John Holbrook was a resident of Perquimans and later Chowan Precinct, North Carolina. In 1706 he served on two separate juries which heard cases involving Mary Rookes, who'd been accused of witchcraft. The jury found her not guilty in both cases. In 1721 he was part of the grand jury that indicted John Cope, an American Indian man, with burglary and trespassing. He later served as a justice of the peace for Bertie County, North Carolina. He died in Bertie County in April 1740.