John Holmes must have been a musician of some note as he was promised the next lay vicar's vacancy at Winchester Cathedral, a practice that was rarely if ever done. He served during the reign of Queen Elizabeth as well as James I. Holmes became the Master of the Choristers for Slaisbury. Two of his students, Batten and Lowe, became an organist for Chirst's Church and professor of music at Oxford respectively. Most of the church music he composed was in verse form and is also some of the earliest recorded music from the provinces. A collection of extant organ pieces are in Holmes' hand but none of the pieces can be attributed to him. Perhaps as many as forty of them were composed by a pupil of Byrd. ~ Keith Johnson, Rovi