Walter Moyle
Encyclopedia
Walter Moyle was an English politician and political writer, an advocate of classical republicanism
.
in St Germans, Cornwall
, on 3 November 1672, the third, but eldest surviving son of Sir Walter Moyle, who died in September 1701, by his wife Thomasine, daughter of Sir William Morice
. Walter Snr had been High Sheriff of Cornwall
in 1671 and the son of John Moyle, the friend of Sir John Eliot.
After having been grounded in classical learning, probably at Liskeard grammar school
, he matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford
, on 18 March 1689, and a set of verses by him was inserted in the university collection of poems for William and Mary
, 1689; but he left Oxford without taking a degree. About 1708 he contributed towards the erection of new buildings at Exeter College opposite the front gate and stretching eastwards, and his second son was a fellow of the college. On 26 January 1691 he was specially admitted at the Middle Temple
, and took up the study of constitutional law and history. At first Moyle frequented Maynwaring's coffee-house in Fleet Street
and the Grecian near the Temple, but to be nearer the realms of fashion he removed to Covent Garden, and became a regular companion of the wits at Will's.
Moyle sat in parliament for Saltash
from 1695 to 1698. He was a zealous Whig, with a keen desire to encourage British trade, and a strong antipathy to ecclesiastical establishments. Moyle died at Bake on 10 June 1721, and was buried at St. Germans on 13 June, a monument being placed to his memory at the end of the north aisle, near the chancel. He married at Bideford
, Devon
, 6 May 1700, Henrietta Maria, daughter of John Davie
of that town. She died on 9 December 1762, aged 85, and was buried at St. Germans on 15 December. They had issue two sons and one daughter.
, as is acknowledged in the preface in the second edition of the Synopsis Methodica Stirpium Britannicarum, and promising to send William Sherard
a catalogue of his specimens for insertion in the ‘Philosophical Transactions,’. Books in his study were full of notes, and the margins of his copy of Willoughby's ‘Ornithology’ were crowded with observations. His library and manuscripts were destroyed by fire in 1808.
After Moyle's death Thomas Sergeant edited the ‘Works of Walter Moyle, none of which were ever before published,’ 1726, 2 vols. It contained in the first volume:
The second volume comprised:
This collection was followed in the subsequent year by a reprint by Curll of ‘The Whole Works of Walter Moyle that were Published by Himself,’ to which was prefixed some account of his life and writing by Anthony Hammond
(1668–1738). It contained, in addition to several works already mentioned:
The ‘Essay on the Roman Government,’ which was inserted in Sergeant's collection, was reprinted by John Thelwall in 1796, and, when translated into French by Bertrand Barrière, was published at Paris in 1801. The series of ‘Remarks on some Passages in Dr. Prideaux's Connection’ was included in the French editions of that work which were published in 1728, 1732, 1742, and 1744. Moyle's ‘Examination of the Miracle of the Thundering Legion’ was attacked in separate publications by William Whiston
and Thomas Woolston
, and Thomas Hearne
, in his volume of ‘John of Glastonbury,’ referred to some of Moyle's criticisms on the ‘Shield’ of Dr. John Woodward
, but he was defended by Curll in ‘An Apology for the Writings of Walter Moyle,’ 1727. His ‘Remarks on the Thundering Legion’ were translated into Latin by Mosheim and published at Leipzig in 1733, discussed, with Moyle's ‘Notes on Lucian,’ in Nathaniel Lardner's ‘Collection of Ancient Testimonies to the Truth of the Christian Religion,’ ii. 229, 241–50, 355–69, and they formed the text of some letters from Charles Yorke
to William Warburton
in ‘Kilvert's Selection from the Papers of Warburton,’ 1841, pp. 124 seqq.
About 1693 he translated four pieces by Lucian
, which were included in the version issued in 1711 under the direction of John Dryden
, who praised Moyle, called Moyle ‘a most ingenious young gentleman, conversant in all the studies of humanity much above his years,’ and acknowledged his indebtedness to Moyle for the argument on the reason why imitation pleases, as well as for ‘all the particular passages in Aristotle and Horace to explain the art of poetry by that of painting’. Dryden again praised him in the ‘Discourse on Epick Poetry’. Charles Gildon
published in 1694 a volume of ‘Miscellaneous Letters and Essays’ containing ‘An Apology for Poetry,’ in an essay directed to Moyle, and several letters between him, William Congreve
, and John Dennis are included in the latter's collections of ‘Letters upon Several Occasions,’ 1696, and ‘Familiar and Courtly Letters of Voiture, with other Letters by Dryden, Wycherley, Congreve,’ 1700, and reprinted in Moyle's ‘Works’ in 1727. In 1721 Dennis issued two more volumes of ‘Original Letters.’
