Richard Symonds (1617–1660) was an English royalist and antiquary, now remembered for an eye-witness diary he wrote of events of the
First English Civil War
The First English Civil War took place in England and Wales from 1642 to 1646, and forms part of the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. They include the Bishops' Wars, the Irish Confederate Wars, the Second English Civil War, the Anglo ...
.
Life
He was the eldest son of Edward (or Edmund) Symonds of
Black Notley
Black Notley is a village and civil parish in Essex, England. It is located approximately south of Braintree and is north-northeast from the county town of Chelmsford. According to the 2011 census including Young's End
Young's End is a haml ...
,
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 ...
, where he was born in 1617. His mother, who brought the Notley property into the family, was Anne, daughter of Joshua Draper of
Braintree. Like his father and grandfather, as well as several of his uncles and cousins, Symonds became a
cursitor of the
chancery court.
He was committed a prisoner by
Miles Corbet
Miles Corbet (1595–1662) was an English politician, recorder of Yarmouth and Regicide.
Life
He was the son of Sir Thomas Corbet of Sprowston, Norfolk and the younger brother of Sir John Corbet, 1st Baronet, MP for Great Yarmouth from 16 ...
as a
delinquent
Delinquent or delinquents may refer to:
* A person who commits a felony
* A juvenile delinquent, often shortened as delinquent is a young person (under 18) who fails to do that which is required by law; see juvenile delinquency
* A person who fai ...
on 25 March 1643, but escaping on 21 October he joined the royalist army, becoming a member of the troop of horse which formed the king's lifeguard, under the command of
Lord Bernard Stuart, afterwards Earl of Lichfield. He was with the king’s forces in most of his movements during the ensuing two years, being present at the engagements of
Cropredy Bridge
Cropredy Bridge is a bridge in north Oxfordshire, England, that carries the minor road between Cropredy and the hamlet of Williamscot. It spans the River Cherwell, which is also the boundary between the Civil parishes in England, civil parishes ...
,
Newbury,
Naseby
Naseby is a village in West Northamptonshire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 Census was 687.
The village is 14 mi (22.5 km) north of Northampton, 13.3 mi (21.4 km) northeast of Daventry, and 7  ...
, and at the relief of Chester, where the Earl of Lichfield was killed.
He was subsequently with
Sir William Vaughan at
Denbigh
Denbigh (; cy, Dinbych; ) is a market town and a community in Denbighshire, Wales. Formerly, the county town, the Welsh name translates to "Little Fortress"; a reference to its historic castle. Denbigh lies near the Clwydian Hills.
History
...
and elsewhere. After the king's surrender, in the autumn of 1646, he applied on 17 December to be allowed to compound for his delinquency, On 1 January 1648 he left London and travelled, first to Paris, and then to Rome and Venice, where he stayed till about the end of 1652, when he returned again to England. In 1655 he was implicated in
the abortive plot for restoring the monarchy, and was one of a batch of over seventy persons who were on that account arrested in the eastern counties, but were subsequently released on bond in October.
Works
From an early age Symonds evinced strong
antiquarian
An antiquarian or antiquary () is an fan (person), aficionado or student of antiquities or things of the past. More specifically, the term is used for those who study history with particular attention to ancient artifact (archaeology), artifac ...
tastes, and in all his wanderings he seems never to have lost an opportunity for jotting down in his notebook such topographical or genealogical memoranda as he came across. So he kept a diary of the marchings of the royal army from 10 April 1644 to 11 February 1646 (four notebooks now held in the
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
).
[ Notes: being British Library Add MS 17062 and Harley MSS 911, 939, and 944] These were frequently quoted by
county historians, and in 1859 were edited for the
Camden Society
The Camden Society was a text publication society founded in London in 1838 to publish early historical and literary materials, both unpublished manuscripts and new editions of rare printed books. It was named after the 16th-century antiquary an ...
by
Charles Edward Long
Charles Edward Long (28 July 1796 – 25 September 1861), was an English genealogist and antiquary.
Life
Born at Benham Park, Berkshire, he was the elder and only surviving son of Charles Beckford Long (d. 1836) of Langley Hall, Berkshire, and hi ...
, under the title
Diary of the Marches of the Royal Army during the Great Civil War'. Much of the interest of the diary lies in its topographical content, including detailed notes of churches,
church monuments
Funerary art is any work of art forming, or placed in, a repository for the remains of the death, dead. The term encompasses a wide variety of forms, including cenotaphs ("empty tombs"), tomb-like monuments which do not contain human remains, a ...
,
stained glass
Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...
and
heraldry
Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branch ...
that Symonds had viewed. Most of his entries about the war are accurate but terse. However, his description of the
second battle of Newbury
The Second Battle of Newbury was a battle of the First English Civil War fought on 27 October 1644, in Speen, adjoining Newbury in Berkshire. The battle was fought close to the site of the First Battle of Newbury, which took place in la ...
is very detailed.
Three volumes of genealogical collections for the county of Essex, compiled by Symonds, were preserved at the
College of Arms
The College of Arms, or Heralds' College, is a royal corporation consisting of professional Officer of Arms, officers of arms, with jurisdiction over England, Wales, Northern Ireland and some Commonwealth realms. The heralds are appointed by the ...
, to which they were presented in 1710 by
Gregory King
Gregory King (15 December 1648 – 29 August 1712) was an English genealogist, engraver and statistician.
Life
Gregory King was born at Lichfield, England. His father was a surveyor and landscape gardener. Gregory was a very bright boy and his ...
, into whose possession they came in 1685. In the second volume Symonds gives the pedigree of his own family, and near his own name is an impression, in red wax, of an engraved head in profile, probably that of Symonds himself, by
Thomas Simon
Thomas Simon (c. 16231665), English medalist, was born, according to George Vertue, in Yorkshire about 1623.
Simon studied engraving under Nicholas Briot, and about 1635 received a post in connection with the Royal Mint. In 1645 he was appo ...
, the medallist. These collections were used by
Philip Morant
Philip Morant (6 October 1700 – 25 November 1770) was an English clergyman, author and historian.
Education
He was educated at John Roysse's Free School in Abingdon (now Abingdon School) and Pembroke College, Oxford, eventually taking his m ...
in his ''History of Essex''. Other notes were used by
Horace Walpole
Horatio Walpole (), 4th Earl of Orford (24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English writer, art historian, man of letters, antiquarian, and Whigs (British political party), Whig politician.
He had Strawb ...
in his ''Anecdotes of Painting in England''.
Notes
References
;Attribution
* Thomas list his sources as:
**Morant's ''History of Essex'', ii. 302-3;
**Long's
Introduction' to the Diary published by the Camden Society, as above;
**Walpole's ''Anecdotes of Painting'', ed. 1888, i. 324.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Symonds, Richard
1617 births
1660 deaths
English diarists
English antiquarians
People from Black Notley
Cavaliers