Appendix XVII: Men of science and letters
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Men of science and letters
At least 80 of the Members are known to have published. The most famous authors in the House were probably Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, the essayists responsible for the Spectator and Tatler, among many other literary productions; the philosopher Lord Shaftesbury (Anthony, Lord Ashley); the political economist Charles Davenant; the playwright and historian Sir Robert Howard; and the poet Matthew Prior. A substantial number can be shown to have engaged in political pamphleteering, even if we exclude those, like Sir John Pakington, 4th Bt., Sir Charles Sedley, 5th Bt., and Sir John Thompson, 1st Bt., who gave their own speeches into the press. The best known and most effective political writers were Anthony Rowe, whose Letter to a Friend ..., appearing just before the1690 election, purported to publish a list of those who had voted in the Convention against the transfer of the crown, and was voted by the Commons ‘a false and scandalous libel’; the Whig politicians Sir John Somers and Robert Walpole II; Arthur Maynwaring, Swift’s antagonist on the Medley, and the several habitués of the Grecian Tavern, Robert Molesworth Walter Moyle, and Anthony Hammond. Among the Scots, Sir Alexander Cumming, 1st Bt., published two essays in the Mercator in 1713 on the French Commercial Treaty, and the lord advocate, Hon. Sir David Dalrymple, 1st Bt., wrote on the lay patronages and forfeited estates bills, but the best known political writers were undoubtedly William Seton of Pitmedden and the Jacobite George Lockhart. Economic issues provoked a few Members to take up their pens, especially the projectors Nicholas Barbon and Thomas Neale, whose writings were intended first and foremost to advance their own vested interests, and Sir Richard Temple, 3rd Bt. North of the border we find Sir John Anstruther, 1st Bt., appearing as an agricultural expert with the publication of his Drill Husbandry, and the mentally unbalanced (Sir) Alexander Murray also using the press to rehearse personal grievances and promote fantastic schemes. Surprisingly few Members tackled religious subjects. Of those who did, the Devon lawyer Peter King, who by his flatterers was ‘reckoned one of the most religious persons in England’, compiled a scholarly Enquiry into the Constitution, Discipline, Unity and Worship of the Primitive Church, which in effect sought to reconcile presbyterian ‘synods’ with episcopacy. But Sir Robert Howard and Sir Thomas Pope Blount, 1st Bt., were openly anticlerical and suspiciously heterodox in their theology, while John ‘Translation’ Asgill offered one of the most eccentric interpretations of Christian doctrine even in this freethinking age. Less controversial, and more typical of the period, were the cluster of antiquarians, headed by Browne Willis, the author of (inter alia) Notitia Parliamentaria, and the Cornish local historian Thomas Tonkin, and a whole troop of gentlemen-amateurs who dabbled in literature, among whom may be mentioned the poets Lord Cutts (John), George Granville, Henry Heveningham, and William Walsh; the dramatists John Berkeley, 4th Viscount Fitzhardinge [I], and Richard Norton II; the classicists Hon. Arthur Annesley, Hon. Charles Boyle II, and Stephen Hervey; and the Speaker, (Sir) Thomas Hanmer II, who produced an insipid and bowdlerized edition of Shakespeare. The parliamentary diarist Sir Richard Cocks, 2nd Bt., published one or two odd pamphlets on miscellaneous political and religious themes, together with some grand jury charges (another easy route to publication which several Members followed), but wrote a great deal more which he (or his printers) withheld from the press, including verse satires, and even a political playlet.
Other Members may not have published very much, or indeed anything, themselves, but played a considerable part in promoting the work of others and the affairs of the republic of letters generally. Robert Harley patronized a herd of Grub Street hacks, gave them ideas, and may well have drafted some sections of their pamphlets himself. His counterpart on the Whig side was Charles Montagu, who was regarded by his protégés, and may have thought of himself, as the ‘Maecenas of the modern age’. Harley might also qualify as the greatest book collector of the early 18th century, an obsession in which he was followed by his son, Edward, his nephew Thomas Foley III, and friend Owen Brigstocke. Other noted bibliophiles included Lord Ailesbury’s heir, Charles, Lord Bruce, and, Richard Ellys. Of gentleman-antiquarians the House offered an almost inexhaustible supply: they included Rowland Cotton, William Master, Archdale Palmer, a small circle of north-country squires who figure in the correspondence of Ralph Thoresby, among them Theodore Bathurst and Roger Gale (the first vice-president of the Society of Antiquaries), and a significant number of Welshmen, many of whom are listed among the patrons of Edward Lluyd’s Archaeologia, Francis Gwyn, Thomas Mansel I, Sir Roger Mostyn, 3rd Bt., Sir Edward Stradling, 5th Bt., John Vaughan I.
The full list of Members known to have published their own writings (or editions) is as follows:
Joseph Addison
Hon. Arthur Annesley
John Anstis
Sir John Anstruther,1st Bt.
John Archdale
John Asgill
Anthony Ashley, Lord Ashley
Nicholas Barbon
John Berkeley, 4th Viscount Fitzhardinge [I]
John Blanch
Sir Thomas Pope Blount, 1st Bt.
Hon. Charles Boyle II
William Bromley II
Josiah Burchett
Sir Richard Cocks, 2nd Bt.
