Paul Rycaut Explained

Sir Paul Rycaut FRS (23 December 1629 – 16 November 1700) was an English diplomat and historian, and an authority on the Ottoman Empire.[1]

Life

Rycaut's Huguenot father was held in the Tower of London, during the English Civil War, for his Cavalier sympathy, but the sequestration of his property was lifted.

Rycaut was born in Aylesford, Kent, and graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1650. In 1652, he was admitted to Gray's Inn. While studying at Alcalá de Henares, he learned Spanish and translated the first part of Baltasar Gracián's The Critick. Rycaut was then employed as private secretary to Heneage Finch, 3rd Earl of Winchilsea, ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. He became British Consul and factor[2] at Smyrna (now İzmir).[3]

From 1689 to 1700, he was Resident at Hamburg.[4] He was active in frustrating the efforts of the Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies to raise capital in the city.[5]

On 12 December 1666, Rycaut was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.[6]

Knighthood was conferred on him in 1685. He died in Hamburg, aged 70, of a stroke.[7]

Works

His letters to William Blathwayt are held at Princeton University.[8]

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Sir Paul Rycaut – National Portrait Gallery.
  2. Book: Lords of the Horizons: A History of the Ottoman Empire. Jason Goodwin. Macmillan. 2003. 978-0-312-42066-6 .
  3. Book: An English consul in Turkey: Paul Rycaut at Smyrna, 1667-1678. registration. 19. Sir Paul Rycaut.. Sonia P. Anderson. Sonia Anderson. Oxford University Press. 1989. 978-0-19-820132-8 .
  4. Book: The diplomatic corps under Charles II & James II. registration. Phyllis S. Lachs. Rutgers University Press. 1966 .
  5. Watt, Douglas, (2024), The Price of Scotland: Darien, Union and the Wealth of Nations, Luath Press Limited, Edinburgh, pp. 9, 97, 100, 109 & 129,
  6. Web site: Library and Archive Catalogue. The Royal Society. 10 October 2010.
  7. News: 2015-12-25. Almost 300 years without a duvet. en-GB. BBC News. 2021-01-28.
  8. Web site: Sir Paul Rycaut Letters to William Blathwayt, 1692-1699: Finding Aid . 22 January 2010 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110610161730/http://diglib.princeton.edu/ead/getEad?eadid=C0689&kw= . 10 June 2011 . dead .