D'Ewes, Symonds, Sir, Baronet (1602 -1650)

Sir Symonds D'Ewes was the son of Paul D'Ewes, of Milden in Suffolk, and Cecilia, daughter of Richard Symonds Esq of Coxden in Dorset. Educated at Bury St Edmonds Grammar School, and St John's College, Cambridge, where he was a Fellow Commoner 1618, and the Middle Temple 1620. He was called to the bar 27 June 1623, studied but did not practice the law, and married, 24 October 1626, Anne, daughter and heir of Sir William Clopton of Essex. Knighted at Whitehall in 1627, Member of Parliament for Sudbury in Suffolk 1640 48, he was created a baronet 15 July 1641. During the civil war he adhered to the Parliament, subscribing to the Solemn League and Covenant in 1643. His interests were mainly antiquarian. He wrote the Journals of all the parliaments during the reign of Queen Elizabeth for his own use, afterwards published in London in 1682. His library was sold to Robert Harley in 1703 for £500, and the manuscripts passed with the Harleian Manuscripts to the British Library. He gave texts of Horace, Virgil, Ovid, Terence, Catullus, Martial, Homer and Lucan to King Edward VI School, Bury St Edmunds.