Evelyn lived in the busy and important times of King Charles I., Oliver
Cromwell, King Charles II., King James II., and King William, and early
accustomed himself to note such things as occurred, which he thought
worthy of remembrance. He was known to, and had much personal intercourse
with, the Kings Charles II. and James II.; and he was in habits of great
intimacy with many of the ministers of these two monarchs, and with many
of the eminent men of those days, as well among the clergy as the laity.
Foreigners distinguished for learning, or arts, who came to England, did
not leave it without visiting him.
The following pages contribute extensive and important particulars of
this eminent man. They show that he did not travel merely to count
steeples, as he expresses himself in one of his Letters: they develop his
private character as one of the most amiable kind. With a strong
predilection for monarchy, with a personal attachment to Kings Charles
II. and James II., formed when they resided at Paris, he was yet utterly
averse to the arbitrary measures of these monarchs.
Strongly and steadily attached to the doctrine and practice of the Church
of England, he yet felt the most liberal sentiments for those who
differed from him in opinion. He lived in intimacy with men of all
persuasions; nor did he think it necessary to break connection with
anyone who had ever been induced to desert the Church of England, and
embrace the doctrines of that of Rome. In writing to the brother of a
gentleman thus circumstanced, in 1659, he expresses himself in this
admirable manner: "For the rest, we must commit to Providence the success
of times and mitigation of proselytical fervors; having for my own
particular a very great charity for all who sincerely adore the Blessed
Jesus, our common and dear Saviour, as being full of hope that God
(however the present zeal of some, and the scandals taken by others at
the instant [present] affliction of the Church of England may transport
them) will at last compassionate our infirmities, clarify our judgments,
and make abatement for our ignorances, superstructures, passions, and
errors of corrupt times and interests, of which the Romish persuasion can
no way acquit herself, whatever the present prosperity and secular polity
may pretend. But God will make all things manifest in his own time, only
let us possess ourselves in patience and charity. This will cover a
multitude of imperfections."
He speaks with great moderation of the Roman Catholics in general,
admitting that some of the laws enacted against them might be mitigated;
but of the Jesuits he had the very worst opinion, considering them as a
most dangerous Society, and the principal authors of the misfortunes
which befell King James II., and of the horrible persecutions of the
Protestants in France and Savoy.
He must have conducted himself with uncommon prudence and address, for he
had personal friends in the Court of Cromwell, at the same time that he
was corresponding with his father-in-law, Sir Richard Browne, the
Ambassador of King Charles II. at Paris; and at the same period that he
paid his court to the King, he maintained his intimacy with a disgraced
minister.
In his travels, he made acquaintance not only with men eminent for
learning, but with men ingenious in every art and profession.
His manners we may presume to have been most agreeable; for his company
was sought by the greatest men, not merely by inviting him to their own
tables, but by their repeated visits to him at his own house; and this
was equally the case with regard to ladies, of many of whom he speaks in
the highest style of admiration, affection, and respect. He was master of
the French, Italian, and Spanish languages. That he had read a great deal
is manifest; but at what time he found opportunities for study, it is not
easy to say. He acknowledges himself to have been idle, while at Oxford;
and, when on his travels, he had little time for reading, except when he
stayed about nineteen weeks in France, and at Padua, where he was
likewise stationary for several months. At Rome, he remained a
considerable time, but, while there, he was so continually engaged in
viewing the great variety of interesting objects to be seen in that city,
that he could have found little leisure for reading. When resident in
England, he was so much occupied in the business of his numerous offices,
in paying visits, in receiving company at home, and in examining whatever
was deemed worthy of curiosity, or of scientific observation, that it is
astonishing how he found the opportunity to compose the numerous books
which he published, and the much greater number of Papers, on almost
every subject, which still remain in manuscript; to say nothing of the
very extensive and voluminous correspondence which he appears to have
carried on during his long life, with men of the greatest eminence in
Church and State, and the most distinguished for learning, both
Englishmen and foreigners. In this correspondence he does not seem to
have made use of an amanuensis; and he has left transcripts in his own
hand of great numbers of letters both received and sent. He observes,
indeed, in one of these, that he seldom went to bed before twelve, or
closed his eyes before one o'clock.
