Career
He is best known for having co-founded, with Samuel Lowell Price and Edwin Waterhouse, the accountancy practice of Price Waterhouse that now forms part of PriceWaterhouseCoopers. He first joined the firm of Coleman, Turquand, Youngs & Company where he became an expert in liquidations and bankruptcies. He became friendly with another clerk by the name of Edwin Waterhouse while working there.
Holyland retired in 1871.