Arthur Howe Holdsworth
Famous Sons & Daughters No.17: Arthur Howe Holdsworth (1780–1860)
With his architectural expertise, his inventor’s mind and his desire to lead, Arthur Howe Holdsworth changed the landscape of Dartmouth forever.
This was the man who pushed for the first ever carriageway out of Dartmouth. Without him there would be no Victoria Road. Under the same Improvement Act, which he relentlessly promoted, the Mill Pool was filled in and the Market Square erected on the reclaimed land.
Holdsworth also put his stamp on the mill at Warfleet, which he rebuilt as a paper mill. His specially designed vaulted roof drew acclaim for using the least possible amount of timber while covering the space without central supports.
He was MP, he was Governor of Dartmouth Castle, his family dominated the business and cultural scene in Dartmouth for two centuries. He was nationally regarded as talented in the arts, sciences and politics.
The Holdsworth family came originally from Yorkshire. The first to arrive in Devon was a vicar who moved to South Devon in 1620. His descendants began the family’s trade links with Newfoundland, and his son, another Arthur, was the first Holdsworth to be Mayor of Dartmouth. The family went on to trade with Portugal, where they owned estates, the Baltic, America and the West Indies. The Holdsworths were so powerful in Dartmouth that between 1715 and 1830, a Holdsworth was Mayor of Dartmouth for 47 years, and in the other years the post was held by their close relatives or business partners. They also influenced the appointment of vicars. The Holdsworths and their relations held most of the important posts in and around Dartmouth - Freemen, Mayors, Governor of the Castle since 1725, Rector of Stokenham and Brixham.
By the time Arthur Howe Holdsworth was born into this family of Devon trading merchants in 1780, their success was well established. He grew up in Widdecombe House near Stokenham and Mount Galpin in Dartmouth, and was greatly influenced by his father, also Arthur, a prominent shipowner, merchant, and Member of Parliament.
Arthur Howe, his middle name a tribute to the British Admiral Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe, and a family friend, grew up to be an active businessman like his father, but with a passion for inventing. He had many patents to his name, relating in the most part to shipbuilding and boats.
This was the most prosperous time for the Holdworth family. In 1725 they had been awarded The Waters of the Dart by the Duchy of Cornwall, which meant they could collect tolls on all goods landed between Salcombe and Torbay. This lasted until 1820. Arthur Howe Holdsworth fought in vain to retain the authority.
He was regarded as one of the most talented members of his family in the arts, sciences and politics. A skilled artist, he sketched constantly and his books can still be seen in Dartmouth Museum. He believed passionately in maintaining Dartmouth as a centre for business, hence his commitment to rebuilding Warfleet Mill as a paper mill complete with his own clever roof design. The mill had the largest water wheel west of Bristol and Holdsworth worked out a method of making fine paper from coloured rags, by extracting the colour and thereby making them equal in quality to the more costly white rags.
He was fascinated by ship building and patented an improved rudder for ships, watertight bulkheads and a fireproof magazine. He was dedicated to expanding the region’s shipping interests and saw the benefits of other transport. As MP, serving from 1802 to 1820, and 1829 to 1832, he fought for the building of the first carriage way out of Dartmouth, now Victoria Road, and he saw the benefits of using rail as well as sea. He was a shareholder in the Bristol and Exeter Railway and, after he lost his seat, continued to strongly support the town’s campaign for a mail packet station. In letters to the Admiralty Commission, Holdsworth expounded on his ideas for promoting the local economy by bringing in the railway, believing this would enable Devon products to be sent to distant markets, as well as being the first to really see the benefits of promoting tourism in Dartmouth. He was ahead of his time. His ideas all bore fruit but not in his lifetime. The railway line to Kingswear opened in 1864, three years after his death.
Holdworth’s successes were marred by a bitter feud between his family and the equally successful Seales of Dartmouth. It was a long struggle that lasted for generations. The acrimony between the Holdsworths and the Seales even forced Arthur Howe to move his daughter’s wedding from Dartmouth to Brixham in 1839.
Holdsworth had been defeated by John Henry Seale in the parliamentary election of 1832, after the Reform Act of that year. By 1840, all the Holdsworths had left Dartmouth, including the Vicar Robert, Arthur’s brother.
Holdsworth and his wife Henrietta Eastabrook spent more and more of their time at Widdicombe House. At his death in 1861, Holdsworth left an enormous estate. His eldest son, Arthur Bastard Eastabrook Holdsworth, inherited Widdicombe House. His granddaughter, Alice Mary, had married Edmund St Aubyn at Dartmouth in 1847, and his other granddaughter, Georgina, married Thomas Levett-Prinsep, of Derbyshire, in 1868 at Stokenham. They had one son.
Arthur Howe Holdsworth’s uniform from his time as Governor of Dartmouth Castle is displayed in Dartmouth Museum. He was the last of five members of his family who held this post continuously from 1725 to 1861, when Arthur Howe died. For the last few years the job had been largely a ceremonial one – but Holdsworth also held it during the Napoleonic Wars when the threat of invasion from France was very real, and the Castle was fully armed and garrisoned.
Holdsworth was a man who had seen Dartmouth through days of great change, and opened up communication for the town with the rest of the country.
First Published November 2010 By The Dart