Sir Erasmus Dryden, 1st Baronet (20 December 1553 – 22 May 1632) was an English politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

in 1624.

Family

Erasmus Dryden was the son of John Dryden who built

Canons Ashby House Canons Ashby House (previously known as Canons Ashby Hall) is a Grade I listed Elizabethan manor house located in the village of Canons Ashby, about south of the town of Daventry in the county of Northamptonshire, England. It has been owned by ...

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire ( ; abbreviated Northants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Leicestershire, Rutland and Lincolnshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the east, Bedfordshi ...

. Erasmus' mother, Elizabeth Cope, was the daughter of Sir John Cope, from whose heirs the Drydens purchased the priory and village remnants of the Canons Ashby estate.Erasmus Burke, Erasmus Bernard Burke ''A genealogical and heraldic history of the extinct and dormant baronetcies''
/ref> Sir Erasmus Dryden married Frances Wilkes, daughter of William Wilkes of Hodnell,

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

. They had 3 sons and 4 daughters. His eldest son

John 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 ...

succeeded to the Baronetcy. Sir Erasmus Dryden was the grandfather of the poet and first Poet Laureate,

John Dryden John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration (En ...

(through his third son, Erasmus) and he was also the uncle of Elizabeth (Dryden) Swift, who was the grandmother of

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish writer, essayist, satirist, and Anglican cleric. In 1713, he became the Dean (Christianity), dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, and was given the sobriquet "Dean Swi ...

. Dryden's sister-in-law, Katherine (Throckmorton) Dryden, was a first cousin of Lady Elizabeth (Throckmorton) Raleigh. He was an uncle of female Puritan preacher

Anne Hutchinson Anne Hutchinson (; July 1591 – August 1643) was an English-born religious figure who was an important participant in the Antinomian Controversy which shook the infant Massachusetts Bay Colony from 1636 to 1638. Her strong religious formal d ...

Career

He entered

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College ( ) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by Bishop of Winchester William of Waynflete. It is one of the wealthiest Oxford colleges, as of 2022, and ...

, in 1571 aged 18. and was demy from 1571 to 1575 and fellow from 1575 to 1580, being awarded BA on 11 June 1577. In 1577, he was student of the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court entitled to Call to the bar, call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple (with whi ...

. He was

High Sheriff of Northamptonshire This is a list of the High Sheriffs of Northamptonshire. The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the respon ...

in 1599 and in 1618. He was created a

baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

on 16 November 1619. 'Alumni Oxonienses, 1500-1714: Disbrowe-Dyve', Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714: Abannan-Kyte (1891), pp. 406–439. Date accessed: 1 April 2011
/ref> In 1624, Dryden was elected Member of Parliament for

Banbury Banbury is an historic market town and civil parish on the River Cherwell in Oxfordshire, South East England. The parish had a population of 54,335 at the 2021 Census. Banbury is a significant commercial and retail centre for the surrounding ...

in the

Happy Parliament The 4th Parliament of King James I was the fourth and last Parliament of England of the reign of James I of England, summoned on 30 December 1623, sitting from 19 February 1624 to 29 May 1624, and thereafter kept out of session with repeated pro ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dryden, Erasmus 1540s births 1632 deaths English MPs 1624–1625 High sheriffs of Northamptonshire People from Banbury Year of birth uncertain Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford Members of the Middle Temple 16th-century English politicians Baronets in the Baronetage of England Dryden baronets Erasmu