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John Evelyn

Type Figure Region England Time 1620–1706 Also known as Evelyn

An English polymath, diarist, and gardener whose Diary spans decades of the English Civil War, Restoration, and Great Fire of London, and who was a f…

Timeline

  1. 1620–1652Wotton · SurreyBorn at Wotton House in Surrey, he traveled in his youth through Europe, encountering Italian art and French gardens; during the English Civil War he went into exile on the Continent out of loyalty to the Crown, returning to England in 1652 during the Commonwealth.
  2. 1660–1680London · Greater LondonHe took part in founding the Royal Society in 1660 and became a founding fellow in 1662; after the Great Fire of London in 1666 he submitted rebuilding plans to Charles II, and continued recording court, scientific, and social circles in his diary, a primary source for studying Restoration English society.
  3. 1680–1706Wotton · SurreyHe practiced garden design at Wotton House, published Elysium Britannicum in 1683, and advocated afforestation and landscape planning; in later years he continued writing his diary and antiquarian essays, dying in London in 1706, his diary published posthumously becoming a classic of English literary and historical scholarship.

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