Martin Lluelyn (1616–1682; alias Llewellin) was a poet, physician and soldierA. à Wood, ed. P. Bliss, 'Martin Llewellyn, Lluellyn or Lluelyn', Athenae Oxonienses, with the Fasti (Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor and Jones, London 1820), IV, cols 42–45 (Internet Archive).R. Wallerstein, 'Martin Lluelyn, Cavalier and "Metaphysical",' The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, 35, no. 1 (January 1936), pp. 94–111. from a family of old Welsh extraction long established in Wells, Somerset. Born in London to a long-serving Steward of St Bartholomew's Hospital who was also an expert Cartographer, he took his degrees at the University of Oxford in the 1630s and 1640s, and remained there with a studentship until 1648, performing military service on behalf of the King, who made his college of Christ Church a headquarters during the Civil War. During this time a substantial volume of his English poetry was published which, showing great versatility and facility in comic, satirical and elegiac moods, and a strong Royalist sympathy, gained a popular readership. He also published Latin poetry. Ejected from Oxford in 1648, he moved to London to practice physic, was awarded M.D., and worked on medical texts with William Harvey and Christopher Bennet. At the time of the Restoration (which he celebrated with verses) he became a Fellow of the Society of Physicians and was sworn Physician to the King, and from 1660 to 1664 was Principal of St Mary Hall, Oxford, receiving a commission as a University Visitor. In 1664 he left Oxford and settled into civic life in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, becoming Mayor of that Borough in 1671/72. He was chosen to represent the Borough in 1681 when presenting a loyal address to the King.
Origins
Although Lluelyn's family background has been thought elusive, his probable descent was from a family of civic prominence in the city of Wells, Somerset, during the Elizabethan era.INA, 'The Family of Llewellyn', Notes and Queries. A Medium of inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc, 3rd series, vol. 1: January–June 1862 (Bell and Daldy, London 1862), January 11 1862, p. 28 (Internet Archive). Maurice Llewellen (also spelled "Fludkyn"), who had some connection with people of the same name in Pucklechurch, Gloucestershire, was admitted to the freedom of the city in 1550 and served twice as Mayor, or Master, in 1553–54 and in 1555–56, and was MP for the city in the fourth Marian Parliament, October 1555.M.K. Dale, 'Llewellyn (FFleuellyan, FFlewellyn, Fuellen, Fludkyn), Morris, by 1522–1568, of Wells, Somerset', in S.T. Bindoff (ed.), The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1509–1558 (from Boydell and Brewer, 1982), The History of Parliament Online. In May 1554, under his Maistry, Queen Mary granted a Charter for the renewal of worship at the civic church of St Cuthbert's, Wells; Elizabeth re-granted, citing this, in 1581.T. Serel, Historical Notes on the Church of St Cuthbert, in Wells (etc.) (J.M. Atkins and F.M. Beauchamp, Wells 1875), pp. 58–59 and p. 61 (Internet Archive).Serel recites Letters Patent dated 17 May 1554, from Calendar of Patent Rolls, Philip and Mary, I: 1553–1554 (HMSO, London 1937), p. 192 (HathiTrust). By his will, written and proved in 1568, Maurice provided for his wife Eme, his son Thomas and grandsons Henry ("Harry") and Morrys.Will of Morrys Lluellen, Gentleman of Wells, Somerset (P.C.C. 1568, Babington quire). Thomas was sworn a burgess of Wells in 1564, and was a member of a deputation to the bishop of Bath and Wells in 1572 to represent the city's chartered rights.
