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EVELYN, JOHN (1620-1706)

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Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 7 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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EVELYN, See also:JOHN (1620-1706) , See also:English diarist, was See also:born at See also:Wotton See also:House, near See also:Dorking, See also:Surrey, on the 31st of See also:October 162o. He was the younger son of See also:Richard Evelyn, who owned large estates in the See also:county, and was in 1633 high See also:sheriff of Surrey and See also:Sussex. When John Evelyn was five years old he went to live with his See also:mother's parents at Cliffe, near See also:Lewes. He refused to leave his " too indulgent grandmother for See also:Eton, and when on her See also:husband's See also:death she married again, the boy went with her to Southover, where he attended. the See also:free school of the See also:place. He was admitted to the See also:Middle See also:Temple in See also:February 1637, and in May be became a See also:fellow commoner of Balliol See also:College, See also:Oxford. He See also:left the university without taking a degree, and in 1640 was residing in the Middle Temple. In that See also:year his See also:father died, and in See also:July 1641 he crossed to See also:Holland. He was enrolled as a volunteer in Apsley's See also:company, then encamped before Genep on the Waal, but his See also:commission was apparently complimentary, his military experience being limited to six days of See also:camp See also:life, during which, however, he took his turn at " trailing a See also:pike." He returned in the autumn to find See also:England on the See also:verge of See also:civil See also:war. Evelyn's See also:part in the conflict is best told in his own words: "12th See also:November was the See also:battle of See also:Brentford, surprisingly fought. . . . I came in with my See also:horse and arms just at the See also:retreat; but was not permitted to stay longer than the 15th by See also:reason of the See also:army marching to See also:Gloucester; which would have left both me and my See also:brothers exposed to ruin, without any See also:advantage to his See also:Majesty . and on the loth [See also:December] returned to Wotton, nobody knowing of my having been in his Majesty's army." At Wotton he employed 'himself in improving his See also:brother's See also:property, making a fishpond, an See also:island and other alterations in the gardens. But he found it difficult to avoid taking a See also:side; he was importuned to sign the See also:Covenant, and " finding it impossible to evade doing very unhandsome things," he obtained leave in October 1643 from the See also:king to travel abroad.

From this date his See also:

Diary becomes full and interesting. He travelled in See also:France and visited the cities of See also:Italy, returning in the autumn of 1646 to See also:Paris, where he became intimate with See also:Sir Richard See also:Browne, the English See also:resident at the See also:court of France. In See also:June of the following year he married Browne's daughter and heiress. See also:Mary, then a See also:child of not more than twelve years of See also:age. Leaving his wife in the care of her parents, he returned to England to See also:settle his affairs. He visited See also:Charles I. at See also:Hampton Court in 1647, and during the next two years maintained a See also:cipher See also:correspondence with his father-in-See also:law in the royal See also:interest. In 1649 he obtained a pass to return to Paris, but in 1650 paid a See also:short visit to England. The defeat of Charles II. at See also:Worcester in 1651 convinced him that the royalist cause was hopeless, and he decided to return to England. He went in 1652 to Sayes Court at Dept-See also:ford, a house which Sir Richard Browne had held on a See also:lease from the See also:crown. This had been seized by the See also:parliament, but Evelyn was able to See also:compound with the occupiers for £3500, and after the Restoration his See also:possession was secured. Here his wife joined him, their eldest son, Richard, being born in See also:August 1652. Under the .

See also:

