HOLINSHEDE (Raphael), an English historian famous for the Chronicles under his name, was descended from a family that lived at Bosely in Cheshire; but neither the time of his birth, nor scarcely any circumstances of his life, are known. However, he appears to have been a man of considerable learning, and to have had a genius particularly adapted for history. His Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, were first published at London in 1570, in 2 vols. folio; and then in 1587, in 3 vols. In this second edition several sheets in the 2d and 3d vols. were caltated for containing some passages disagreeable to queen Elizabeth and her ministers; but the caltations have since been printed apart. Holinshed was not the sole compiler of this work, being assisted in it by several other hands. The time of his death is unknown; but from his will, which is prefixed to Hearne's edition of Cambden's Annals, it appears to have happened between 1578 and 1582.