An Industrious Mind: The Worlds of Sir Simonds D'Ewes

by J. Sears McGee

Overview

This is the first biography of Sir Simonds D'Ewes, a member of England's Long Parliament, Puritan, historian and antiquarian who lived from 1602–1650. D'Ewes took the Puritan side against the supporters of King Charles I in the English Civil War, and his extensive journal of the Long Parliament, together with his autobiography and correspondence, offer a uniquely comprehensive view of the life of a seventeenth-century English gentleman, his opinions, thoughts and prejudices during this tumultuous time.

D'Ewes left the most extensive archive of personal papers of any individual in early modern Europe. His life and thought before the Long Parliament are carefully analyzed, so that the mind of one of the Parliamentarian opponents of King Charles I's policies can be understood more fully than that of any other Member of Parliament. Although conservative in social and political terms, D'Ewes's Puritanism prevented him from joining his Royalist younger brother Richard during the civil war that began in 1642. D'Ewes collected one of the largest private libraries of books and manuscripts in England in his era and used them to pursue historical and antiquarian research. He followed news of national and international events voraciously and conveyed his opinions of them to his friends in many hundreds of letters. McGee's biography is the first thorough exploration of the life and ideas of this extraordinary observer, offering fresh insight into this pivotal time in European history.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780804785464
Publisher:	Stanford University Press
Publication date:	03/18/2015
Pages:	536
Product dimensions:	7.20(w) x 10.00(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

J. Sears McGee is Professor of History at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

Table of Contents

List of Figures x

Preface xi

Abbreviations xv

Author's Note xix

Introduction: "An industrious mind" 1

1 "A rationall hearer"-1602-1620 17

Early Schooling in Dorset 19

London and Suffolk 24

St. John's College, Cambridge 29

The Summons to the Middle Temple 39

2 "The whole time & minde are filled with law"-1620-1626 44

The Law Student 46

A Slow Start 46

The Call to the Bar 50

The Historian 53

The Discovery of "Records," 55

The D'Ewes Saga 59

The Earldom of Oxford 67

The Newshound in London 69

D'Ewes's Sources for News 71

The Credibility and Dissemination of News 75

The Spanish Marriage 76

A New King 79

A Plethora of Parliaments 82

The Sermon Gadder 87

The Stowlangtoft Pulpit 91

The (Almost) Complete Puritan 93

Soteriological Debates 97

The Widow Ogle 99

The Suitor 102

The Failed Attempts 103

The "Golden Valentine," 105

Lady Elizabeth Denton 108

Lady Anne Clopton 110

3 "To dippe My Pen in teares Not inke"-1626-1631 116

The Complete Puritan 118

Assurance of Salvation 119

The Habsburg Threat 123

The Early Britons and Pelagianism 125

The Novellor 130

The 1626 Parliament and the Forced Loan 132

The La Rochelle Debacle 134

1628: Great Britain's Strength and Weakness 136

The Assassination of Buckingham 143

The 1629 Dissolution 149

The Habsburg Onslaught 154

The Habsburg Retreat 157

The Antiquarian and Collector 162

Buying Manuscripts and Books 163

The History of Britain 164

The Young Husband 171

Islington 175

The Death of Paul D'Ewes 179

4 "My dearest dearest"-1631-1639 186

The Search for a Home 187

Deaths and Dangers 188

Bringing Up Richard 192

Peripatetic Again 196

Bereft Parents 198

The Travels of Richard 205

Richard's Grand Tour 208

Italy Geneva, and the Homeward Turn 214

The Scholarly Collector 218

Sir Robert Cotton's Demise 220

Preserving the Library 222

Projects Old and New 225

The Last Sabbatical 234

5 "The highest stepp of wickednes"-1631-1639 237

The Newshound in Suffolk 237

The Protestant Cause 239

The Queen of Bohemia and the Prince Elector 246

Ship Money and the Prayer Book Rebellion 254

The Iconophobic Puritan 257

A Trumpet Blast against "Altar-adorers," 260

The Treatise on Idolatry 265

The Treatise on Persecution 268

The Lure of New England 275

6 "An Iliad of miseries"-1639-1640 282

The Sheriff of Suffolk 283

The Illegality of Ship Money 285

The (Non)-collection of Ship Money 289

The Anglo-Saxon Dictionary 294

The New Parliament 301

The MP Approaches His Task 305

A Waiter Mitty? 309

An Industrious MP 312

The MP-the First Six Weeks 314

7 "Stub vp the rootes of all our mischifes" (December, 1640-July, 1642) 324

The MP-December, 1640-July, 1641) 324

Parliamentary Privileges 324

Taxation 332

The Earl of Strafford 335

The Assault on Episcopacy 337

The Bereft Husband 341

The MP-August 1641 to July 1642 348

Reform of Religion 348

The "Incident" in Scotland and Rebellion in Ireland 350

The Attempt on the Five Members 355

The "Paper War," 359

The "Fiery Spirits," 365

The Day of Humiliation 368

8 No end… but by the sword" 373

The Willughby Marriage 374

The MP Returns to the Fray 382

The Continuing Quest for Peace 385

The Death of Richard D'Ewes 390

More Fiery Spirits 393

Peace or War? 395

Horses, Taxes, and Oaths 400

A Presbyterian Church of England? 407

Preachers and Pulpits 412

The last Years 417

The Numismatist 418

Documents, Descents, and Dictionaries 419

Pride's Purge 425

Private Life-and Death 427

Epilogue 432

Appendixes

A The D'Ewes Genealogy 437

B The Children of Sir Edmonds D'Ewes 438

Notes 439

Index 493

Editorial Reviews

"An Industrious Mind offers a remarkable portrait of a seventeenth-century life. Sir Simonds D'Ewes' diary of the stirring times in which he lived is well known, but McGee goes beyond the public and political life to present the private man—dutiful son, uxorious husband, anxious father, careful property owner, serious book collector, and antiquarian. The evidence of the diary becomes part of a wider context so that the book provides an account, unique for its time, of a past life lived whole. It does so with clarity and learning and also with understanding and sympathy."