Letters from Moyle to Horace Walpole on the passage of the Septennial Bill are printed in Coxe's ‘Sir Robert Walpole.’ Several of his communications are inserted in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1837, 1838, and 1839, and forty-five letters on ancient history which passed between him and two local correspondents in Devon are preserved in manuscript at St. John's College, Cambridge. There are frequent references to him in Sherard's correspondence. Charles Hopkins
addressed an ode to him (Epistolary Poems, 1694), and John Glanvill published a translation of Horace, bk. i. ode 24, which he prepared on his death (Poems, 1725, pp. 205–6).
In conjunction with John Trenchard
he issued in 1697 ‘An Argument showing that a Standing Army is inconsistent with a Free Government, and absolutely destructive to the Constitution of the English Monarchy,’ which was reprinted in 1698 and 1703, and included in the ‘Pamphleteer,’ x. 109–40 (1817). It caused such ‘offence at court that Mr. Secretary Vernon
ordered the printer to attend him to discover the author,’ and it produced several other pamphlets, including Lord Somers
's ‘A Letter ballancing the necessity of keeping of a Land-Force in Times of Peace.’
Classical republicanism
Classical republicanism is a form of republicanism developed in the Renaissance inspired by the governmental forms and writings of classical antiquity. The earliest examples of the school were classical writers such as Aristotle, Polybius, and Cicero...
.
Life
He was born at BakeBake, Cornwall
Bake is a hamlet in south-east Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is west of St Germans at , south-west of the A38/A374 Trerulefoot roundabout.Bake is the seat of the Moyle family and St German's Priory has a mortuary chapel for the Moyle family of Bake.West of the manor house, a steep tree-lined...
in St Germans, Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
, on 3 November 1672, the third, but eldest surviving son of Sir Walter Moyle, who died in September 1701, by his wife Thomasine, daughter of Sir William Morice
William Morice (Secretary of State)
Sir William Morice was an English statesman and theologian. He served as Secretary of State for the Northern Department and a Lord of the Treasury from June 1660 to September 1668....
. Walter Snr had been High Sheriff of Cornwall
High Sheriff of Cornwall
High Sheriffs of Cornwall: a chronological list:Note: The right to choose High Sheriffs each year is vested in the Duchy of Cornwall, rather than the Privy Council, chaired by the Sovereign, which chooses the Sheriffs of all other English counties, other than those in the Duchy of...
in 1671 and the son of John Moyle, the friend of Sir John Eliot.
After having been grounded in classical learning, probably at Liskeard grammar school
Liskeard Grammar School
Liskeard Grammar School in Liskeard, Cornwall dates back to 1550. In its most recent incarnation it was originally known as the County School, and was built by the Cornwall Education Committee. It opened in Old Road, Liskeard in 1908....
, he matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford
Exeter College, Oxford
Exeter College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England and the fourth oldest college of the University. The main entrance is on the east side of Turl Street...
, on 18 March 1689, and a set of verses by him was inserted in the university collection of poems for William and Mary
William and Mary
The phrase William and Mary usually refers to the coregency over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland and Ireland, of King William III & II and Queen Mary II...
, 1689; but he left Oxford without taking a degree. About 1708 he contributed towards the erection of new buildings at Exeter College opposite the front gate and stretching eastwards, and his second son was a fellow of the college. On 26 January 1691 he was specially admitted at the Middle Temple
Middle Temple
The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers; the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn...
, and took up the study of constitutional law and history. At first Moyle frequented Maynwaring's coffee-house in Fleet Street
Fleet Street
Fleet Street is a street in central London, United Kingdom, named after the River Fleet, a stream that now flows underground. It was the home of the British press until the 1980s...
and the Grecian near the Temple, but to be nearer the realms of fashion he removed to Covent Garden, and became a regular companion of the wits at Will's.
Moyle sat in parliament for Saltash
Saltash (UK Parliament constituency)
Saltash, sometimes called Essa, was a "rotten borough" in Cornwall which returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons in the English and later British Parliament from 1552 to 1832, when it was abolished by the Great Reform Act.-History:...
from 1695 to 1698. He was a zealous Whig, with a keen desire to encourage British trade, and a strong antipathy to ecclesiastical establishments. Moyle died at Bake on 10 June 1721, and was buried at St. Germans on 13 June, a monument being placed to his memory at the end of the north aisle, near the chancel. He married at Bideford
Bideford
Bideford is a small port town on the estuary of the River Torridge in north Devon, south-west England. It is also the main town of the Torridge local government district.-History:...
, Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
, 6 May 1700, Henrietta Maria, daughter of John Davie
John Davie
John Davie was a merchant based in Bideford, Devon, England.John Davie was the son of John Davie and Marie Sutton who married in 1638...
of that town. She died on 9 December 1762, aged 85, and was buried at St. Germans on 15 December. They had issue two sons and one daughter.
Works
He speculated in his retirement from public life, in 1698, on the various forms and laws of government. He had read the classical authors, with the intention of compiling a history of Greece, and at a later period of life he went into ecclesiastical history. In the autumn of 1713 he finished a new library at Bake, and began to stock it. He was a student of botany and ornithology, making collections on the birds of Cornwall and Devon, helping John RayJohn Ray
John Ray was an English naturalist, sometimes referred to as the father of English natural history. Until 1670, he wrote his name as John Wray. From then on, he used 'Ray', after "having ascertained that such had been the practice of his family before him".He published important works on botany,...
, as is acknowledged in the preface in the second edition of the Synopsis Methodica Stirpium Britannicarum, and promising to send William Sherard
William Sherard
William Sherard was an English botanist. Next to John Ray, he was considered to be one of the outstanding English botanists of his day.-Life:...
a catalogue of his specimens for insertion in the ‘Philosophical Transactions,’. Books in his study were full of notes, and the margins of his copy of Willoughby's ‘Ornithology’ were crowded with observations. His library and manuscripts were destroyed by fire in 1808.
After Moyle's death Thomas Sergeant edited the ‘Works of Walter Moyle, none of which were ever before published,’ 1726, 2 vols. It contained in the first volume:
- ‘Essay on the Constitution of the Roman Government.’
- ‘A Charge to the Grand Jury at Liskeard, April 1706.’
- ‘Letters to Dr. William Musgrave of Exeter.’
- ‘Dissertation on the age of Philopatris, a Dialogue commonly attributed to Lucian.’
- ‘Letters to and from Tancred Robinson, Sherard, and others.’
The second volume comprised:
- ‘Remarks upon some Passages in Dr. Prideaux's Connection.’
- ‘Miracle of the Thundering Legion examin'd, in several Letters between Moyle and K——’ [Richard King of Topsham, near Exeter].
This collection was followed in the subsequent year by a reprint by Curll of ‘The Whole Works of Walter Moyle that were Published by Himself,’ to which was prefixed some account of his life and writing by Anthony Hammond
Anthony Hammond
-Life:Born 1 September 1668, he was the son and heir of Anthony Hammond of Somersham Place, Huntingdonshire, who was the third son of Anthony Hammond of St. Alban's Court, Kent, elder brother of William Hammond. His mother was a Miss Amy Browne of Gloucestershire. He was educated at St Paul's...
(1668–1738). It contained, in addition to several works already mentioned:
- ‘Xenophon's Discourse on the Revenue of Athens,’ which was translated at Charles Davenant's request, and after it had been included in his ‘Discourses on the Publick Revenues and the Trade of England,’ 1698, was reprinted in Sir William Petty's ‘Political Arithmetic,’ 1751, in Davenant's ‘Works’ in 1771, and in the ‘Works of Xenophon’ translated by Ashley Cooper and others, 1831.
- ‘An Essay on Lacedæmonian Government,’ which was included, with three other tracts by him, in ‘A Select Collection of Tracts by W. Moyle,’ printed at Dublin in 1728 and Glasgow in 1750.
The ‘Essay on the Roman Government,’ which was inserted in Sergeant's collection, was reprinted by John Thelwall in 1796, and, when translated into French by Bertrand Barrière, was published at Paris in 1801. The series of ‘Remarks on some Passages in Dr. Prideaux's Connection’ was included in the French editions of that work which were published in 1728, 1732, 1742, and 1744. Moyle's ‘Examination of the Miracle of the Thundering Legion’ was attacked in separate publications by William Whiston
William Whiston
William Whiston was an English theologian, historian, and mathematician. He is probably best known for his translation of the Antiquities of the Jews and other works by Josephus, his A New Theory of the Earth, and his Arianism...
and Thomas Woolston
Thomas Woolston
Thomas Woolston was an English theologian. Although he was often classed as a deist, his biographer William H...
, and Thomas Hearne
Thomas Hearne
Thomas Hearne or Hearn , English antiquary, was born at Littlefield Green in the parish of White Waltham, Berkshire.-Life:...
, in his volume of ‘John of Glastonbury,’ referred to some of Moyle's criticisms on the ‘Shield’ of Dr. John Woodward
John Woodward (naturalist)
John Woodward was an English naturalist, antiquarian and geologist, and founder by bequest of the Woodwardian Professorship of Geology at Cambridge University...
