Aylett Sammes (1636?–1679?) was an English antiquary, noted for his theories of Phoenician influence on the

Welsh language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic language family, Celtic language of the Brittonic languages, Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales, by some in England, and in Y Wladfa (the Welsh colony in Chubut P ...

Life

A grandson of John Sammes, lord of the manor of

Little Totham Little Totham is a village in Essex, England, with a population measured at 400 in the 2011 Census. The parish extends from the extensive common and heath-land of Tiptree down to the River Blackwater. The village lies about 6 miles 10 km) ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, and son of Thomas Sammes by his wife Mary (née Jeffrey), he was born at Kelvedon in Essex about 1636. His father's younger brother, Edward, married into the Aylett family of

Rivenhall St Mary and All Saints' church Rivenhall is a village and civil parish near Witham in the Braintree district in the English county of Essex. It is near the small settlement of Rivenhall End. It has a primary school called Rivenhall Church of ...

. In 1648 he entered

Felsted School (Keep your Faith) , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day and boarding , religion = Church of England , president = , head_label = Headmaster , head = Chris Townsend , r_head_l ...

under

John Glascock John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

, a Fellow of

Christ's College, Cambridge Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 170 graduate students. The college was founded by William Byngham in 1437 as ...

, and a teacher of repute in

East Anglia East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...

. On 3 July 1655 he was admitted a fellow-commoner of Christ's College; he graduated B.A. in 1657, was admitted to the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wal ...

on 28 October in the same year, and proceeded M.A., probably at Cambridge about 1659, though there appears to be no record of the fact. He was incorporated M.A. at Oxford on 10 July 1677. Sammes died before the completion of his major work, probably in 1679.

Works

His elaborate ''Britannia Antiqua Illustrata, or the Antiquities of Ancient Britain derived from the Phœnicians'' (London, 1676) only appeared as vol. i.. It was licensed by Roger L'Estrange in March 1675, and dedicated to Heneage Finch. The work, which extends to nearly 600 folio pages, brings down the narrative of British history to the conversion of

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. It deals with the Roman period, but its main thesis is of the Phœnician derivation of the language. It reproduces ancient documents, such as the '' Laws of King Ina''. The views derived from

Strabo Strabo''Strabo'' (meaning "squinty", as in strabismus) was a term employed by the Romans for anyone whose eyes were distorted or deformed. The father of Pompey was called "Pompeius Strabo". A native of Sicily so clear-sighted that he could see ...

and the work of John Twyne. Sammes gave etymological reasons connecting Phoenician with Welsh, but did not accept the descent of the

Cymry The Welsh ( cy, Cymry) are an ethnic group native to Wales. "Welsh people" applies to those who were born in Wales ( cy, Cymru) and to those who have Welsh ancestry, perceiving themselves or being perceived as sharing a cultural heritage and sh ...

from

Gomer Gomer ( he, ''Gōmer'', ; el, Γαμὲρ, translit=Gamér) was the eldest son of Japheth (and of the Japhetic line), and father of Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah, according to the "Table of Nations" in the Hebrew Bible (Genesis 10). The epo ...

Celtic theories

While the specific historical theories brought forward by Sammes were discounted by his contemporaries, his book was a contribution to a number of debates of the time, and its effect on

iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...

was major. The representations of Celtic

druid A druid was a member of the high-ranking class in ancient Celtic cultures. Druids were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and political advisors. Druids left no written accounts. Whi ...

s had been developed from beginnings in

Conrad Celtes Conrad Celtes (german: Konrad Celtes; la, Conradus Celtis (Protucius); 1 February 1459 – 4 February 1508) was a German Renaissance humanist scholar and poet of the German Renaissance born in Franconia (nowadays part of Bavaria). He led the ...

and the ''Jani Anglorum'' (1610) of John Selden.

Inigo Jones Inigo Jones (; 15 July 1573 – 21 June 1652) was the first significant architect in England and Wales in the early modern period, and the first to employ Vitruvian rules of proportion and symmetry in his buildings. As the most notable archit ...

had made a druid stage design (1638) for

Lodowick Carlell Lodowick Carlell (1602–1675), also Carliell or Carlile, was a seventeenth-century English playwright, was active mainly during the Caroline era and the Commonwealth period. Courtier Carlell's ancestry was Scottish. He was the son of Herber ...

's ''The Passionate Lovers'', drawing on earlier pageant representations of Ancient Britons, as a

Wild Man The wild man, wild man of the woods, or woodwose/wodewose is a mythical figure that appears in the art and literature of medieval Europe, comparable to the satyr or faun type in classical mythology and to '' Silvanus'', the Roman god of the woodl ...

. Further iconographic sources drawn upon were of the Green Man and

hermit A hermit, also known as an eremite (adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions. Description In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a Ch ...

s. As represented in ''Britannia Antiqua Illustrata'' the druid is a composite of "wild" and "holy".

John Wood, the Elder John Wood, the Elder (1704 – 23 May 1754) was an English architect, working mainly in Bath. In 1740 he surveyed Stonehenge and the Stanton Drew stone circles. He later wrote extensively about Bladud and Neo-Druidism. Because of some ...

was prepared to take Sammes seriously, in theorising about

Stonehenge Stonehenge is a prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England, west of Amesbury. It consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around high, wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connectin ...

Wicker man (Britannia antiqua illustrata)

The influence of these representations of druids continued until the 19th century and the ''Costume of the Original Inhabitants of the British Islands'' (1815) of

Samuel Rush Meyrick Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick, KH (16 August 1783 – 2 April 1848) was an English collector and scholar of arms and armour. He lived at Goodrich Court, Goodrich, Herefordshire, and introduced systematic principles to the study of his subject. Li ...

and Charles Hamilton Smith.Salisbury Museum page
.

Hostile views

William Nicolson accused the author of plagiarism from Samuel Bochart, and Anthony Wood reported a rumour that the work was really written by an uncle of Sammes. These aspersions were rebutted by Myles Davies in his ''Athenæ Britannicæ'', and Sammes's erudition was praised by Henry Oldenburg (see ''

Philosophical Transactions ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society'' is a scientific journal published by the Royal Society. In its earliest days, it was a private venture of the Royal Society's secretary. It was established in 1665, making it the first journa ...

'' No. 124, p. 596).

Other works

Besides the ''Britannia Antiqua'', he is credited by

William Thomas Lowndes William Thomas Lowndes (c. 1798 – 31 July 1843), English bibliographer, was born about 1798, the son of a London bookseller. His principal work, ''The Bibliographer’s Manual of English Literature''—the first systematic work of the kind—w ...

with ''Long Livers: a curious history of such persons of both sexes who have lived several ages and grown young again'', London, 1722.

Notes

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Sammes, Aylett 1636 births 1679 deaths English antiquarians People from Kelvedon