Sir John Denham FRS (1614 or 1615 – 19 March 1669) was an Anglo-Irish poet and courtier, who formulated a primary model of the English pastoral epic in his poem Cooper's Hill. During the Civil War he served the Royalist cause in various capacities, enjoying the trust and favour of Charles I and Henrietta Maria and assisting in their embassies and secret correspondence. Having lost most of his estates by sequestration for delinquency in supporting the royal cause, at the Restoration he recovered his fortunes, and became Surveyor of the King's Works (between the terms of office of Inigo Jones and Sir Christopher Wren). The happiness of his last years was tainted by his young wife's adulterous affair with the Duke of York, whom Denham had personally rescued as a young man from the parliament forces and borne safely to his mother the Queen in Holland. He is buried among the poets in Westminster Abbey.^[1][2]

Denham was born in Dublin, only son to Sir John Denham, Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, and his second wife, Eleanor Moore, daughter of Garret Moore, 1st Viscount Moore, and his wife, Mary Colley.^[3] His father was a native of London, and returned to England in 1617 to take up office as a Baron of the Exchequer. The family later settled at Egham in Surrey, where the poet's father rebuilt the rectory, called "The Place", and in 1624 founded almshouses for five poor women.^[4] His mother died in childbirth when he was about five years old. Sir John purchased property at Little Horkesley, Essex, in 1631.^[5] John Denham the poet was first cousin to George Morley, the Restoration Bishop of Winchester, whose mother Sarah (Denham) was a sister of the poet's father.^[6]

It is thought that John Denham was schooled at Westminster or London, and was "made full ripe for the university".^[7] He progressed to Trinity College, Oxford (where he matriculated in November 1631 as of Little Horkesley),^[8] and to Lincoln's Inn in London (admitted 26 April 1631; barrister-at-law in 1638).^[9][10] He was an indifferent student, and was notorious for heavy gambling, which was a source of much worry to his father. Anthony à Wood says that at Oxford he was looked upon as a slow and dreaming young man, given more to cards and dice than his study: he was examined for his B.A., but it is not proved that he was awarded his degree.^[7]

At Lincoln's Inn, though he followed his study very close, "yet he would game much, and frequent the company of the unsanctified crew of gamesters, who rook'd him sometimes of all he could wrap or get."^[7] His father reprimanded him severely, in response to which he wrote a concise essay, The Anatomy of Play, dedicated to his father, describing the perils of gambling. This production, intelligently argued and peppered with Latin lines from classical authors, seems fully sincere despite a certain bravado, and was published long afterwards (1651) for the common good, supposedly without Denham's knowledge.^[11] However, he failed to follow his own advice.

He married first, in 1634, Anne Cotton, of Whittington, Gloucestershire, by whom he had three children, a son who died young and two daughters who reached adulthood.^[3] The daughter of Don Coton (born 1599) and Elizabeth Tippinge,^[12][13] Anne was heir to a wealthy family: by this marriage John Denham came into possession, first, of the manor of Horsenden, Buckinghamshire, and, in or after 1642, of Whittington Court (originally assigned to Anne's sister and coheir Appolina).^[14] A male child of John and Anne's was buried at Egham in August 1638:^[15] his father Sir John expired in 1639, and is commemorated in Egham church by an elaborately carved wall monument, and his wives by another.^[4][16] Denham seems to have run through his wife's money quickly. His losses from gambling ran to several thousand pounds, although in the 1630s he made some effort to reform.^[3] On his father's death in 1639 he inherited the family estate at Egham. He proceeded to go on one more gambling spree, and again lost several thousand.

During the 1630s Denham made a verse translation out of Book II of the Aeneid, which remained unpublished until 1656. In 1641 he gained some public fame from the performance at Blackfriars of his historical tragi-comedy in blank verse, The Sophy. This drama, set in Persia, was of a style of theatricals then passing out of fashion. Even so it was a popular success, not least because Denham's dramatic capabilities were unforeseen. Edmund Waller observed: "He broke-out like the Irish Rebellion - threescore thousand strong, before any body was aware."^[17]

His best-known poem, Cooper's Hill, descriptive of the landscape around Egham, was printed in 1642 and came to a second edition in 1643.^[18] This model of pastoral epic, in which Denham successfully combined moral reflections (prompted by the distant prospect of Old St Paul's Cathedral) with the proximate scenery of Windsor Forest, the River Thames and Runnymede, freighted with ancient royal associations, was his masterpiece and his lasting example to literary posterity.^[19] Thomas Catesby Paget remarked: "Sir John Denham's Cooper's Hill has met with universal Applause, tho' its Subject seems rather descriptive than instructing; but 'tis not the Hill, the River, nor the Stag Chase, 'tis the good Sense and the fine Reflections so frequently interspers'd, and as it were interwoven with the rest, that gives it the Value, and will make it, as was said of true Wit, everlasting like the Sun.'^[20] Denham continued to revise it until 1655.^[21]