Commonwealth Evelyn amused himself with his favourite occupation of gardening, and made many See also:friends among the scientific inquirers of the See also:time. He was one of the promoters of the See also:scheme for the Royal Society, and in the king's See also:charter in 1662 was nominated a member of its directing See also:council. Mean-while he had refused employment from the See also:government of the Commonwealth, and had maintained a cipher correspondence with Charles. In 1659 he published an See also:Apology for the Royal Party, and in December of that year he vainly tried to persuade See also:Colonel See also:Herbert See also:Morley, then See also:lieutenant of the See also:Tower, to forestall See also:General See also:Monk by declaring for the king. From the Restoration onwards Evelyn enjoyed unbroken court favour till his death in 1706; but he never held any important See also:political See also:office, although he filled many useful and often laborious See also:minor posts. He was See also:commissioner for improving the streets and buildings of See also:London, for examining into the affairs of charitable See also:foundations, commissioner of the See also:Mint, and of See also:foreign plantations. In 1664 he accepted the responsibility for the care of the sick and wounded and the prisoners in the Dutch war. He See also:stuck to his See also:post throughout the See also:plague year, contenting himself with sending his See also:family away to Wotton. He found it impossible to secure sufficient See also:money for the proper See also:discharge of his functions, and in 1688 he was still petitioning for See also:payment of his accounts in this business. Evelyn was secretary of the Royal Society in 1672, and as an enthusiastic See also:promoter of' its interests was twice (in 1682 and 1691) offered the See also:presidency. Through his See also:influence See also:Henry See also:Howard, See also:duke of See also:Norfolk, was induced to See also:present the See also:Arundel See also:marbles to the university of Oxford (1667) and the valuable Arundel library to See also:Gresham College (1678). In the reign of See also:James II., during the See also:earl of See also:Clarendon's See also:absence in See also:Ireland, he acted as one of the commissioners of the privy See also:seal.

He was seriously alarmed by the king's attacks on the English See also:

Church, and refused on two occasions to license the illegal See also:sale of See also:Roman See also:Catholic literature. He concurred in the revolution of 1688, in 1695 was entrusted with the office of treasurer of See also:Greenwich See also:hospital for old sailors, and laid the first See also:stone of the new See also:building on the 3oth of June 1696. In 1694. he left Sayes Court to live at Wotton with his brother, whose See also:heir he had become, and whom he actually succeeded in 1699. He spent the See also:rest of his life there, dying on the 27th of February 1706. Evelyn's house at Sayes Court had been let to See also:Captain, afterwards See also:Admiral John See also:Benbow, who was not a " polite " See also:tenant. He sublet it to See also:Peter the See also:Great, who was then visiting the dockyard at See also:Deptford. The See also:tsar did great damage to Evelyn's beautiful gardens, and, it is said, made it one of his amusements to ride in a wheelbarrow along a thick See also:holly hedge planted especially by the owner. The house was subsequently used as a workhouse, and is now See also:alms-houses, the grounds having been converted into public gardens by Mr Evelyn in 1886. It will be seen that Evelyn's politics were not of the heroic See also:order. But he was See also:honourable and consistent in his adherence to the monarchical principle throughout his life. With the court of Charles II. he could have had no sympathy, his dignified domestic life and his serious See also:attention to See also:religion See also:standing in the strongest contrast with the profligacy of the royal surroundings. His Diary is therefore , a valuable See also:chronicle of contemporary events from the standpoint of a moderate politician and a devout adherent of the Church of England.

He had none of See also:

Pepys's love of See also:gossip, and was devoid of his all-embracing curiosity,as of his diverting frankness of self-See also:revelation.. Both were admirable civil servants, and they had a mutual admiration for each other's See also:sterling qualities. Evelyn's Diary covers more than See also:half a See also:century (1640-1706) crowded with remarkable events, while Pepys only deals with a few years of Charles II.'s reign. Evelyn was a generous See also:art See also:patron, and Grinling See also:Gibbons was introduced by him to the See also:notice of Charles II. His domestic affections were .very strong. He had six sons, of whom John (1655–1699), the author of some See also:translations, alone reached manhood. He has left a pathetic See also:account of the extraordinary accomplishments of his son Richard, who died before he was six years old, and of a daughter Mary, who lived to be twenty, and probably wrote most of her father's Mundus muliebris (169o). Of his two other daughters, Susannah, who married See also:William See also:Draper of Addiscombe, Surrey, survived him. Evelyn's Diary remained in MS. until 1818. It is in a See also:quarto See also:volume containing 700 pages, covering the years between 1641 and 1697, and is continued in a smaller See also:book which brings the narrative down to within three See also:weeks of its author's death. A selection from this was edited by William See also:Bray, with the permission of the Evelyn family, in 1818, under the See also:title of Memairs illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, comprising his Diary from x641 to i7o5/6, and a Selection of his See also:Familiar Letters. Other See also:editions followed, the most notable being those of Mr H.

