Moryson, Fynes (1566 -1630)

Fynes Moryson, a celebrated traveller, was the younger son of Thomas Moryson of Cadeby in Lincolnshire, Member of Parliament, and Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Moigne of Willingham in Lincolnshire. He was educated at Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he matriculated 18 May 1580, graduated B.A. and obtained a Fellowship about 1584, and took his M.A. in 1587. The college allowed him to study civil law, but his real interest was in travel, and in 1589 he obtained a licence to travel. After two years of preparation, during which he incorporated M.A. at Oxford, he set sail on 1 May 1591, and spent six years travelling round Europe. He returned to England in 1595, but almost immediately set off again, to Constantinople among other places, returning in 1597. In 1600, he sought employment in Ireland, where he became chief secretary of Sir Charles Blount, the Lord Deputy. On his return to England, after Blount's death in 1606, Moryson wrote histories of all the ten countries in which he had been. It was very voluminous and Moryson destroyed the manuscript, and set about writing an epitome which was published in 1617 as An itinerary. He appears to have had a number of copies of his book bound with his arms. He died 12 February 1630.