John Evelyn was born in 1620, one of five children all of whom survived to adulthood. He was the second of three sons in a family whose fortune had been made in gunpowder manufacture and then expended on land. By the time of his birth, his father, Richard Evelyn was a leading member of the Surrey gentry and had settled at his estate at Wotton, Surrey. In fact, John Evelyn was brought up by his maternal grandfather, John Stansfield, and his wife in East Sussex at Southover, outside Lewes, where he attended Southover Free School until going up to Oxford, to Balliol College. However, he always considered that his intellectual life began with his travels, first to the Low Countries in 1641, and then for a prolonged period (1643 until 1651) to France and Italy, before settling in Paris, having…
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Citation: Darley, Gillian. "John Evelyn". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 February 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1461, accessed 21 November 2024.]
