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Biography of William Sydenham 1615-1661

On or before 8th April 1615 William Sydenham was born to William Sydenham of Wynford Eagle in Dorset. He was baptised 8th April 1615.

In 1637 William Sydenham (age 21) and Grace Trenchard were married.

On 17th June 1644 William Sydenham (age 29) was appointed Governor of Weymouth by Robert Devereux 3rd Earl Essex (age 53).

On 10th August 1644 William Sydenham (age 29) and Anthony Ashley-Cooper 1st Earl Shaftesbury (age 23) captured Wareham, Dorset [Map].

In November 1645 William Sydenham (age 30) was elected MP Melcombe Regis.

On 14th August 1649 William Sydenham (age 34) and Colonel Fleetwood were appointed Governor of the Isle of Wight.

Samuel Pepys' Diary. 17th January 1660. Thence I went to Westminster, and met Shaw and Washington, who told me how this day Sydenham (age 44) was voted out of the House for sitting any more this Parliament, and that Salloway was voted out likewise and sent to the Tower, during the pleasure of the House. Home and wrote by the Post, and carried to Whitehall, and coming back turned in at Harper's, where Jack Price was, and I drank with him and he told me, among other, things, how much the Protector (age 33) is altered, though he would seem to bear out his trouble very well, yet he is scarce able to talk sense with a man; and how he will say that "Who should a man trust, if he may not trust to a brother and an uncle;" and "how much those men have to answer before God Almighty, for their playing the knave with him as they did". He told me also, that there was; £100,000 offered, and would have been taken for his restitution, had not the Parliament come in as they did again; and that he do believe that the Protector will live to give a testimony of his valour and revenge yet before he dies, and that the Protector will say so himself sometimes. Thence I went home, it being late and my wife in bed.

All About History Books

The Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke. Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson. Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback.

In 1661 William Sydenham (age 45) died.

Around August 1661 [his former wife] Grace Trenchard died.