The Life of John Locke

John Locke was born in Wrington to Puritan parents. His father was a country lawyer who served in a cavalry company on the Puritan side in the early stages of the English civil war. Locke was a very smart student and was well educated. In 1647 Locke went to Westminster School in London. Locke was a King's Scholar. The King's Scholars were a small group of special boys who were welcome to live in the school . While the "major elections" were probably political, the "minor elections or "challenges" were the most competitive admissions processes in English schools of the period. Locke did not succeed in the challenge until 1650. Locke received his B.A. in February 1656. In June of 1658 Locke qualified as a Master of Arts and was elected a Senior Student of Christ Church College. Locke had a very high ranking, although he was not sure about his future (his job). Locke was elected Lecturer in Greek at Christ Church in December of 1660 and he was elected Lecturer in Rhetoric in 1663. At this point, Locke needed to make a decision.There was good reason for Locke to become a clergyman. Locke decided to become a doctor.

Locke knew all of these men and their work. Locke, Boyle (new leader of the Oxford scientific group) and Newton were all founding or early members of the English Royal Society. It is from Boyle that Locke learned about atomism (or the corpuscular hypothesis) and it is from Boyle's book The Origin of Forms and Qualities that Locke took the language of primary and secondary qualities. Sydenham was one of the most famous English physicians of the 17th century and Locke did medical research with him. Locke read Newton's Principia Mathematica Philosophiae Naturalis while in exile in Holland.A guy named Dr. David Thomas was his friend. Locke and Thomas had a laboratory in Oxford which was very likely a pharmacy. In 1666 Locke had a fateful meeting with Lord Ashley as a result of his friendship with Thomas. Ashley, one of the richest men in England, came to Oxford. He wanted to drink some medicinal waters there. He asked Dr. Thomas to provide them. Thomas had to be out of town and asked Locke to see that the water was delivered. Locke met Ashley and they liked one another. As a result of this encounter, Ashley invited Locke to come to London as his personal physician. In 1667 Locke moved to London becoming not only Lord Ashley's personal physician, but secretary, researcher, political operative and friend. Living with him Locke found himself at the very heart of English politics in the 1670s and 1680s.

While living in the Lord Ashley's residence in 1668, he was secretary of the Board of Trade and Plantations and Secretary to the Lords Proprietors of the Carolinas. Lord Ashley persuaded Charles II to create a Board of Trade and Plantations to collect information about trade and colonies, and Locke became its secretary. In his capacity as the secretary of the Board of Trade Locke was the collection point for information from around the globe about trade and colonies for the English government. Among Ashley's commercial projects was an effort to found colonies in the Carolinas. In his capacity as the secretary to the Lords Proprietors, Locke was involved in the writing of the fundamental constitution of the Carolinas. There is some controversy about the extent of Locke's role in writing the constitution. In addition to issues about trade and colonies, Locke was involved in public policy. There huge problem in England involving the value of money, and the clipping of coins. Locke wrote papers for Lord Ashley on economic matters. In 1674 after Shaftesbury had left the government, Locke went back to Oxford, where he acquired the degree Bachelor of medicine, and a license to practice medicine, and then went to France.In France Locke went from Calais to Paris, Lyons and on to Montpellier, where he spent the next fifteen months.Locke spent his time on learning about Protestantism in France.There was a degree of religious toleration in France. Louis XIV had to revoke and French Protestants were then killed or forced into exile.

While Locke was in France, Shaftesbury's fortunes kept going up and down. In 1676 Shaftesbury was held captive in the tower. He lasted there for a year. In 1678, after the mysterious murder of a London judge, informers started coming forward to reveal a supposed Catholic conspiracy to assassinate the King and put his brother on the throne. This whipped up public anti-Catholic frenzy and gave Shaftesbury a wide base of public support.Shaftesbury exploited the situation to the advantage of his party. Shaftesbury then had to organize an extensive party network, exercised great control over elections, and built up a large parliamentary majority. His goal was to secure the passage of an Exclusion bill that would prevent Charles II's Catholic brother from becoming King. Although the Exclusion bill passed in the Commons it was rejected in the House of Lords. As the panic over the Popish plot continued, Shaftesbury was left without a any cause. Shaftesbury was captured on July 21, 1681 and was once again held as prisoner in the tower.Now, people were getting ticked off since Charles and his brother were on their way back to London from the races at Newmarket. The chances of such a rising occurring were not as good as the plotters supposed. Memories of the turmoil of the civil war were still relatively fresh. Eventually Shaftesbury, who was moving from safe house to safe house, gave up and fled to Holland in November 1682. He died there in January 1683. Locke stayed in England until the Rye House Plot was discovered. He took ship for Holland that very week.

While in exile Locke finished An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and published a fifty page advanced notice of it in French. He also wrote and published his Epistola de Tolerentia in Latin. Recent scholarship suggests that while in Holland Locke was not only finishing An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and nursing his health, he was closely associated with the English revolutionaries in exile. The English government was much concerned with this group. They tried to get a number of them, including Locke, sent back to England. Locke's studentship at Oxford was taken away from him. While Locke was living in exile in Holland, Charles II died on Feb. 6, 1685 and was succeeded by his brother who became James II of England. Soon after this the rebels in Holland sent a force of soldiers under the Duke of Monmouth to England to try to outpower James II. Because of the excellent work of the Stuart spies, the government knew where the force was going to land before the troops on the ships did. The revolt was crushed, Monmouth captured and executed.However, the rebels were successful. James II sent most of his supporters and William of Orange was invited to bring a Dutch force to England. After William's army landed, James II could not take it anymore and fled the country to exile in France. This became known as the Glorious Revolution of 1688. It is an stored in English history. Locke returned to England in 1688 on board the royal yacht, that was with Princess Mary.

After his return from exile, Locke published An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and The Two Treatises of Government. Also, Popple's translation of Locke's A Letter Concerning Toleration was also published. It is worth noting that the Two Treatises and the Letter Concerning Toleration were published. Locke took up residence in the country at Oates in Essex, the home of Sir Francis and Lady Masham (Damaris Cudworth). Locke had met Damaris Cudworth in 1682 and became involved romantically with her. She was the daughter of Ralph Cudworth, the Cambridge Platonist, and a philosopher in her own right. After Locke went into exile in Holland in 1683, Lady Masham married Sir Francis Masham. Locke and Lady Masham were very good/close friends and companions to the end of Locke's life. During the remaining years of his life Locke oversaw four more editions of the Essay and engaged in controversies over the Essay in a series of published letters with Edward Stillingfleet, Bishop of Worcester. In a similar way, Locke defended the Letter Concerning Toleration against a series of attacks. He wrote The Reasonableness of Christianity and Some Thoughts on Education during this period as well.Finally, Locke finished with public affairs. In 1696 the Board of Trade was reactivated . Locke played an important part in its activation and served as the most member on it until 1700. The board was, in fact, concerned with a wide range of issues. During these last eight years of his life, Locke caught asthma, and he suffered too much. He was worn out..After his retirement from the Board of Trade in 1700, Locke remained in retirement at Oates until his death on Sunday 28 October 1704.