Denham suffered for his adherence to the Royalist cause during the English Civil War. He was appointed High Sheriff of Surrey for 1642, and took possession of Farnham Castle, installing a garrison of 100 men. Farnham quickly fell to Parliamentary forces under Sir William Waller (1 December 1642), and Denham was sent a prisoner to London, but was soon released.^[22] However, his estates in Suffolk and Essex (Horkesley) were sequestrated in December 1643, and in November 1645 his distressed wife Anne brought a petition claiming that the Committees for those counties were attempting to cheat her out of her one-fifth part entitlement.^[23] Anne died in 1646.^[12]

From 1642 Denham spent five years in Oxford, where he enjoyed the trust and confidence of Charles I. During the abortive peace negotiations of 1646, Parliament listed him as one of those who must be excluded from the King's counsels.^[24] During 1647 he bore letters from Henrietta Maria to the King at Holdenby Palace in Northamptonshire, and with Sir Edward Ford, John Ashburnham and Sir John Berkeley he was involved in an attempt to reach a settlement between the royal and parliamentary factions which, however, proved abortive.

The King, being in custody when leaving Hampton Court in November 1647, gave to Denham the personal charge of the secret forwarding and receiving of the royal correspondence, instructing him to remain privately in London. In these proceedings he was associated with the royalist poet Abraham Cowley. Access to the king was facilitated through Hugh Peters, whom Denham had known during his imprisonment after having been captured at Dartmouth in 1646.^[12] Various ciphers were employed, but after Cowley's handwriting was recognized, suspicions were raised and the work was discontinued. Denham and the correspondents escaped discovery.^[25]

In 1648 Denham assisted in getting the young Duke of York to safety in Holland, after which he became attached to the court of Henrietta Maria in Paris, who entrusted him with despatches for Holland. In 1650-52, with William Crofts, 1st Baron Crofts, he made an embassy to Poland to collect funds on behalf of Charles II, an appeal which (by tariffs on the Scottish merchants in Poland) raised £10,000.^[19][21] These details are mentioned by Denham in his Epistle to the King prefixed to the collected edition of his poems first published in 1668.^[25]

It is said that Denham stayed abroad as much to avoid the consequences of his debts in England and the dissipation of his Egham estate, as from any fear of his personal safety for political reasons.^[7] Parliament ordered the sale of his lands in 1651,^[17] and in 1652 the sequestration imposed for his adherence to the royal cause was lifted to permit their sale and distribution.^[26] He returned in 1652 to find them mostly sold.^[27]

For a time Denham was almost penniless, but he received the hospitality of Philip Herbert, 5th Earl of Pembroke, with whom he resided for a year. Horsenden was bought by Colonel John Fielder, guardian and trustee of Denham's children, in 1654.^[28] In 1655 the authorities, worried by his frequent visits to London, ordered him to choose a residence more than twenty miles from the capital, which he was not to leave. He settled at Bury St. Edmunds.^[21] In 1658-59 he travelled on the Continent with William Herbert, the future Lord Herbert, son of his benefactor and host the 5th Earl of Pembroke.^[12]

John Aubrey recorded a story of this period which reflects well on Denham's wit and generosity of spirit. "In the time of the civill warres, George Withers, the poet, begged Sir John Denham's estate at Egham of the Parliament, in whose cause he was a captaine of horse. It happened that G. W. was taken prisoner, and was in danger of his life, having written severely against the king, &c. Sir John Denham went to the king, and desired his majestie not to hang him, for that whilest G. W. lived he should not be the worst poet in England."^[17]

Denham no doubt felt the warmth of royal favour from the moment of the King's return. His cousin George Morley, who had been with the court in exile, was consecrated Bishop of Winchester in 1660. Denham became a Member of Parliament for Old Sarum in 1661, and a Knight of the Bath at the Coronation in April 1661.^[12] He became a Fellow of the Royal Society on 20 May 1663. He received substantial grants of land in compensation for his forfeited estates, and recovered Horsenden, which he sold to John Grubbe in 1662.^[29] He also recovered Whittington, which he gave later to his daughter Elizabeth.^[26]

At the Restoration Denham became Surveyor of the King's Works, probably owing to his earlier political services rather than for any aptitude as an architect. Indeed he claimed that the reversion of the office had been promised to him as an unsolicited favour by King Charles I during the troubles.^[25] John Webb, who, as Inigo Jones's deputy, was undoubtedly competent for the post, complained that "though Mr. Denham may, as most gentry, have some knowledge of the theory of architecture, he can have none of the practice and must employ another".^[30] There is no evidence that he personally designed any buildings, although he seems to have been a capable administrator. He may have been involved in the design of his own intended home, Burlington House in Piccadilly, begun in about 1664.^[31] John Webb was appointed Denham's deputy by 1664 and did Denham's work at Greenwich (from 1666) and elsewhere.

