![Sir-john-denham-1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Sir-john-denham-1.jpg)
Sir John Denham
FRS (1614 or 1615 – 19 March 1669) was an Anglo-Irish
poet
A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...
and
courtier
A courtier () is a person who attends the royal court of a monarch or other royalty. The earliest historical examples of courtiers were part of the retinues of rulers. Historically the court was the centre of government as well as the official r ...
. He served as
Surveyor of the King's Works
The Office of Works was established in the English royal household in 1378 to oversee the building and maintenance of the royal castles and residences. In 1832 it became the Works Department forces within the Office of Woods, Forests, Land Reven ...
and is buried in
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...
.
Early life
Denham was born in
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...
to Sir
John Denham John Denham may refer to:
* John Denham (died 1556 or later), English MP for Shaftesbury
* John Denham (judge), (1559–1639), father of the poet below, and one of the Ship Money judges
* John Denham (poet) (1615–1669), English poet
* John Denham ...
,
Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer
The Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer was the Baron (judge) who presided over the Court of Exchequer (Ireland). The Irish Court of Exchequer was a mirror of the equivalent court in England and was one of the four courts which sat in the buildin ...
, and his second wife Eleanor Moore, daughter of
Garret Moore, 1st Viscount Moore
Garret Moore, 1st Viscount Moore PC (I) (1564 – 9 November 1627) was an Anglo-Irish politician and peer.
Birth and origins
Garret was a son of Sir Edward Moore of Mellifont and his wife Elizabeth Clifford. His father was a knight and owner of ...
and his wife Mary Colley. His father was a native of London; the family later settled at
Egham
Egham ( ) is a university town in the Borough of Runnymede in Surrey, England, approximately west of central London. First settled in the Bronze Age, the town was under the control of Chertsey Abbey for much of the Middle Ages. In 1215, Magna ...
in
Surrey
Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...
. His mother died in childbirth when he was about five years old. He was educated at
Trinity College, Oxford
(That which you wish to be secret, tell to nobody)
, named_for = The Holy Trinity
, established =
, sister_college = Churchill College, Cambridge
, president = Dame Hilary Boulding
, location = Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BH
, coordinates ...
and at
Lincoln's Inn
The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...
in
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
. He was an indifferent student, and was notorious for heavy
gambling
Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three el ...
, which was a source of much worry to his father. There is no evidence that he took his degree at Trinity.
Marriages
He married firstly in 1634 Ann Cotton, of a wealthy
Gloucestershire
Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean.
The county town is the city of Gl ...
family, by whom he had three children, a son who died young and two daughters who reached adulthood. He married secondly in 1665 Margaret Brooke (1642-1667), daughter of Sir
William Brooke and his second wife Penelope Hill, and half-sister of the leading statesman
Edward Russell, 1st Earl of Orford
Admiral of the Fleet Edward Russell, 1st Earl of Orford, PC (1653 – 26 November 1727) was a Royal Navy officer and politician. After serving as a junior officer at the Battle of Solebay during the Third Anglo-Dutch War, he served as a capta ...
. His unhappy second marriage was the cause of much gossip, and Margaret's sudden death in 1667 gave rise to a widespread suspicion, probably unfounded, that he had poisoned her.
His first wife came from a wealthy family, but he seems to have run through her money quickly. His losses from gambling ran to several thousand pounds, although in the 1630s he made some effort to reform. On his father's death in 1639 he inherited the family estate at Egham. He proceeded to go on one more gambling spree, and again lost several thousand.
Civil War
In his earlier years, Denham suffered for his
Royalism
A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of govern ...
; during the
English Civil War
The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...
, he was appointed
High Sheriff of Surrey
The list of known High Sheriffs of Surrey extends back to 1066. At various times the High Sheriff of Surrey was also High Sheriff of Sussex (1229–1231, 1232–1240, 1242–1567, 1571–1635).
1066–1228
(High Sheriffs of Surrey only)
1229– ...
(for 1642) and governor of
Farnham Castle
Farnham Castle is a 12th-century castle in Farnham, Surrey, England. It was formerly the residence of the Bishops of Winchester.
History
Built in 1138 by Henri de Blois, Bishop of Winchester, grandson of William the Conqueror, Farnham cast ...
. Farnham quickly fell to the Parliamentary forces and Denham was sent a prisoner to
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, but was soon released. He spent the next five years in
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, where he enjoyed the trust and confidence of
Charles I Charles I may refer to:
Kings and emperors
* Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings
* Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily
* Charles I of ...
