Sir Simonds d'Ewes, 1st Baronet

Sir Simonds d'Ewes, 1st Baronet (18 December 1602 – 18 April 1650) was an English antiquary and politician. He was bred for the bar, was a member of the Long Parliament and left notes on its transactions. D'Ewes took the Puritan side in the Civil War. His Journal of all the Parliaments of Elizabeth is of value; he left an Autobiography and Correspondence.

Early life Simonds d'Ewes was born on 18 December 1602 at Coaxdon Hall, Dorset (now in All Saints, Devon), the eldest son of Paul d'Ewes, of Milden, Suffolk, one of the Six Clerks in Chancery, and his first wife Cecelia, daughter and heiress of Sir Richard Simonds of Coaxden. His father's family came originally from Gelderland: Simonds' great-grandfather emigrated to England about 1510. He inherited a fortune from his maternal grandfather while still young; his other grandfather, Gerard d'Ewes, of Gaynes, Upminster, Essex, who married Grace Hynde, was a printer.

After his mother's death in 1618, his father remarried the widowed Elizabeth Isham, Lady Denton, who was only a few years older than her stepson: Simonds approved of the marriage and may have played a part in arranging it. His relations with his father, a difficult and quarrelsome man, were never good. After some early private teaching, including time at the school of Henry Reynolds (father of Bathsua Makin, who impressed d'Ewes much more), he was sent to the grammar school at Bury St Edmunds. At Bury St Edmunds, he wrote 2,850 verses of poetry in Greek and Latin.

D'Ewes then went to St John's College, Cambridge, and studied under Richard Holdsworth. At St John's, he was exposed to and influenced by a strong college tradition of Puritanism.

He was admitted to the Middle Temple in 1611, and in 1623 was called to the Bar. Being independently wealthy, he did not pursue a legal career, preferring instead to follow up antiquarian interests, which took him to the records in the Tower of London. He met Sir Robert Cotton, who introduced him to John Selden, the outstanding lawyer-scholar of the time; but D'Ewes found him conceited. and one daughter Cicely, who married Sir Thomas D'Arcy, 1st Baronet. He was knighted by Charles I on 6 December 1626. Although he opposed the King's arbitrary rule, his views were moderate; he was given a baronetcy by the king in 1641, possibly as an attempt to buy allegiance, in July. is a detailed examination that reflects on the early history of books in England as manifested in d'Ewes' collection.

Legacy Simonds d'Ewes, although known for the events in parliament during the 1640s, is best known for his contribution to the antiquarian world. His chief scholarly legacy is the collection of his transcriptions of primary documents that are now lost. He also kept a diary, which gives an insight into the events in Parliament, as well as glimpses of his own character.

Although he supported Parliament against the King during the Civil War, he was frequently shocked by the unruly and aggressive behaviour of his fellow Parliamentarians. Of the events leading to the abrupt dissolution of Parliament in March 1629, he wrote that "diverse fiery spirits in the House of Commons were very faulty and cannot be excused".