Soame Jenyns was an eighteenth-century wit and politician who produced a series of poems, essays, philosophical tracts and political pamphlets that were brought before the public principally by the publishing firm of R. and J. Dodsley. As a member of Parliament and one of the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations, he was part of the Whig oligarchy that governed Britain from the fall of Walpole until the introduction of Edmund Burke’s Reform Bill in 1780.
Jenyns was born on 1 January 1704 in London, the only child of Sir Roger Jenyns, Kt., Receiver of the Bedford Level Corporation, and his second wife, Lady Elizabeth Jenyns, the daughter of Sir Peter Soame, Bart., of Hayden, Essex. He was raised at Bottisham Hall, on the family estate in Cambridgeshire, and received his education
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Citation: ROMPKEY, Ronald. "Soame Jenyns". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 09 August 2006 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2360, accessed 26 November 2024.]