During the abortive peace negotiations of 1646, Parliament listed him as one of those who must be excluded from the King's counsels. In 1648 he joined the Court in exile, and spent the next four years abroad. He returned to England in 1652 to find that his lands had been sold; for a time he was almost penniless, until he acquired the protection of
Philip Herbert, 5th Earl of Pembroke
Philip Herbert, 5th Earl of Pembroke, 2nd Earl of Montgomery (1621 – 11 December 1669), was an English nobleman and politician. He was the son of Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke, and his first wife Susan de Vere. He succeeded his father i ...
. The authorities, worried by his frequent visits to London, ordered him to choose a residence more than twenty miles from the capital, which he was not to leave. He settled at
Bury St. Edmunds
Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton A ...
.
John Aubrey
John Aubrey (12 March 1626 – 7 June 1697) was an English antiquary, natural philosopher and writer. He is perhaps best known as the author of the ''Brief Lives'', his collection of short biographical pieces. He was a pioneer archaeologist, ...
recorded a story of this period which reflects well on Denham's wit and generosity of spirit:
“In the time of the civill warres, George Wither
George Wither (11 June 1588 O.S. (21 June 1588 NS) – 2 May 1667 O.S. (12 May 1667 NS)) was a prolific English poet, pamphleteer, satirist and writer of hymns. Wither's long life spanned one of the most tumultuous periods in the history of En ...
s, the poet, begged Sir John Denham's estate at Egham
Egham ( ) is a university town in the Borough of Runnymede in Surrey, England, approximately west of central London. First settled in the Bronze Age, the town was under the control of Chertsey Abbey for much of the Middle Ages. In 1215, Magna ...
of the Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
, in whose cause he was a captaine of horse. It happened that G. W. was taken prisoner, and was in danger of his life, having written severely against the king
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
, &c. Sir John Denham went to the king, and desired his majestie not to hang him, for that whilest G. W. lived he should not be the worst poet in England.”
After 1660
Denham became a
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...
for
Old Sarum
Old Sarum, in Wiltshire, South West England, is the now ruined and deserted site of the earliest settlement of Salisbury. Situated on a hill about north of modern Salisbury near the A345 road, the settlement appears in some of the earliest re ...
in 1661, became a
Fellow of the Royal Society
Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...
on 20 May 1663, and became a
Knight of the Bath
The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate medieval ceremony for appointing a knight, which involved bathing (as a symbol of purification) as one ...
. He received substantial grants of land in compensation for his forfeited estates. He built or commissioned the original
Burlington House
Burlington House is a building on Piccadilly in Mayfair, London. It was originally a private Neo-Palladian mansion owned by the Earls of Burlington and was expanded in the mid-19th century after being purchased by the British government. Toda ...
in
Piccadilly
Piccadilly () is a road in the City of Westminster, London, to the south of Mayfair, between Hyde Park Corner in the west and Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is part of the A4 road that connects central London to Hammersmith, Earl's Court, ...
in about 1665.
After the Restoration Denham became
Surveyor of the King's Works
The Office of Works was established in the English royal household in 1378 to oversee the building and maintenance of the royal castles and residences. In 1832 it became the Works Department forces within the Office of Woods, Forests, Land Reven ...
, probably due to his earlier political services rather than for any aptitude as an
architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
.
John Webb, who, as
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 ...
's deputy undoubtedly had the competence to have served in the post, complained that "though Mr. Denham may, as most gentry, have some knowledge of the theory of architecture, he can have none of the practice and must employ another". There is no evidence that he personally designed any buildings, although he seems to have been a competent administrator; he may, however, have played some part in the design of his own home, Burlington House. John Webb was appointed Denham's deputy by 1664 and did Denham's work at
Greenwich
Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross.
Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...
(from 1666) and elsewhere.
Second marriage to Margaret Brooke
![Margaret Brooke, Lady Denham, 1663-5, by Lely](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Margaret_Brooke%2C_Lady_Denham%2C_1663-5%2C_by_Lely.jpg)
Denham in 1665 made an unhappy second marriage to Margaret Brooke, a beautiful young woman almost thirty years his junior, who conducted a very public affair with the future King
James II. To her husband's mortification, she insisted on being acknowledged publicly as a Royal mistress, saying that she would not, unlike her predecessor Goditha Price (daughter of Sir
Herbert Price
Sir Herbert Price, 1st Baronet (1605 – 14 January 1678) was a Welsh politician who sat in the House of Commons at various times between 1640 and 1678. He fought on the Royalist side in the English Civil War.
Price was the second son of Thomas P ...
, the
Master of the Household
The Master of the Household is the operational head (see Chief operating officer) of the "below stairs" elements of the Royal Households of the United Kingdom. The role has charge of the domestic staff, from the Royal Kitchens, the pages and foot ...