In 1665 Denham made a second marriage to Margaret Brooke (1642–1667), daughter of Sir William Brooke and his second wife Penelope Hill, and half-sister of the leading statesman Edward Russell, 1st Earl of Orford.^[3] The marriage was to prove an unhappy one. Margaret, a beautiful young woman almost thirty years Denham's junior, conducted a very public liaison with the future King James II. To her husband's mortification, she insisted on being acknowledged openly as a royal mistress, saying that unlike her predecessor Goditha Price (daughter of Sir Herbert Price, the Master of the Household) she would not "go up and down the back stairs, but would be owned publicly".^[32]

Margaret died suddenly in January 1666/67 after a short illness. This gave rise to a rumour, promoted by Samuel Pepys among others, that Denham had murdered her by giving her a poisoned cup of chocolate. However, the autopsy found no trace of poison,^[33] and she had been seriously ill during the previous year. Other possible poisoners, including James, his wife Anne Hyde and his sister-in-law, Lady Rochester, were similarly suggested by the rumours.^[34] The construction site at Burlington House was sold in an unfinished state in 1667 to Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Burlington, immediately after Margaret Denham's death.^[31]

His last years were clouded by dementia. He was rumoured to be insane, a condition widely attributed to his scandalous marriage. The London public were hostile, regarding him as a murderer, and he became very reclusive. Yet it is observed that his beautiful elegy upon Abraham Cowley, written at this time, shows no loss of his powers poetical nor diminution of his intellectuals. Charles II requested in March 1669 that Christopher Wren be appointed Denham's "sole deputy"; Wren succeeded him as King's Surveyor upon his death two weeks later. Denham made his will on 13 March 1668/69 appointing his daughter Elizabeth his sole executor, and Sir John Birkenhead and William Ashburnham his overseers: Elizabeth proved the will in May 1670.^[35] He was buried in Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. The public suspicion about his role in his wife's death continued to the end of his life.

His son,

• John Denham, armiger, matriculated from Wadham College, Oxford, in July 1654.^[8] He apparently died without issue before his father, and is not mentioned in the will.^[35]

He was survived by his daughters:

• Elizabeth Denham,^[35] married Sir Thomas Arden Price in 1675 but died childless;
• Anne Denham,^[35] married Sir William Morley of Halnaker, by whom she had two sons who died young and a daughter Mary, who married James Stanley, 10th Earl of Derby, but had no surviving issue.

The wall memorial to the two wives of Sir John Denham senior, at Egham parish church, shows:

• Gules a fesse indented ermine (for Denham), impaling Sable a fesse indented with three molets on the fesse.^[4]

John Aubrey gives the Denham coat as

• Gules, three lozenges ermine.^[17]

Burke gives for Sir John the poet

• Gules, three fusils ermine, with a crest A lion's head erased ermine.^[36]

Denham 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, picturing the Thames Valley scenery around his home at Egham in Surrey. Denham made various revisions to the poem. Robert Herrick,^[37] John Dryden^[38] and Alexander Pope all wrote of Cooper's Hill with admiration. The poem was praised by Samuel Johnson for its smooth flow and economy of language.^[39]

• The Anatomy of Play. Written by a worthy and learned gent. Dedicated to his father to show his detestation of it (Nicholas Bourne, London 1651).^[11]
• The Destruction of Troy, An Essay upon the Second Book of Virgils Æneis. Written in the year, 1636 (Humphrey Moseley, London 1656).^[40]
• Poems and Translations, with The Sophy (H. Herringman, London 1668).
• Cato Major, Of Old Age. A Poem (Henry Herringman, 1669). (An adaptation of Cicero's De Senectute).^[41]
• A Version of the Psalms of David, fitted to the Tunes used in Churches, with a Preface. (Posthumously printed for J Bowyer, H. Clements, T. Varnam and J. Osborn, London 1714).^[42]

Gilfillan wrote of Denham and his contemporary Edmund Waller: "Neither Denham nor Waller were great poets; but they have produced lines and verses so good, and have, besides, exerted an influence so considerable on modern versification, and the style of poetical utterance, that they are entitled to a highly respectable place amidst the sons of British song."^[43]

He also received extravagant praise from Samuel Johnson, who quoted Denham's verse to exemplify the use of several words;^[44] but the place now assigned to him is more humble.

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons – via Wikisource.
• 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 (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/7481. Retrieved 7 June 2009. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

• "Sir John Denham" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. VII (9th ed.). 1878. pp. 78–79.
• Works by John Denham at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about John Denham at the Internet Archive