EVELYN, JOHN, author of Sylva," Memoirs,' &c., was the second son of Richard Evelyn, Esq., of Wotton, in Surrey, and was born at that place October 31, 1620. He received his education at Lewes' free school and Balliol College, Oxford. In 1641 he went abroad, and served for a short time as a volunteer in Flanders. Instead of taking arms in the royalist cause, as his family politics would have inclined him, he went abroad a second time in 1644, with the king's permission, and spent, with one interval, the next seven years on the continent, diligently employed in studying natural philo sophy, cultivating the fine arts, and acquainting himself with such particulars of manners, trade, and manufacture as were most worthy of notice. In June 1647 he married the daughter of Sir Richard Browne, the royalist ambassador at Paris, and in right of his wife became possessed of Sayes Court, near Deptford, where he fixed his abode on returning to England in 1652. He lived in privacy and study till the Restoration ; after which, being much esteemed by the king and of some weight by family, fortune, and character, he was often withdrawn from his retirement and engaged in many capacities iu the public service. He was appointed a commissioner to take care of the sick and wounded, on the Dutch war breaking out in 1664, commis sioner for the rebuilding of St. a member of the Board of Trade on its first institution, &o. He was also one of the first members of the Royal Society, and continued through life a diligent contributor to its Transactions.' His most favourite pursuits wero horticulture and planting, upon which he wrote a variety of treatises which are collected at the end of the fifth edition (1729) of his Sylva, or a Discourse on Forest Trees and the Propagation of Timber in his Majesty's Dominions,' first published iu 1664. The object of this, the best known and chief of Evelyn's works, was to encourage planting, both as a matter of national interest and of private adventure.
It sold largely, and, as Evelyn himself says, had no small effect. In the same year he published the first Gardener's Almanac,' containing directions for the employment of each month. This was dedicated to Cowley, and drew forth one of his best pieces, entitled The Garden,' in acknowledgment.
Mr. Evelyn's works on the fine arts are: Sculptura,' 1662, a history of the art of engraving, in which the first account is given of Prince Rupert's new method of mezzotinto engraving : 'A Parallel of Antient and Modern Architecture, 1669 : Numismata, a Discourse upon Medals,' 1697. All these, though long superseded, were much esteemed, and wore in fact valuable additions to the then existing stock of literature.
By the death of his brother, in October 1699, Mr. Evelyn succeeded to the family estate at Wotton, where he died, February 27, 1706, full of honour as of years. He was a diligent and successful labourer, in that age of discovery, in the subordinate departments of science ; a valuable pioneer, as he used to call himself, in the service of the Royal Society. Besides this, he was a model for the character of a gentleman. A friend of the learned and the good, devoid of jealousy, pious, beneficent, intellectual, delighting in the occupations of his station, yet always ready to quit them for the publio service : he was respected even by the court profligates to whom his example was daily reproach. To the present age he is best known by his Memoirs, a journal extending nearly from his childhood to his death, which contains much curious and valuable matter relative to his travels, and to the manners and history, political and scientific, of the age. Many of his letters, and the private correspondence of Charles I. with Secretary Nicholas, and Clarendon with Sir R. Browne, are subjoined to these memoirs, which were first printed in 1818 in 4to, but have since been several times reprinted in a more convenient and less expensive form.