Thomas Coningsby
Sir William Cowper, 2nd Bt.
William Cowper
Thomas Crosse
Sir Alexander Cumming, 1st Bt.
John Cutts, 1st Baron Cutts [I]
Hon. Sir David Dalrymple
Charles Davenant
George Duckett
Richard Ellys
Roger Gale
George Granville
William Grimston
Sir Rowland Gwynne
Lord Archibald Hamilton
Anthony Hammond
Thomas Hanmer II
Hon. Hugh Hare
Sir Edward Harley
Robert Harley
John Hawles
Gilbert Heathcote
Stephen Hervey (Harvey)
Sir Richard Hoare
Sir Robert Howard
Archibald Hutcheson
Peter King
George Lockhart
William Lowndes
Sir Humphrey Mackworth
Arthur Maynwaring
Robert Molesworth
Charles Montagu
Edward Wortley Montagu
Hon. Harry Mordaunt
Sir Cleave More, 2nd Bt.
Walter Moyle
Thomas Neale
Richard Norton II
Charles Oliphant
Benjamin Overton
George Oxenden
John Parkhurst
Alexander Pitfield
Uvedale Tomkyns Price
Matthew Prior
William Pulteney
Anthony Rowe
Henry St. John II
George St. Loe
Sir Charles Sedley, 5th Bt.
William Seton
William Shippen
Sir Bartholomew Shower
Sir John Somers
James Stanhope
Richard Steele
Sir Richard Temple, 3rd Bt.
Sir John Thompson, 1st Bt.
Joseph Tily
Thomas Tonkin
Robert Walpole II
William Walsh
John Ward IV
Browne Willis
While a good many of the Members were devotees of the new learning in natural philosophy, Isaac Newton should in all probability be distinguished as the only fully-fledged ‘scientist’among them, in the modern sense of the word. Sir Christopher Wren was the one other professional in the field, having held the Savilian chair of astronomy at Oxford from 1661 to 1673, though he was of course best known as an architect. Among the 67 fellows of the Royal Society (listed below) were a number who devoted much of their time to antiquarian and scholarly pursuits of various kinds, in particular the society’s secretary and treasurer Alexander Pitfield, the Irish officials Francis Robartes and Sir Cyril Wyche, both of whom were also members of the revived Dublin Philosophical Society; the inquisitive and ingenious Yorkshiremen Cyril Arthington, Sir Godfrey Copley, 2nd Bt., and Roger Gale; and the Scottish ‘virtuoso’ John Clerk of Penicuik. Although never an FRS, the Suffolk baronet Sir Dudley Cullum devoted himself to botany and horticulture, under the guidance of John Evelyn. Sir George Markham 3rd Bt., and Robert Molesworth were both members of a ‘new Junta for architecture’, and many other Members took a close interest in rebuilding on their estates, even playing a part themselves in planning and design. Finally, outside the refined atmosphere of gentlemanly learning, we may find the Southwark brewer Charles Cox, almost as a latter-day Gresham, sponsoring ‘public lectures in applied mathematics’, and the great ironmaster Sir Ambrose Crowley, promoting industrial innovative processes, albeit in the pursuit of profit rather than enlightenment.
The following Members were fellows of the Royal Society:
Hon. Arthur Annesley
Cyril Arthington
Robert Balle
Sir John Banks, 1st Bt.
Benjamin Bathurst
Hon. John Beaumont
Maurice Berkeley, 3rd Visct. Fitzhardinge [I]
Hon. Charles Boyle II
Owen Brigstocke
Walter Chetwynd I
Hon. George Cholmondeley
John Clerk
Sir Peter Colleton, 2nd Bt.
Sir Godfrey Copley, 2nd Bt.
William Cowper
Sir John Cutler, 1st Bt.
Sir Matthew Dudley, 2nd Bt.
John Evelyn II
Richard Foley
Thomas Foley III
John Fuller
Roger Gale
Sir Rowland Gwynne
Anthony Hammond
Sir Edward Harley
Edward, Ld. Harley
Robert Harley
George Hay, Visct. Dupplin
Gilbert Heathcote
Archibald Hutcheson
John Hutton II
Richard Jones, 1st Earl of Ranelagh [I]
Peter King
Sir James Long, 2nd Bt.
James Lowther
Sir John Lowther, 2nd Bt. I
Sir John Lowther, 2nd Bt. II
Sir George Markham, 3rd Bt.
Sir Robert Marsham, 5th Bt.
Robert Molesworth
Charles Montagu
Thomas Neale
Isaac Newton
William Nicholas
Charles Oliphant
Sir Thomas Parker
Alexander Pitfield
Sir William Portman, 6th Bt.
Henry Powle
Matthew Prior
William Pulteney
Hon. Francis Robartes
Thomas Sclater (aft. Bacon)
Sir Philip Skippon
Sir John Somers
Charles Somerset, Mq. of Worcester
Edward Southwell
Charles Spencer, Ld. Spencer
Sir Philip Sydenham, 3rd Bt.
Silius Titus
Sir William Trumbull
Sir Joseph Williamson
Sir Thomas Willoughby, 2nd Bt.
Henry Worsley
Sir Christopher Wren
Christopher Wren
Sir Cyril Wych
