John Denham

Sir John Denham

Sir John Denham (1614 or 1615 – 19 March 1669) was an English poet and courtier. He served as Surveyor of the King's Works and is buried in Westminster Abbey.

Denham was born in Dublin to Sir John Denham, judge and Chief Baron of Exchequer in Ireland, and his second wife Eleanor. He was educated at Trinity College, Oxford and at Lincoln's Inn in London.

He began his literary career with a tragedy, The Sophy (1641), but his poem, Cooper's Hill (1642), is the work by which he is remembered. It is the first example in English of a poem devoted to local description (describing the Thames scenery round his home at Egham in Surrey). Denham wrote many versions of this poem, reflecting the political and cultural upheavals of the British Civil War. Denham received extravagant praise from Dr Samuel Johnson; but the place now assigned him is a much more humble one. His verse is smooth, clear, and agreeable, and occasionally a thought is expressed with remarkable terseness and force.

In his earlier years Denham suffered for his Royalism (during the English Civil War, he was high sheriff of Surrey and governor of Farnham Castle), but after the Restoration enjoyed prosperity. He, however, made an unhappy marriage, and his last years were clouded by insanity.

Although he initially trained as a lawyer, after the Restoration he succeeded (pre-Restoration) Inigo Jones as Surveyor of the King's Works. However, it is likely the 1661 appointment was more for reasons of his earlier political services than for any aptitude as an architect: there is no evidence that he personally designed any buildings, although he seems to have been a competent administrator. He became a Member of Parliament for Old Sarum in 1661, became a Fellow of the Royal Society on 20 May 1663, and became a Knight of the Bath.

Christopher Wren was appointed Denham's deputy and succeeded him as King's Surveyor upon his death in 1669. He was buried in Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey.

References

• This article incorporates public domain text from: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London, J. M. Dent & sons; New York, E. P. Dutton.
• H.M. Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600-1840 (1997) ISBN 0-300-07207-4
• Kelliher, W. H. (January 2008). "Denham, Sir John (1614/15–1669)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/7481. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/7481. Retrieved 2009-06-07. 

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: John Denham

• Works by John Denham at Project Gutenberg