Thomas and his wife were still living in 1614 when their son Henry died, by his will leaving them a lifetime occupancy of his house in Wells. Henry referred to his brothers Morrishe, Martin and William, and his sister Marie Moore, whose husband William Moore he appointed to be his executor. Moore's children Ann, Elizabeth Cannington, Bridget Murrye and Marie Beaumont (with her son William), and also Henry's brother Martin's children, are mentioned.Will of Henry Llewellin, Gentleman of Wells, Somerset (P.C.C. 1614, Lawe quire). By his will, Henry Lewellin left money to the Wells CorporationSerel, Notes on the Church of St Cuthbert, p. 78 (Internet Archive). for proposed almshouses for six poor women. A very respectable monument was raised to him in St Cuthbert's Church, Wells, in coloured marbles, with a kneeling portrait figure in an arched surround beneath a tinctured entablature, with obelisks and Corinthian columns, surmounted by a large armorial escutcheon, the shield displaying Argent, a lion rampant sable, langued gules, crowned or.J. Collinson and E. Rack, The History and Antiquities of the County of Somerset, 3 vols (C. Dilly, G.J. and J. Robinson, T. Longman and T. Payne, London 1791), III, pp. 405–08 (Internet Archive). Collinson blazons only Or, a lion rampant, sable. The escutcheon also shows a mantled crest of a Cornish chough perched on a rock.
However, as an amendment to the probate in the Canterbury Prerogative Court (Lawe Register) shows, by 1632 William Moore had died leaving the administration of Henry's estate incomplete, and on 9 December 1632 that responsibility was officially assigned to Maurice and Martin Lluellin, brothers of the testator Henry."Decimo nono die mensis decembris Ano dni 1632 emanavit Commissio Mauricio Lluellin et Martino Lluellin fratribus dicti Henrici Lluellini defuncti ad administrand (etc.)" Maurice, however, a very early investor in the East India Company who was a merchant citizen and Leatherseller of London,E. Kadens, 'The dark side of reputation', Cardozo Law Review vol. 40, issue 5 (2019), pp. 1995–2027 (cardozolawreview.com pdf), at pp. 2011–2013 and p. 2022 (with references there cited), discussing The National Archives (UK), Campe v. Lluellyn (1610), Star Chamber Complaint STAC 8/105/5 (Discovery catalogue). died in 1634/35, making a will which leaves no doubt that he was Henry's brother, leaving gifts to Martin Lluelyn's and Ann Moore's children.Will of Maurice Lluellyn, Gentleman of London (PCC 1635, Sadler quire). The almshouses at Priest's Row in Wells were finally established in 1636.A.J. Scrase, Wells, A Small City (Tempus, Stroud 2006).
Martin Lluelyn the Physician-poet was born 12 December 1616, one of the many sons born between 1606 and 1623 of Martin Llewellin of London,K., '130. Llewellin family of Wells', in F.W. Weaver and C.H. Mayo (eds), Notes and Queries for Somerset and Dorset, II (Sherborne 1891), pp. 162–63 (Internet Archive). and christened at St Bartholomew-the-Less, Smithfield, on 22 December following.Llewellin, Martin, in J. Foster (ed.), Alumni Oxonienses 1500–1714, 4 vols (Parker & Co., Oxford 1891), III, pp. 920–21 (HathiTrust).C.C. Doyle, 'Lluelyn, Martin (1616–1682), poet and physician', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford 2004, online 2009); superseding T. Seccombe, in old DNB. That he was the son of Martin Llewellin the Steward of St Bartholomew's Hospital in LondonN. Moore, The History of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, 2 vols (London 1918), II, pp. 229–30 (Internet Archive). (in office 1599–1634) is confirmed by the entry in the Donor's Book of Christ Church, Oxford, recording the donation in 1634 by William and Martin Lluellin of the celebrated Atlas of the EastChristchurch, Oxford, MS 709. made around 1598 by their father Martin, citizen of London.
