Francis Holyoake (1567 – 13 November 1653) was an English cleric and lexicographer.
Holyoake was born at Nether Whitacre, Warwickshire. About 1582 he studied as a commoner at The Queen's College, Oxford, though it does not appear that he took a degree. Later he taught at a school, first at Oxford, and then in Warwickshire. In February 1604 he was instituted to the rectory of Southam, Warwickshire,[1] In 1625 he was elected a member of Convocation.
In 1642 Holyoake was forced from his house by the parliamentarians, his wife was roughly handled, his servant was killed, and his estate of £300 per annum was sequestered, so that he and his family were obliged to subsist on charity.[2] He died on 13 November 1653, aged 86, and was buried in the church of St. Mary at Warwick.
Holyoake compiled a Dictionarie Etymologocall, which was annexed to Riders Dictionarie correct, 2 pts., London, 1617, an edition of the lexicon of John Rider. The work was re-issued in 1626, with additions by Nicholas Grey, and in 1640. A fourth edition was published as almost Holyoake's own, with the title Dictionarium Etymologicum Latinum, 3 pts., London, 1633. The sixth edition is stated to be compositum et absolutum a Francisco de Sacra Quercu, 1648. His son Thomas made major additions to the work, but, dying before he could complete the edition, it was published by Thomas’s son Charles, as A large Dictionary in three parts, London 1677–1676.
Francis Holyoake presented a manuscript to Queen's College library, entitled Huguccionis, seu Huguitionis, Pisani, ep. Ferrariensis, Lexicon alphabeticum.