Edmund Bohun (1645–1699) was an English writer on history and politics, a publicist in the

Tory A Tory () is an individual who supports a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalist conservatism which upholds the established social order as it has evolved through the history of Great Britain. The To ...

interest.

Life

Great Britain

Edmund Bohun was born on March 12, 1644/5 in Ringsfield, Suffolk, England.S. Wilton Rix, The Diary and Autobiography of Edmund Bohun Esq (1885) He was educated at

Queens' College, Cambridge Queens' College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the 16 "old colleges" of the university, and was founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. Its buildings span the R ...

. He married Mary Brampton (d. 1719) on July 26, 1669. They had a single child, Nicholas (1679-1718) who died in Carolina. In the late 1660s, Bohun became associated with

William Sancroft William Sancroft (30 January 161724 November 1693) was the 79th Archbishop of Canterbury, and was one of the Seven Bishops imprisoned in 1688 for seditious libel against King James II, over his opposition to the king's Declaration of Indulgen ...

, Samuel Parker and

Leoline Jenkins Sir Leoline Jenkins (1625 – 1 September 1685) was a Wales, Welsh academic, diplomat involved in the negotiation of international treaties (e.g. Treaties of Nijmegen, Nimègue), jurist and politician. He was a clerical lawyer who served as Jud ...

, in a group of

High Church A ''high church'' is a Christian Church whose beliefs and practices of Christian ecclesiology, Christian liturgy, liturgy, and Christian theology, theology emphasize "ritual, priestly authority, ndsacraments," and a standard liturgy. Although ...

proto-Tory thinkers. He began to write against the Whigs after the

Exclusion Crisis The Exclusion Crisis ran from 1679 until 1681 in the reign of King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland. Three Exclusion Bills sought to exclude the King's brother and heir presumptive, James, Duke of York, from the thrones of England, ...

of the 1680s. He attacked Whig theories and in particular

Algernon Sidney Algernon Sidney or Sydney (15 January 1623 – 7 December 1683) was an English politician, republican political theorist and colonel. A member of the middle part of the Long Parliament and commissioner of the trial of King Charles I of Englan ...

in his ''Defence of Sir Robert Filmer'' (1684). Sancroft asked Bohun to edit

Robert Filmer Sir Robert Filmer (c. 1588 – 26 May 1653) was an English political theorist who defended the divine right of kings. His best known work, '' Patriarcha'', published posthumously in 1680, was the target of numerous Whig attempts at rebuttal ...

’s works, for an edition of 1685, and its preface Bohun attacked James Tyrrell. Andrew Pyle (editor), ''Dictionary of Seventeenth Century British Philosophers'' (2000), article on Bohun, pp. 105-7. In reply to Jeremy Collier's ''The Desertion discuss'd in a Letter to a Country Gentleman'' (1688), Bohun wrote ''The History of the Desertion'' (1690), bringing forward an argument influential for Tories who (unlike Collier) were prepared to swear allegiance after the

Glorious Revolution The Glorious Revolution, also known as the Revolution of 1688, was the deposition of James II and VII, James II and VII in November 1688. He was replaced by his daughter Mary II, Mary II and her Dutch husband, William III of Orange ...

; this work was the first history written of the events in which

James II of England James II and VII (14 October 1633 – 16 September 1701) was King of England and Monarchy of Ireland, Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II of England, Charles II, on 6 February 1 ...

left the throne. He drew on the work of

Grotius Hugo Grotius ( ; 10 April 1583 – 28 August 1645), also known as Hugo de Groot () or Huig de Groot (), was a Dutch humanist, diplomat, lawyer, theologian, jurist, statesman, poet and playwright. A teenage prodigy, he was born in Delft an ...

, in '' De Jure Belli ac Pacis'', for the idea of

conquest Conquest involves the annexation or control of another entity's territory through war or Coercion (international relations), coercion. Historically, conquests occurred frequently in the international system, and there were limited normative or ...

after a

just war The just war theory () is a doctrine, also referred to as a tradition, of military ethics that aims to ensure that a war is morally justifiable through a series of criteria, all of which must be met for a war to be considered just. It has bee ...

as applicable to the contemporary United Kingdom, as was also done by William King. J. P. Kenyon, ''Revolution Principles: The Politics of Party 1680-1720'' (1977), p. 31. 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 Conquerors'' which was really by Charles Blount. It argued a case similar to Bohun's own views.

Thomas Babington Macaulay Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, (; 25 October 1800 – 28 December 1859) was an English historian, poet, and Whig politician, who served as the Secretary at War between 1839 and 1841, and as the Paymaster General between 184 ...

claimed 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 bishops

Gilbert Burnet Gilbert Burnet (18 September 1643 – 17 March 1715) was a Scottish people, Scottish philosopher and historian, and Bishop of Salisbury. He was fluent in Dutch language, Dutch, French language, French, Latin language, Latin, Greek language, Gree ...

and William Lloyd had published similar arguments. The outcome was that Bohun lost the position, which was shortly abolished, and Burnet's ''Pastoral Letter'' of 1689 was included in a suppression order covering ''William 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.

America

He emigrated to Carolina, becoming in 1698 the first recorded Chief Justice of (south) Carolina there, based in Charleston. On October 5, 1699, Bohun died of Yellow Fever. In 1885, Bohun's diary and autobiography were published by S. Wilton Rix.

Works

* * 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)

Life

Great Britain

America

Works

Notes

Further reading