He was happy in a wife of congenial dispositions with his own, of an
enlightened mind, who had read much, and was skilled in etching and
painting, yet attentive to the domestic concerns of her household, and a
most affectionate mother.
His grandfather, George, was not the first of the family who settled in
Surrey. John, father of this George, was of Kingston, in 1520, and
married a daughter of David Vincent, Esq., Lord of the Manor of Long
Ditton, near Kingston, which afterward came in the hands of George, who
there carried on the manufacture of gunpowder. He purchased very
considerable estates in Surrey, and three of his sons became heads of
three families, viz, Thomas, his eldest son, at Long Ditton; John, at
Godstone, and Richard at Wotton. Each of these three families had the
title of Baronet conferred on them at different times, viz, at Godstone,
in 1660; Long Ditton, in 1683; and Wotton, in 1713.
The manufacture of gunpowder was carried on at Godstone as well as at
Long Ditton; but it does not appear that there ever was any mill at
Wotton, or that the purchase of that place was made with such a view.
It may be not altogether incurious to observe, that though Mr. Evelyn's
father was a man of very considerable fortune, the first rudiments of
this son's learning were acquired from the village schoolmaster over the
porch of Wotton Church. Of his progress at another school, and at
college, he himself speaks with great humility; nor did he add much to
his stock of knowledge, while he resided in the Middle Temple, to which
his father sent him, with the intention that he should apply to what he
calls "an impolished study," which he says he never liked.
The "Biographia" does not notice his tour in France, Flanders, and
Holland, in 1641, when he made a short campaign as a volunteer in an
English regiment then in service in Flanders.[1] Nor does it notice his
having set out, with intent to join King Charles I. at Brentford; and
subsequently desisting when the result of that battle became known, on
the ground that his brother's as well as his own estates were so near
London as to be fully in power of the Parliament, and that their
continued adherence would have been certain ruin to themselves without
any advantage to his Majesty. In this dangerous conjuncture he asked and
obtained the King's leave to travel. Of these travels, and the
observations he made therein, an ample account is given in this Diary.
[Footnote 1: This expression is, perhaps, hardly applicable to the
fact of Evelyn's having witnessed a siege merely as a curious
spectator. He reached the camp on the 2d, and left it on the 8th of
August, 1641. It is certain, however, that during these six days he
took his turn on duty, and trailed a pike.--See Diary.]
The national troubles coming on before he had engaged in any settled plan
for his future life, it appears that he had thoughts of living in the
most private manner, and that, with his brother's permission, he had even
begun to prepare a place for retirement at Wotton. Nor did he afterward
wholly abandon his intention, if the plan of a college, which he sent to
Mr. Boyle in 1659, was really formed on a serious idea. This scheme is
given at length in the "Biographia," and in Dr. Hunter's edition of the
"Sylva" in 1776; but it may be observed that he proposes it should not be
more than twenty-five miles from London.
As to his answer to Sir George Mackenzie's panegyric on Solitude, in
which Mr. Evelyn takes the opposite part and urges the preference to
which public employment and an active life is entitled,--it may be
considered as the playful essay of one who, for the sake of argument,
would controvert another's position, though in reality agreeing with his
own opinion; if we think him serious in two letters to Mr. Abraham
Cowley, dated 12th March and 24th August, 1666, in the former of which he
writes: "You had reason to be astonished at the presumption, not to name
it affront, that I, who have so highly celebrated recess, and envied it
in others, should become an advocate for the enemy, which of all others
it abhors and flies from. I conjure you to believe that I am still of the
same mind, and that there is no person alive who does more honor and
breathe after the life and repose you so happily cultivate and advance by
your example; but, as those who praised dirt, a flea, and the gout, so
have I public employment in that trifling Essay, and that in so weak a
style compared with my antagonist's, as by that alone it will appear I
neither was nor could be serious, and I hope you believe I speak my very
soul to you.