B. See also:

Wheatley (1879) and Mr See also:Austin See also:Dobson (3 vols., 1906). Evelyn's active mind produced many other See also:works, and although these have been overshadowed by the famous Diary they are of considerable interest. They include: Of See also:Liberty and See also:Servitude . (1649), a See also:translation from the See also:French of See also:Francois de la Mothe le Vayer, Evelyn's own copy of which contains a See also:note that he was " like to be See also:call'd in question by the Rebells for this booke "; The See also:State of France, as it stood in the IXth year of See also:Louis XIII. (1652) ; An See also:Essay on the First Book of T. See also:Lucretius See also:Carus de Rerum Natura. Interpreted and made English See also:verse by J. Evelyn (1656) ; The See also:Golden Book of St John See also:Chrysostom, concerning the See also:Education of See also:Children. Translated out of the See also:Greek by J. E. (printed 1658, dated 1659) ; The French Gardener: instructing how to cultivate all sorts of See also:Fruit-trees .

. . (1658), translated from the French of N. de Bonnefons; A See also:

Character of England . . (1659), describing the customs of the See also:country as they would appear to a foreign observer, reprinted in See also:Somers' Tracts (ed. See also:Scott, 1812), and in the Harleian See also:Miscellany (ed. See also:Park, 1813) ; The See also:Late See also:News from See also:Brussels unmasked . (166o), in See also:answer to a libellous pamphlet on Charles I. by See also:Marchmont Needham; Fumifugium, or the inconvenience of the See also:Eger and Smoak of London dissipated (1661), in which he suggested that sweet-smelling trees should be planted in London to purify the See also:air; Instructions concerning erecting of a Library . . (1661), from the French of See also:Gabriel See also:Naude; Tyrannus or the Mode, in a Discourse of Sumptuary See also:Laws- (1661); Sculptura: or the See also:History and Art of Chalcography and See also:Engraving in See also:Copper . . . (1662); Sylva, or a Discourse of See also:Forest Trees . . . to which is annexed See also:Pomona . . . Also Kalendarium Hortense .

(1664); A Parallel of the See also:

Ancient See also:Architecture with the See also:Modern . . . (1664), from the French of See also:Roland Fr-See also:Cart; The History of the three late famous Imposters, viz. Padre Ottomano, Mahomed Bei, and Sabatei Sevi (1669); See also:Navigation and See also:Commerce . . . in which his Majesties title to the Dominion of the See also:Sea is asserted against the Novel and later Pretenders (1674), which is a See also:preface to a projected history of the Dutch See also:wars undertaken at the See also:request of Charles II., but countermanded on the conclusion of See also:peace; A Philosophical Discourse of See also:Earth . (1676), a See also:treatise on See also:horticulture, better known by its later title of Terra; The Compleat Gardener . . . (1693), from the French of J. de la Quintinie; Numismata . . . (1697). Some of these were reprinted in The See also:Miscellaneous Writings of John Evelyn, edited (1825) by William Upcott. Evelyn's friendship with Mary Blagge, afterwards Mrs See also:Godolphin, is recorded in the diary, when he says he designed " to consecrate her worthy life to posterity." This he effectually did in a little masterpiece of religious See also:biography which remained in MS. in the possession of the See also:Harcourt family until it was edited by See also:Samuel See also:Wilberforce, See also:bishop of Oxford, as the Life of Mrs Godolphin (1847), reprinted in the " King's See also:Classics " (1904).

The picture of See also:

Mistress Blagge's saintly life at court is heightened in interest when read in connexion with the scandalous See also:memoirs of the See also:comte de See also:Gramont, or contemporary political satires on the court. Numerous other papers and letters of Evelyn on scientific subjects and matters of public interest are preserved, a collection of private and See also:official letters and papers (1642–1712) by, or addressed to, Sir Richard Browne and his son-in-law being in the See also:British Museum (Add. See also:MSS. 15857 and 15858). Next to the Diary Evelyn's most valuable See also:work is Sylva. By the See also:glass factories and See also:iron furnaces the country was being rapidly depleted of See also:wood, while no See also:attempt was being made to replace the damage by planting. Evelyn put in a plea for afforestation, and besides producing a valuable work on See also:arboriculture, he was able to assert in his preface to the king that he had really induced landowners to plant many millions of trees.

End of Article: EVELYN, JOHN (1620-1706)

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