor and promoter of the higher education of women

PATER, Walter Horatio (1839–1894)
Author and aesthete

PLUMMER, Charles (1851–1927)
Historian

POULTON, Sir Edward Bagnall (1856–1943)
Zoologist

PRICE, Bartholomew (1818–1898)
Master of Pembroke

PRITCHARD, Charles (1808–1893)
Headmaster and astronomer

RAMBAUT, Arthur Alcock (1859–1923)
Astronomer

RASHDALL, Hastings (1858–1924)
Moral philosopher, theologian, and historian

RAWLINSON, George Ernest (1812–1892)
Historian and CofE clergyman

RHŶS [formerly Rees], Sir John (1840–1915)
Celtic scholar

RICHARDS, Herbert Paul (1848–1916)
Classical scholar

ROLLESTON, George (1829–1881)
Physician and physiologist

ROLLESTON, Sir Humphry Davy (1862–1944)
Physician

ROMANES, George John (1848–1894)
Evolutionary biologist

SHADWELL, Charles Lancelot (1840–1919)
Scholar and Provost of Oriel

SHIELDS, Cuthbert (1840–1908)
Historian and eccentric

SMITH, Arthur Lionel (1850–1924)
Historian and Master of Balliol

STAINER, Sir John (1840–1901)
Musicologist and composer

STONE, Darwell (1859–1941)
CofE clergyman and theologian

SUMNER, (Benedict) Humphrey (1893–1951)
Historian

SYMONDS, Benjamin Parsons (1785–1873)
Warden of Wadham

TOZER, Henry Fanshawe (1829–1916)
Geographer and classical scholar

TYRWHITT, Richard St John (1827–1895)
Writer on art

VINOGRADOFF, Sir Paul Gavrilovitch (1854–1925)
Historian and jurist

WALLACE, William (1842–1897)
Philosopher

WALSH, William Henry (1913–1986)
Philosopher

WATSON, Albert (1828–1904)
Classical scholar and Principal of Brasenose

WELDON, Water Frank Raphael (1860–1906)
Zoologist and biometrician

WILLIAMS, Charles Walter Stansby (1886–1945)
Writer on literature and theology

WILSON, John Mathias (1814–1881)
Philosopher and President of Corpus

WOODS [née Bradley], Margaret Louisa (1855–1945)
Poet and author

CREMATION BURIALS

BOWRA, Sir (Cecil) Maurice (1898–1971)
Classical scholar and Warden of Wadham

FARRER, Austin Marsden (1904–1968)
Philosopher, theologian, and biblical scholar

FFOULKES, Charles John (1868–1947)
Museum curator

HAWKES, (Charles Francis) Christopher (1905–1992) Archaeologist

REEVES, Marjorie Ethel (1905–2003)
Historian and educationist

RIDLER, Anne Barbara [née Bradby] (1912–2001)
Poet and writer

RIDLER, Vivian Hughes (1913–2009)
Master printer

TYNAN, Kenneth Peacock (1927–1980)
Theatre critic

MEMORIALS ONLY (buried elsewhere)

POULTON [later Poulton-Palmer], Ronald William (1889–1915), Rugby player

OTHER HEADS OF COLLEGES NOT IN ODNB

EVANS, Evan (1813–1891),
Master of Pembroke College, Oxford
HARPER, Hugo Daniel (1822–1895)
Principal of Jesus College, Oxford
PLUMPTRE, Frederick Charles (1796–1870)
Master of University College
WILSON, Robert James (1840–1897)
Warden of Keble

There are also wives of college heads separated from their husbands, such as Lisa Agnes Routh (whose husband Martin Routh, President of Magdalen, is buried in Magdalen College chapel) and Margaret Dyne Jeune (whose husband Francis Jeune, Master of Pembroke and later Bishop of Peterborough) is buried in the yard of Peterborough Cathedral

Lady (Maria) Theresa Lewis, born Villiers and later Lister (1803–1865)

The British writer and biographer Lady Theresa Lewis who has her own entry in the ODNB was buried in Holywell Cemetery but only for a short while and she no longer has a grave there.

Lady Theresa died aged 62 on 9 November 1865 when paying a visit to her relative, Edward Hartopp Cradock, the Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford. On 14 November she was buried in Holywell Cemetery (in the St Mary-the-Virgin section, as the college was in that parish), and her body was carried to the grave by the college's servants. A full description of the funeral is given in Jackson's Oxford Journal on 18 November 1865, with a list of the well-known people who attended.

A note was later added in the margin of her burial entry in the St Mary's parish register stating: “Her remains were subsequently removed by the family.”. She was eventually laid to rest (as she had wished) in St Stephen's Church, Old Radnor beside her second husband, and her family erected a memorial to her on the wall of that church.

Thirteen Mayors of Oxford buried in Holywell Cemetery:

CARR, John Richard (1811–1893)
CASTLE, Nathaniel (1800–1861)
DRUCE, George Claridge (1850–1932), also in ODNB
JENKIN, James (1827–1898)
LUCAS, Thomas (1839–1917)
RANDALL, Thomas (1805–1887)
SAUNDERS, Jason (1824–1911)
SPIERS, Edwin Thomas (1808–1885)
TAWNEY, Charles (1780–1853)
THOMPSON, William (1811–1871)
VINCENT, Cyril Mosson (1846–1923)
VINCENT, Frederick (1863–1946)
WARBURTON, George Henry (1795–1861)

Other people well known in Oxford

This is just a small selection of the many tradesmen and others buried in Holywell Cemetery:

BLACKWELL, Benjamin Harris, Founder of the famous Oxford book shop (1814–1855)
BOFFIN, James, Baker (1816–1900)
FLETCHER, Carteret John Halford, Last Rector of St Martin's Church (1827–1913)
GRIFFITH, Samuel Young, Keeper of the Angel Hotel and Star Inn (c.1791–1865)
HARRISON, Nathaniel, Miller at Holywell Mill (c.1803–1874)
KNOWLES, Thomas Richard, Builder (c.1840–1892)

People awarded Oxfordshire Blue Plaques who are buried in Holywell Cemetery

Below: The Dean Burgon Memorial in 1915 (Historic England HT12339:

Famous people buried in Holywell Cemetery

People with entries in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Thirteen Mayors of Oxford buried in Holywell Cemetery:

Other people well known in Oxford

People awarded Oxfordshire Blue Plaques who are buried in Holywell Cemetery

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