• Surname has also been spelled as “Holliock, Holiocke, Holiock or Holyocke,” During this period of time, before about the late 1600’s, many writers relied on the spoken phonetic / pronunciation because literacy rate of most people of the time was quite low.

• The surname HOLYOKE and all of its variant forms seem to be derived from the holy oak, or gospel oak, an archaic term for a boundary tree. In Anglo-Saxon it is ““hálig āc” (Holy Oak)

• Little is known about Jane, mentioned in her father's will and in the will of her older brother John (in 1587) at which time she was still unmarried.


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