'_Sunt enim Musis sua ludicra mista Camoenis
Otia sunt----_'"
In the other, he says, "I pronounce it to you from my heart as oft as I
consider it, that I look on your fruitions with inexpressible emulation,
and should think myself more happy than crowned heads, were I, as you,
the arbiter of mine own life, and could break from those gilded toys to
taste your well-described joys with such a wife and such a friend, whose
conversation exceeds all that the mistaken world calls happiness." But,
in truth, Mr. Evelyn's mind was too active to admit of solitude at all
times, however desirable it might appear to him in theory.
After he had settled at Deptford, which was in the time of Cromwell, he
kept up a constant correspondence with Sir Richard Browne (his
father-in-law), the King's Ambassador at Paris; and though his connection
must have been known, it does not appear that he met with any
interruption from the government here. Indeed, though he remained a
decided Royalist, he managed so well as to have intimate friends even
among those nearly connected with Cromwell; and to this we may attribute
his being able to avoid taking the Covenant, which he says he never did
take. In 1659, he published "An Apology for the Royal Party"; and soon
after printed a paper which was of great service to the King, entitled
"The Late News, or Message from Brussels Unmasked," which was an answer
to a pamphlet designed to represent the King in the worst light.
On the Restoration, we find him very frequently at Court; and he became
engaged in many public employments, still attending to his studies and
literary pursuits. Among these, is particularly to be mentioned the Royal
Society, in the establishment and conduct of which he took a very active
part. He procured Mr. Howard's library to be given to them; and by his
influence, in 1667, the Arundelian Marbles were obtained for the
University of Oxford.
His first appointment to a public office was in 1662, as a Commissioner
for reforming the buildings, ways, streets, and incumbrances, and
regulating hackney coaches in London. In the same year he sat as a
Commissioner on an inquiry into the conduct of the Lord Mayor, etc.,
concerning Sir Thomas Gresham's charities. In 1664 he was in a commission
for regulating the Mint; in the same year was appointed one of the
Commissioners for the care of the Sick and Wounded in the Dutch war; and
he was continued in the same employment in the second war with that
country.
He was one of the Commissioners for the repair of St. Paul's Cathedral,
shortly before it was burned in 1666. In that year he was also in a
commission for regulating the farming and making saltpetre; and in 1671
we find him a Commissioner of Plantations on the establishment of the
board, to which the Council of Trade was added in 1672.
In 1685 he was one of the Commissioners of the Privy Seal, during the
absence of the Earl of Clarendon (who held that office), on his going
Lord Lieutenant to Ireland. On the foundation of Greenwich Hospital, in
1695, he was one of the Commissioners; and, on the 30th of June, 1696,
laid the first stone of that building. He was also appointed Treasurer,
with a salary of £200 a year; but he says that it was a long time before
he received any part of it.
When the Czar of Muscovy came to England, in 1698, proposing to instruct
himself in the art of shipbuilding, he was desirous of having the use of
Sayes Court, in consequence of its vicinity to the King's dockyard at
Deptford. This was conceded; but during his stay he did so much damage
that Mr. Evelyn had an allowance of £150 for it. He especially regrets
the mischief done to his famous holly hedge, which might have been
thought beyond the reach of damage. But one of Czar Peter's favorite
recreations had been to demolish the hedges by riding through them in a
wheelbarrow.
October, 1699, his elder brother, George Evelyn, dying without male
issue, aged eighty-three, he succeeded to the paternal estate; and in May
following, he quitted Sayes Court and went to Wotton, where he passed the
remainder of his life, with the exception of occasional visits to London,
where he retained a house. In the great storm of 1703, he mentions in his
last edition of the "Sylva," above one thousand trees were blown down in
sight of his residence.
He died at his house in London, 27th February, 1705-6, in the
eighty-sixth year of his age, and was buried at Wotton. His lady survived
him nearly three years, dying 9th February, 1708-9, in her seventy-fourth
year, and was buried near him at Wotton.
Of Evelyn's children, a son, who died at the age of five, and a daughter,
who died at the age of nineteen, were almost prodigies. The particulars
of their extraordinary endowments, and the profound manner in which he
was affected at their deaths, may be seen in these volumes.
One daughter was well and happily settled; another less so; but she did
not survive her marriage more than a few months. The only son who lived
to the age of manhood, inherited his father's love of learning, and
distinguished himself by several publications.
