Samuel Holland

Samuel Johannes Holland (1728 – 28 December 1801) was a Dutch-born Royal Engineer and first Surveyor General of British North America. Life in the Netherlands Holland was born in 1728 in Deventer, the Netherlands. He was baptised on 22 September 1729 in the small Lutheran Church in the Dutch town of Deventer, in the Province of Overijssel. In 1745, he entered the Dutch, or Staatse Leger artillery, and served during the War of the Austrian Succession. He was promoted to lieutenant in 1747. In 1749, Holland married Gertrude Hasse. They had one daughter, who is thought to have died in infancy. In 1754, having possibly made contact with the Duke of Richmond and leaving his wife behind in the Netherlands, Holland emigrated to England to seek advancement under the British flag. Early years in British North America In 1756, Holland, probably with Richmond's aid, became a lieutenant in the Royal Americans, coming to British North America where he would spend the rest of his life. Among his first assignments was the preparation of a map of New York Province that would be widely used for twenty years.