author of War in England 1642–1649 - Barbara Donagan

"Sears McGee has written a deeply impressive and absorbing book, the yield of years of research and a lifetime of erudition. His account is meticulous, judicious, thickly textured, stylish, and catholic in its openness to every dimension of his subject's life, from the ghastly providential punishment of numerous dead children, the poignancy of a brother killed in battle on the opposing side, to the outer reaches of Anglo-Saxon scholarship...D'Ewes's relentless discrete presence, pen in hand, at the ringside of his age, together with McGee's skillfulness, ensure that this book vindicates biography in its capacity to provide a prism through which the lights of its era shine."

Journal of Modern History - Mark Goldie

"J. Sears McGee has done an important scholarly service in his extensive work with these materials, and has produced a detailed and fascinating account of D'Ewes's life, work and interests...McGee is to be congratulated for the scholarship and erudition in this very handsome and well-produced book."

English Historical Review - Lloyd Bowen

"This book is a major achievement. Reading it is rather like becoming much better acquainted with a person whom one has known superficially for many years...McGee's painstaking reconstruction of D'Ewes's diverse interests and activities offers a wonderfully rich insight into the beliefs and values of an early seventeenth- century English Puritan, and as we journey through his mental worlds, the categories of political, religious, legal, social and cultural history blend into each other in a very satisfying manner...McGee deserves our profound gratitude for recapturing the 'industrious mind' of so remarkable an exemplar of early seventeenth-century English Puritanism, and for bringing to life so compellingly the individual to whom we owe so much of our knowledge of the Long Parliament."

History: The Journal of the Historical Association __________________ - David L. Smith

"McGee has provided a judicious and comprehensive study that belies the caricature of D'Ewes as a self-important doctrinaire....An Industrious Mind makes a valuable contribution to the fields of political history and religious studies, and it deserves the many accolades it has already received from readers and reviewers."

Journal of Church and State - Melissa Franklin-Harkrider

"At last Sir Simonds D'Ewes has found the biographer he deserves. Sears McGee's masterly account of D'Ewes's life and work is essential reading for all scholars of the seventeenth century who have struggled to assess the character and motivations of the greatest of the parliamentary diarists of the Long Parliament. Based firmly on the huge archive of D'Ewes's letters and other writings, this book firmly dispels notions of D'Ewes as pompous, humourless Puritan or political fantasist. McGee writes sympathetically of D'Ewes as loving husband and father, loyal friend and dedicated scholarly collaborator, making this book a compelling read for all interested in the social history of England, as well as its politics and religion, during the decades on either side of 1640."

London - Stephen K. Roberts

"In the last fifty years there have not been many books published on early modern English history, running the entire gamut from social history, local studies, political culture and religious history, that have not in some way quoted or referenced D'Ewes and the archive he left behind—from now on they will reference this important biography."

Syracuse University - Chris R. Kyle

"J. Sears McGee, Professor History at the University of California, has turned the lens on Sir Simonds D'Ewes, the Puritan MP for Sudbury, whose journal of the Long Parliament is the most extensive record we have of that revolutionary moment when MPs stood, in D'Ewes's words, 'upon the brink of saving or ruining this distracted kingdom' . . . As a study of lay religiosity at a time of politicized faith, An Industrious Mind is invaluable. And quite a rarity."

Times Literary Supplement - Jessie Childs

"McGee's book is a clearly written and remarkably well-researched analysis of D'Ewes's life and work. This is a well-conceived, articulated, and impressively researched book."

Sixteenth Century Journal: Journal of Early Modern Studies - George Lazaroiu

"Though historians have long relied on D'Ewes's labors to illuminate the context in which he lived, they have rarely examined the man himself. J. Sears McGee's An Industrious Mind admirably fills this void. McGee's scrupulous, comprehensive biography is as alert to D'Ewes's public as to his private life, gliding between heavily detailed descriptions of his theological commitments, scholarly interests, engagement in public affairs, and heartbreaking family life. "

Renaissance Quarterly - Nicholas Popper

"McGee has done scholars a great service in reading and summarizing D'Ewes's seemingly endless literary output. McGee's work ably negotiates the cumbersome primary material and opens a window into the often stark contrast between D'Ewes's immediate opinions of events, often written in cipher for his own protection, and the later sanitized transcript provided in his autobiography....In producing this work, J. Sears McGee has contributed a study that is both comprehensive and insightful."—Elliot Vernon, Canadian Review of History

From the Publisher

" An Industrious Mind offers a remarkable portrait of a seventeenth-century life. Sir Simonds D'Ewes' diary of the stirring times in which he lived is well known, but McGee goes beyond the public and political life to present the private man—dutiful son, uxorious husband, anxious father, careful property owner, serious book collector, and antiquarian. The evidence of the diary becomes part of a wider context so that the book provides an account, unique for its time, of a past life lived whole. It does so with clarity and learning and also with understanding and sympathy."

author of War in England 1642-1649 - Barbara Donagan