Mr. Evelyn's employment as a Commissioner for the care of the Sick and
Wounded was very laborious; and, from the nature of it, must have been
extremely unpleasant. Almost the whole labor was in his department, which
included all the ports between the river Thames and Portsmouth; and he
had to travel in all seasons and weathers, by land and by water, in the
execution of his office, to which he gave the strictest attention. It
was rendered still more disagreeable by the great difficulty which he
found in procuring money for support of the prisoners. In the library at
Wotton, are copies of numerous letters to the Lord Treasurer and Officers
of State, representing, in the strongest terms, the great distress of the
poor men, and of those who had furnished lodging and necessaries for
them. At one time, there were such arrears of payment to the victuallers,
that, on landing additional sick and wounded, they lay some time in the
streets, the publicans refusing to receive them, and shutting up their
houses. After all this trouble and fatigue, he found as great difficulty
in getting his accounts settled.[2] In January, 1665-6, he formed a plan
for an Infirmary at Chatham, which he sent to Mr. Pepys, to be laid
before the Admiralty, with his reasons for recommending it; but it does
not appear that it was carried into execution.
[Footnote 2: 2d October, 1665, he writes to the Lord Chancellor,
Lord Arlington, Sir William Coventry, and Sir Philip Warwick,
complaining of want of money for the prisoners: praying that while
he and his brother Commissioners adventure their persons and all
that is dear to them, in this uncomfortable service, they may not be
exposed to ruin, and to a necessity of abandoning their care; and
adding that they have lost their officers and servants by the
pestilence, and are hourly environed with the saddest objects of
perishing people. "I have," says he, "fifteen places full of sick
men, where they put me to unspeakable trouble; the magistrates and
justices, who should further us in our exigencies, hindering the
people from giving us quarters, jealous of the contagion, and
causing them to shut the doors at our approach."]
His employments, in connection with the repair of St. Paul's (which,
however, occupied him but a brief time), as in the Commission of Trade
and Plantations, and in the building of Greenwich Hospital, were much
better adapted to his inclinations and pursuits.
As a Commissioner of the Privy Seal in the reign of King James II., he
had a difficult task to perform. He was most steadily attached to the
Church of England, and the King required the Seal to be affixed to many
things incompatible with the welfare of that Church. This, on some
occasions, he refused to do, particularly to a license to Dr. Obadiah
Walker to print Popish books;[3] and on other occasions he absented
himself, leaving it to his brother Commissioners to act as they thought
fit. Such, however, was the King's estimation of him, that no displeasure
was evinced on this account.
[Footnote 3: Dr. Walker had been a member of the Church of England,
but had renounced it, and turned Papist.]
Of Evelyn's attempt to bring Colonel Morley (Cromwell's Lieutenant of the
Tower, immediately preceding the Restoration) over to the King's
interest, an imperfect account is given in the "Biographia." The fact is,
that there was great friendship between these gentlemen, and Evelyn did
endeavor to engage the Colonel in the King's interest. He saw him several
times, and put his life into his hands by writing to him on 12th January,
1659-60; he did not succeed, and Colonel Morley was too much his friend
to betray him; but so far from the Colonel having settled matters
privately with Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, or General Monk, as there
described, he was obliged, when the Restoration took place, actually to
apply to Evelyn to procure his pardon; who obtained it accordingly,
though, as he states, the Colonel was obliged to pay a large sum of money
for it. This could not have happened, if there had been any previous
negotiation with General Monk.
Dr. Campbell took some pains to vindicate Mr. Evelyn's book, entitled,
"Navigation and Commerce, their Origin and Progress," from the charge of
being an imperfect work, unequal to the expectation excited by the title.
But the Doctor, who had not the information which this Journal so amply
affords on this subject, was not aware that what was so printed was
nothing more than an Introduction to the History of the Dutch War; a work
undertaken by Evelyn at the express command of King Charles II., and the
materials for which were furnished by the Officers of State. The
completion of this work, after considerable progress had been made in it,
was put a stop to by the King himself, for what reason does not appear;
but perhaps it was found that Evelyn was inclined to tell too much of the
truth concerning a transaction, which it will be seen by his Journal that
he utterly reprobated. His copy of the History, as far as he had
proceeded, he put into the hands of his friend, Mr. Pepys, of the
Admiralty, who did not return it; but the books and manuscripts belonging
to Mr. Pepys passed into the possession of Magdalen College, Cambridge.