), "go up and down the back stairs, but would be owned publicly". When she died in January 1667 after a short illness, Denham was rumoured, by
Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys (; 23 February 1633 – 26 May 1703) was an English diarist and naval administrator. He served as administrator of the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament and is most famous for the diary he kept for a decade. Pepys had no mariti ...
among others, to have murdered her by giving her a poisoned cup of
chocolate
Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec civ ...
, although the
autopsy
An autopsy (post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of death or to evaluate any di ...
found no trace of
poison
Poison is a chemical substance that has a detrimental effect to life. The term is used in a wide range of scientific fields and industries, where it is often specifically defined. It may also be applied colloquially or figuratively, with a broa ...
, and she had been seriously ill the previous year. In any case, rumour named several other possible poisoners, including James, his wife
Anne Hyde
Anne Hyde (12 March 163731 March 1671) was Duchess of York and Albany as the first wife of James, Duke of York, who later became King James II and VII.
Anne was the daughter of a member of the English gentry – Edward Hyde (later created ...
and his sister-in-law, Lady Rochester.
Last years, death, and children
His last years were clouded by
dementia
Dementia is a disorder which manifests as a set of related symptoms, which usually surfaces when the brain is damaged by injury or disease. The symptoms involve progressive impairments in memory, thinking, and behavior, which negatively affe ...
. He had long been rumoured to be insane, a condition generally attributed to his scandalous marriage, and later the hostility of the London public, which regarded him as a murderer, and he became a virtual recluse. With Denham's increasing mental incapacity, Charles II requested in March 1669 that
Christopher Wren
Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches ...
be appointed Denham's "sole deputy"; Wren succeeded him as King's Surveyor upon his death two weeks later. Denham was buried in
Poets' Corner
Poets' Corner is the name traditionally given to a section of the South Transept of Westminster Abbey in the City of Westminster, London because of the high number of poets, playwrights, and writers buried and commemorated there.
The first poe ...
of
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an historic, mainly Gothic church in the City of Westminster, London, England, just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is one of the United ...
. The public suspicion about his role in his wife's death continued to the end of his life. He was survived by his daughters, Elizabeth, who married Sir Thomas Arden Price in 1675 but died childless, and Anne, who married Sir William Morley of Halnaker, by whom she had two sons who died young and a daughter Mary, who married
James Stanley, 10th Earl of Derby
James Stanley, 10th Earl of Derby (3 July 16641 February 1736), styled The Honourable until 1702, was a British peer, soldier and politician.
Early life
Derby was the second son of Charles Stanley, 8th Earl of Derby, and Dorothea Helena Kirkh ...
, but had no surviving issue.
Works
Denham began his literary career with a tragedy, ''
The Sophy
''The Sophy'' is a revenge tragedy in blank verse written by Sir John Denham and first acted in 1641.
Characters
* ''Abbas'', King of ''Persia''.
* ''Mirza'', the Prince, his Son.
* ''Erythæa'', the Princess, his Wife.
* Enemies to the ...
'' (1641), but his poem, ''
Cooper's Hill'' (1642), is the work by which he is remembered. It is the first example in English of a poem devoted to local description, picturing the
Thames Valley
The Thames Valley is an informally-defined sub-region of South East England, centred on the River Thames west of London, with Oxford as a major centre. Its boundaries vary with context. The area is a major tourist destination and economic hub, ...
scenery around his home at
Egham
Egham ( ) is a university town in the Borough of Runnymede in Surrey, England, approximately west of central London. First settled in the Bronze Age, the town was under the control of Chertsey Abbey for much of the Middle Ages. In 1215, Magna ...
in
Surrey
Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...
. Denham wrote many versions of this poem, reflecting the political and cultural upheavals of the Civil War.
Gilfillan wrote of Denham and his contemporary Edmund Waller: "Neither Denham nor Waller were great poets; but they have produced lines and verses so good, and have, besides, exerted an influence so considerable on modern versification, and the style of poetical utterance, that they are entitled to a highly respectable place amidst the sons of British song."
He also received extravagant praise from
Samuel Johnson
Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...
, who quoted Denham's verse to exemplify the use of several words;
[Allen Reddick, ''The Making of Johnson’s Dictionary 1746-1773'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 166.] but the place now assigned to him is more humble.
References
*
*
H.M. Colvin, ''A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600-1840'' (1997)
*
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Denham, John
1615 births
1669 deaths
British poets
Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford
English MPs 1661–1679
Original Fellows of the Royal Society
Knights of the Bath
Burials at Westminster Abbey
High Sheriffs of Surrey
Members of Lincoln's Inn
17th-century English poets
17th-century male writers
17th-century English dramatists and playwrights
Writers from Dublin (city)
British male poets
British male dramatists and playwrights
17th-century Irish poets