The Atlas was apparently based on the elder Martin's personal observations taken during the maritime expedition of Cornelis de Houtman in 1595–1597. Recognized in 1975 as the earliest known sea-atlas made by an Englishman, it was produced on the eve of the foundation of the East India Company and illustrates the sea-routes and lands from the Cape of Good Hope to Java and Japan.'Description', in "Martin Llewellyn's Atlas of the East" (with full digital survey) at Digital Bodleian site with Christchurch, Oxford, archives access link. Llewellen's Stewardship of St Bartholomew's began soon after the return of Houtman's voyage and kept him occupied in London until his death in 1634. During that time various detailed plans of, or for, the HospitalThe St Bartholomew's Plan Book (St Bartholomew's Hospital (Barts) Collection, ref. SBHB/HC/19; Barts Health NHS Archives): consulted in D. Jones, 'John Lyly at St. Bartholomew's, or, Much Ado About Washing', in C.J. Sisson (ed.), Thomas Lodge and Other Elizabethans (Harvard University Press, Cambridge (Mass.), 1933), pp. 363-407. (including the well-known "Plat of Ye Graye Friers" of 1617)M.B. Honeybourne, 'The Precinct of the Grey Friars', in W.H. Godfrey (ed.), London Topographical Record, XVI (C.U.P. for the London Topographical Society, 1932), pp. 9-51 (HathiTrust). were produced in the same hand as the atlas.T. Campbell, 'Atlas Pioneer', Geographical Magazine, 48 part 3 (December 1975), pp. 162–67; T. Campbell, 'Martin Llewellyn's Atlas of the East: a mystery partly unravelled', Christ Church Library Newsletter 5, 2 (Hilary 2009), pp, 1, 7–10. The elder Martin was buried at St Bartholomew-the-Less in 1634.
Education
Martin the poet and physician attended Westminster School as a foundation scholar,Welch, Alumni Westmonasterienses (1798), p. 109.G.F. Russell Barker and A.H. Stenning (comp.), The Record of Old Westminsters, 2 vols (The Chiswick Press, London 1928), II, at p.585 (HathiTrust). under the fruitful régime of Lambert Osbaldeston. Although sources (old and new) agree that he was born in 1616, Foster's Alumni Oxonienses (compiled from the University admission registers) states his age as 18 on his matriculation at Christ Church, Oxford on 25 July 1636. Despite this anomaly, it appears that he was aged 18 at the time of his father's death, 1634, and the donation to Christ Church of his father's remarkable Atlas, in which he acted with his elder brother. At Westminster School he was about four years junior to William Cartwright (1611–1643), a brilliant student of his time, poet, orator and philosopher, who proceeded to a studentship at Christ Church in 1628, and matriculated in February 1631/32 aged 20.'Cartwright, William', in J. Foster (ed.), Alumni Oxonienses 1500–1714, 4 vols (Parker & Co., Oxford 1891), I, p. 245 (HathiTrust).
Lluelyn received the degree of BA in July 1640 and MA in May 1643, but continued his studentship at Christ Church through the period of the King's residence there, and the sieges of 1643–1646, until 1648. It was in 1646 that his poems first appeared as a collected volume, Men-Miracles. With Other Poemes, in the edition printed in Oxford by Henry Hall.M[artin] Ll[uelyn], Men-Miracles. With Other Poemes ([H. Hall, Oxford] 1646). Full page views at Internet Archive. Several poems are overtly dated between 1640 and 1645, and others are shown to belong to that period either by reference to the wars or to the deaths of named persons. Among the latter, however, his Elegie on the death of Sir Horatio VereMen-Miracles (1646), pp. 122–23 (Internet Archive). could be as early as 1635, and quite possibly some of the humorous verses, lyrics and lines addressed to various ladies (found in the earlier pages of the book) are youthful productions. Certainly his Latin poem Reginarum optima, ignoscas tandem agresti Lucinae addressed to Queen Henrietta Maria, in the Oxford collection Musarum Oxoniensium Charisteria published in 1638Musarum Oxoniensium Charisteria pro Serenissima Regina Maria (Oxford 1638), quarto, unpaginated: full page scans at Internet Archive. shows already a facility of style and metre, linguistic proficiency and maturity of voice quite equal to other contributions, including those of his friends William Cartwright and Edward Gray'Gray, Edward' (of Fordham) in J. Foster (ed.), Alumni Oxonienses 1500–1714, 4 vols (Parker & Co., Oxford 1891), II, p. 595 (HathiTrust). in the same volume.