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William Hollins

Hollins, William (1763–1843), architect and sculptor

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 8, 2026
Entity authorityQ18672827 ↗
Source-derived summary

William Hollins (18 March 1763 – 12 January 1843) was an 18th/19th century English architect and sculptor. His work is largely in the Greek Revival and Gothic styles.

Life

He was born in Shifnal in Shropshire on 18 March 1763 the son of John and Mary Hollins. He was originally apprenticed as a stonemason then went to London to train as an architect, specifically studying Vitruvius. He is known to have assisted George Saunders on his Theatre Royal project on New Street in 1793. He then set up his own practice in Birmingham around 1795.

By 1800 he was living at 17 Great Hampton Street in Birmingham. In 1806 he lost a prestigious commission for a memorial to Horatio Nelson in the centre of Birmingham which was instead won by Richard Westmacott.

He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1821 to 1825.

He died at home in Great Hampton Street on 12 January 1843 aged 79.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “William Hollins” is hollins, William (1763–1843), architect and sculptor. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through William, Hollins and architect, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1763, 1843, 1793, 1795—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1763-01-17. For this dossier, William, Hollins and architect is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “hollins, William (1763–1843), architect and sculptor” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18672827. VIAF identifies the subject as 35986096. The Library of Congress control number is n87912293. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1763, 1843, 1793 and 1795.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “William Hollins”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow William Hollins primary sources, William Hollins archive and William research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “William Hollins”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “William Hollins” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.