, but he was defended by Curll in ‘An Apology for the Writings of Walter Moyle,’ 1727. His ‘Remarks on the Thundering Legion’ were translated into Latin by Mosheim and published at Leipzig in 1733, discussed, with Moyle's ‘Notes on Lucian,’ in Nathaniel Lardner's ‘Collection of Ancient Testimonies to the Truth of the Christian Religion,’ ii. 229, 241–50, 355–69, and they formed the text of some letters from Charles Yorke
Charles Yorke
Charles Yorke was Lord Chancellor of Great Britain.-Life:The second son of Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke, he was born in London, and was educated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. His literary abilities were shown at an early age by his collaboration with his brother Philip in the...
to William Warburton
William Warburton
William Warburton was an English critic and churchman, Bishop of Gloucester from 1759.-Life:He was born at Newark, where his father, who belonged to an old Cheshire family, was town clerk. William was educated at Oakham and Newark grammar schools, and in 1714 he was articled to Mr Kirke, an...
in ‘Kilvert's Selection from the Papers of Warburton,’ 1841, pp. 124 seqq.
About 1693 he translated four pieces by Lucian
Lucian
Lucian of Samosata was a rhetorician and satirist who wrote in the Greek language. He is noted for his witty and scoffing nature.His ethnicity is disputed and is attributed as Assyrian according to Frye and Parpola, and Syrian according to Joseph....
, which were included in the version issued in 1711 under the direction of John Dryden
John Dryden
John Dryden was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden.Walter Scott called him "Glorious John." He was made Poet...
, who praised Moyle, called Moyle ‘a most ingenious young gentleman, conversant in all the studies of humanity much above his years,’ and acknowledged his indebtedness to Moyle for the argument on the reason why imitation pleases, as well as for ‘all the particular passages in Aristotle and Horace to explain the art of poetry by that of painting’. Dryden again praised him in the ‘Discourse on Epick Poetry’. Charles Gildon
Charles Gildon
Charles Gildon , was an English hack writer who was, by turns, a translator, biographer, essayist, playwright, poet, author of fictional letters, fabulist, short story author, and critic. He provided the source for many lives of Restoration figures, although he appears to have propagated or...
published in 1694 a volume of ‘Miscellaneous Letters and Essays’ containing ‘An Apology for Poetry,’ in an essay directed to Moyle, and several letters between him, William Congreve
William Congreve
William Congreve was an English playwright and poet.-Early life:Congreve was born in Bardsey, West Yorkshire, England . His parents were William Congreve and his wife, Mary ; a sister was buried in London in 1672...
, and John Dennis are included in the latter's collections of ‘Letters upon Several Occasions,’ 1696, and ‘Familiar and Courtly Letters of Voiture, with other Letters by Dryden, Wycherley, Congreve,’ 1700, and reprinted in Moyle's ‘Works’ in 1727. In 1721 Dennis issued two more volumes of ‘Original Letters.’
Letters from Moyle to Horace Walpole on the passage of the Septennial Bill are printed in Coxe's ‘Sir Robert Walpole.’ Several of his communications are inserted in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1837, 1838, and 1839, and forty-five letters on ancient history which passed between him and two local correspondents in Devon are preserved in manuscript at St. John's College, Cambridge. There are frequent references to him in Sherard's correspondence. Charles Hopkins
Charles Hopkins
Charles Hopkins may refer to:*Charles F. Hopkins, Union Civil War solder and winner of the Medal of Honor*Charles Jerome Hopkins*Charles Hopkins , first husband of Eliza Poe...
addressed an ode to him (Epistolary Poems, 1694), and John Glanvill published a translation of Horace, bk. i. ode 24, which he prepared on his death (Poems, 1725, pp. 205–6).
In conjunction with John Trenchard
John Trenchard (writer)
John Trenchard , English writer and Commonwealthman, belonged to the same Dorset family as the Secretary of State Sir John Trenchard.Trenchard was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and became a lawyer...
he issued in 1697 ‘An Argument showing that a Standing Army is inconsistent with a Free Government, and absolutely destructive to the Constitution of the English Monarchy,’ which was reprinted in 1698 and 1703, and included in the ‘Pamphleteer,’ x. 109–40 (1817). It caused such ‘offence at court that Mr. Secretary Vernon
James Vernon
James Vernon was an English politician and Secretary of State for both the Northern and the Southern Departments during the reign of William III.-Origins and education:...
ordered the printer to attend him to discover the author,’ and it produced several other pamphlets, including Lord Somers
John Somers, 1st Baron Somers
John Somers, 1st Baron Somers, PC, FRS was an English Whig jurist and statesman. Somers first came to national attention in the trial of the Seven Bishops where he was on the their defence counsel. He published tracts on political topics such as the succession to the crown, where he elaborated his...
's ‘A Letter ballancing the necessity of keeping of a Land-Force in Times of Peace.’