Synopses & Reviews
This is the first biography of Sir Simonds D'Ewes, an English country gentleman, lawyer, Puritan, historian and antiquarian who lived from 16021650. He left the most extensive archive of personal papers of any individual in early modern Europe, and this is the first thorough exploration of it. Biographies of his contemporaries usually emphasize either their public or private lives, but not both, because of the limitations of the sources. For D'Ewes, both are richly available and provide the basis for the most detailed description of an individual's life from childhood until death that can be written. His relationships with his two young wives and their children and his parents, siblings, friends and enemies are vividly portrayed. His life and thought before the Long Parliament to which he was elected in 1640 are carefully analyzed, so that the mind of one of the Parliamentarian opponents of King Charles I's policies can be understood more fully than that of any other MP. Although conservative in social and political terms, D'Ewes's Puritanism prevented him from joining his Royalist younger brother Richard during the civil war that began in 1642. In the late 1630s, he seriously considered emigration to Massachusetts. He collected one of the largest private libraries of books and manuscripts in England in his era and used them to pursue historical and antiquarian researches. He followed news of national and international events voraciously and conveyed his opinions of them in to his friends in many hundreds of letters.
Review
"At last Sir Simonds D'Ewes has found the biographer he deserves. Sears McGee's masterly account of D'Ewes's life and work is essential reading for all scholars of the seventeenth century who have struggled to assess the character and motivations of the greatest of the parliamentary diarists of the Long Parliament. Based firmly on the huge archive of D'Ewes's letters and other writings, this book firmly dispels notions of D'Ewes as pompous, humourless Puritan or political fantasist. McGee writes sympathetically of D'Ewes as loving husband and father, loyal friend and dedicated scholarly collaborator, making this book a compelling read for all interested in the social history of England, as well as its politics and religion, during the decades on either side of 1640."Stephen K. Roberts, History of Parliament, London
Review
"An Industrious Mind offers a remarkable portrait of a seventeenth-century life. Sir Simonds D'Ewes' diary of the stirring times in which he lived is well known, but McGee goes beyond the public and political life to present the private mandutiful son, uxorious husband, anxious father, careful property owner, serious book collector, and antiquarian. The evidence of the diary becomes part of a wider context so that the book provides an account, unique for its time, of a past life lived whole. It does so with clarity and learning and also with understanding and sympathy."Barbara Donagan, author of War in England 16421649
Review
"In the last fifty years there have not been many books published on early modern English history, running the entire gamut from social history, local studies, political culture and religious history, that have not in some way quoted or referenced D'Ewes and the archive he left behindfrom now on they will reference this important biography."Chris R. Kyle, Syracuse University
Synopsis
The huge archive of the personal papers (most of them unexamined by historians) of Sir Simonds D'Ewes afford us an intimate view of both the public and private lives of a seventeenth-century gentlemana Puritan, a Parliamentarian, a lawyer, genealogist, and antiquarian who deepens our understanding of the reasons why Britain plunged into civil wars in the 1640s and why the wars had the consequences that they did.
Synopsis
This is the first biography of Sir Simonds D'Ewes, a member of England's Long Parliament, Puritan, historian and antiquarian who lived from 16021650. D'Ewes took the Puritan side against the supporters of King Charles I in the English Civil War, and his extensive journal of the Long Parliament, together with his autobiography and correspondence, offer a uniquely comprehensive view of the life of a seventeenth-century English gentleman, his opinions, thoughts and prejudices during this tumultuous time.
D'Ewes left the most extensive archive of personal papers of any individual in early modern Europe. His life and thought before the Long Parliament are carefully analyzed, so that the mind of one of the Parliamentarian opponents of King Charles I's policies can be understood more fully than that of any other Member of Parliament. Although conservative in social and political terms, D'Ewes's Puritanism prevented him from joining his Royalist younger brother Richard during the civil war that began in 1642. D'Ewes collected one of the largest private libraries of books and manuscripts in England in his era and used them to pursue historical and antiquarian research. He followed news of national and international events voraciously and conveyed his opinions of them to his friends in many hundreds of letters. McGee's biography is the first thorough exploration of the life and ideas of this extraordinary observer, offering fresh insight into this pivotal time in European history."
About the Author
J. Sears McGee is Professor of History at the University of California at Santa Barbara.