From the numerous authors who have spoken in high terms of Mr. Evelyn, we
will select the two following notices of him.
In the "Biographia Britannica" Dr. Campbell says, "It is certain that
very few authors who have written in our language deserve the character
of able and agreeable writers so well as Mr. Evelyn, who, though he was
acquainted with most sciences, and wrote upon many different subjects,
yet was very far, indeed the farthest of most men of his time, from being
a superficial writer. He had genius, he had taste, he had learning; and
he knew how to give all these a proper place in his works, so as never to
pass for a pedant, even with such as were least in love with literature,
and to be justly esteemed a polite author by those who knew it best."
Horace Walpole (afterward Earl of Orford), in his Catalogue of Engravers,
gives us the following admirably drawn character: "If Mr. Evelyn had not
been an artist himself, as I think I can prove he was, I should yet have
found it difficult to deny myself the pleasure of allotting him a place
among the arts he loved, promoted, patronized; and it would be but
justice to inscribe his name with due panegyric in these records, as I
have once or twice taken the liberty to criticise him. But they are
trifling blemishes compared with his amiable virtues and beneficence; and
it may be remarked that the worst I have said of him is, that he knew
more than he always communicated. It is no unwelcome satire to say, that
a man's intelligence and philosophy is inexhaustible. I mean not to write
his biography, but I must observe, that his life, which was extended to
eighty-six years, was a course of inquiry, study, curiosity, instruction,
and benevolence. The works of the Creator, and the minute labors of the
creature, were all objects of his pursuit. He unfolded the perfection of
the one, and assisted the imperfection of the other. He adored from
examination; was a courtier that flattered only by informing his Prince,
and by pointing out what was worthy of him to countenance; and really was
the neighbor of the Gospel, for there was no man that might not have been
the better for him. Whoever peruses a list of his works will subscribe to
my assertion. He was one of the first promoters of the Royal Society; a
patron of the ingenious and the indigent; and peculiarly serviceable to
the lettered world; for, besides his writings and discoveries, he
obtained the Arundelian Marbles for the University of Oxford, and the
Arundelian Library for the Royal Society. Nor is it the least part of his
praise, that he who proposed to Mr. Boyle the erection of a Philosophical
College for retired and speculative persons, had the honesty to write in
defense of active life against Sir George Mackenzie's 'Essay on
Solitude.' He knew that retirement, in his own hands, was industry and
benefit to mankind; but in those of others, laziness and inutility."
Evelyn was buried in the Dormitory adjoining Wotton Church.
On a white marble, covering a tomb shaped like a coffin, raised about
three feet above the floor, is inscribed:
Here lies the Body
of JOHN EVELYN, Esq.,
of this place, second son
of Richard Evelyn, Esq.;
who having serv'd the Publick
in several employments, of which that
of Commissioner of the Privy-Seal in the
Reign of King James the 2d was most
honourable, and perpetuated his fame
by far more lasting monuments than
those of Stone or Brass, his learned
and usefull Works, fell asleep the 27 day
of February 1705-6, being the 86 year
of his age, in full hope of a glorious
Resurrection, thro' Faith in Jesus Christ.
Living in an age of extraordinary
Events and Revolutions, he learnt
(as himself asserted) this Truth,
which pursuant to his intention
is here declared--
_That all is vanity which is not honest,
and that there is no solid wisdom
but in real Piety._
Of five Sons and three Daughters
born to him from his most
vertuous and excellent Wife,
Mary, sole daughter and heiress
of Sir Rich. Browne of Sayes
Court near Deptford in Kent,
onely one daughter, Susanna,
married to William Draper
Esq., of Adscomb in this
County, survived him; the
two others dying in the
flower of their age, and
all the Sons very young, except
one named John, who
deceased 24 March, 1698-9,
in the 45 year of his age,
leaving one son, John, and
one daughter, Elizabeth.