Edmund Bohun
Edmund Bohun(1645–1699) was an English writer on history and politics, a publicist in theToryinterest.[1]
Life[edit]
Great Britain[edit]
Edmund Bohun was born on March 12, 1644/5 in Ringsfield, Suffolk, England.[2] He was educated atQueens' College, Cambridge.[3]He marriedMary Brampton(d. 1719) on July 26, 1669.[3]They had a single child, Nicholas (1679-1718) who died in Carolina.[3]
In the late 1660s, Bohun became associated withWilliam Sancroft,Samuel ParkerandLeoline Jenkins,in a group ofHigh Churchproto-Tory thinkers. He began to write against theWhigsafter theExclusion Crisisof the 1680s. He attacked Whig theories and in particularAlgernon Sidneyin hisDefence of Sir Robert Filmer(1684). Sancroft asked Bohun to editRobert Filmer’s works, for an edition of 1685, and its preface Bohun attackedJames Tyrrell.[4]
In reply toJeremy Collier'sThe Desertion discuss'd in a Letter to a Country Gentleman(1688), Bohun wroteThe History of the Desertion(1690), bringing forward an argument influential for Tories who (unlike Collier) were prepared to swear allegiance after theGlorious Revolution;this work was the first history written of the events in whichJames II of Englandleft the throne. He drew on the work ofGrotius,inDe Jure Belli ac Pacis,for the idea ofconquestafter ajust waras applicable to the contemporary United Kingdom, as was also done byWilliam King.[5][6][7]
In 1692, Bohun was appointed Licenser of the Press, a position as pre-publication censor. He ran into trouble in the case of an anonymous pamphlet called,King William and Queen Mary Conquerorswhich was really byCharles Blount.It argued a case similar to Bohun's own views.Thomas Babington Macaulayclaimed that the Whig Blount in writing it deliberately set out to entrap the unpopular Bohun, but this is no longer accepted. In a House of Commons debate in 1693, Tories defending Bohun pointed out that the bishopsGilbert BurnetandWilliam Lloydhad published similar arguments. The outcome was that Bohun lost the position, which was shortly abolished, and Burnet'sPastoral Letterof 1689 was included in a suppression order coveringWilliam and Queen Mary Conquerors.Bohun was briefly imprisoned, and after a two-year renewal of the Press Act providing for a Licenser as censor to 1695, the pre-publication censorship of the press was allowed by Parliament to lapse.[4][7][8][9][10]
America[edit]
He emigrated toCarolina,becoming in 1698 the first recorded Chief Justice of (south) Carolina there, based inCharleston.[11]
On October 5, 1699, Bohun died ofYellow Fever.[2]
In 1885, Bohun's diary and autobiography were published by S. Wilton Rix. [2]
Works[edit]
- Bohun, Edmund (1682).An address to the free-men and free-holders of the nation.OCLC65328399.ProQuest2264195044,2248546800,2248541925.
- A defence of Sir Robert Filmer, against the mistakes and misrepresentations of Algernon Sidney, esq. in a paper delivered by him to the sheriffs upon the scaffold on Tower-Hill, on Fryday December the 7th 1683 before his execution there. (1684)
- A Geographical Dictionary, Representing the Present and Ancient Names of All the Countries, Provinces, Remarkable Cities...: And Rivers of the Whole World: Their Distances, Longitudes and Latitudes (1688)
- The history of the desertion, or, An account of all the publick affairs in England, from the beginning of September 1688, to the twelfth of February following with an answer to a piece call'd The desertion discussed, in a letter to a country gentleman (1690)
- The Character of Queen Elizabeth, or, A full and clear account of her policies, and the methods of her government both in church and state: her virtue and defects, together with the characters of her principal ministers of state, and the greatest part of the affairs and events that happened in her times (1693)
- The justice of peace, his calling and qualifications (1693)
Notes[edit]
- ^Stephen, Leslie (1886)..InStephen, Leslie(ed.).Dictionary of National Biography.Vol. 5. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 306–307.
- ^abcS. Wilton Rix, The Diary and Autobiography of Edmund Bohun Esq (1885)
- ^abc"Eminent alumni | Queens' College".
- ^abAndrew Pyle(editor),Dictionary of Seventeenth Century British Philosophers(2000), article on Bohun, pp. 105-7.
- ^Mark GoldieandRobert Wokler(editors),The Cambridge History of Eighteenth-century Political Thought(2006), p. 46.
- ^Tony Claydon,Europe and the Making of England, 1660-1760(2007), p. 247 note 116.
- ^abJ. P. Kenyon,Revolution Principles: The Politics of Party 1680-1720(1977), p. 31.
- ^"Anecdote about Edmund Bohun (1645-1699) by Macaulay (1899)".
- ^David Hayton, Eveline Cruickshanks, Stuart Handley,The House of Commons, 1690-1715: Volume 1(2002), p. 1066.
- ^Evan Whitton, Patrick Cook,The Cartel: Lawyers and Their Nine Magic Tricks(1998), p. 60.
- ^Charles Warren,History of the Harvard Law School and of Early Legal Conditions in America(1908), p. 109.
Further reading[edit]
- Samuel Wilton Rix(editor) (1853),The Diary and Autobiography of Edmund Bohun Esq.[1]
- Mark Goldie,‘Edmund Bohun and Jus Gentium in the Revolution Debate, 1689-1693’,The Historical Journal,20 (1977), pp. 569–86.
- Mark Goldie,‘Charles Blount's Intention in Writing "King William and Queen Mary Conquerors" (1693)’,Notes and Queries223 (1978): pp. 527–32.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
- ^"The diary and autobiography of Edmund Bohun, esq. With an introductory memoir, notes, and illustrations".Beccles [Eng.] Priv. print. by R.Crisp. 1853.