Who was John Evelyn?
By Guy de la Bdoyre Links John Evelyns downloadable texts In 1992 I wanted a break from writing about Roman Britain. I picked up a copy of John Evelyn’s Diary in the local library and I was captivated. I wanted to find out more. But nothing on Evelyn was in print, including the Diary. I spent the next five years working on the original manuscripts then at Christ Church, Oxford, and then in London once they had been acquired by the British Library. Along the way I had the chance to put the Diary back into print, as well as produce an edited collection of Evelyn’s own books and tracts. But the most fascinating experience was tracing the Letters he exchanged with his great friend, the much better-known diarist Samuel Pepys. These were published at the beginning of 1998 (see below for details of these and various links of interest to anyone studying the period or who wants to find out more). To anyone interested in archaeology the seventeenth century is a revelation. Gone are the artefacts
Born in 1620 into a substantial Surrey landowning family whose fortunes were founded in gunpowder manufacture, John Evelyn came of age just as the Civil War began `in a conjunction of the greatest and most prodigious hazards that ever the youth of England saw’. To escape the disturbances, he embarked on a prolonged and formative period of travel in Italy and France, finally coming to rest in Paris in 1647 where he married the daughter of the English Resident, Sir Richard Browne, whose house was a centre for the exiled royalist community.
Born in 1620 into a substantial Surrey landowning family whose fortunes were founded in gunpowder manufacture, John Evelyn came of age just as the Civil War … www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/features/evelynn otes.html The John Evelyn archives Hitherto John Evelyn has principally been known from his Diary. The Archive allows him to be seen in his true milieu, that of the community of seventeenth … www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/features/evelyna rchive.html Contemporary diaries (Pepys’ Diary) on line John Evelyn: The Diary of John Evelyn Parts of this material including footnotes, … www.pepysdiary.com/p/3717.php Modern History Sourcebook: J. Evelyn: Restoration & Revolution From John Evelyn’s Diary. Restoration of the Stuarts. May 29, 1666 This day, his Majesty, … From Diary of John Evelyn, ed. W. Bray, 4 vols. … www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/17evelyn.htm l John Evelyn quotes (English Writer, whose diary is considered an invaluable source of information on the social, cultural, religious and po
