John Pym

John Pym (1584 – December 8, 1643) was an English parliamentarian, leader of the Long Parliament and a prominent critic of James I and then Charles I.Pym was born in Brymore, Somerset, into minor nobility. His father died when he was very young and his mother re-married, to Sir Anthony Rous. Pym was educated in law at Broadgates Hall (now Pembroke College, Oxford) in 1599 and went on to the Middle Temple in 1602. He entered politics through the influence of the Earl of Bedford, working for the Exchequer in Wiltshire before entering Parliament for Calne, Wiltshire in 1614. Despite his Puritanism he gained a good reputation in Parliament, although he was relentless in his campaigning against Roman Catholics. In that same year he married Anne Hooke who went on to give him five children. After the dissolution of Parliament in 1621 he was one of those placed under house-arrest in January, 1622. In 1624 he changed his seat, representing Tavistock, Devon for the rest of his career. In 1626 he was one of the main movers of the attempted impeachment of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, an action that led to the dissolution of that Parliament.He also supported Edward Coke who presented the Petition of Right to Charles in 1628. In the interval between Parliaments he was treasurer of the Providence Island Company from 1630, linking him to a small, intense group of Puritan opponents to the King.

In the Short Parliament of April 13 to May 4, 1640 he made one of the speeches that led to its dissolution, and "appeared to be the most leading man" according to Clarendon. What would become the Long Parliament first met in November 1640, Pym had avoided an accusation of treason and rose to leader of the opposition to the king. Pym was notable in defending the powers of Parliament; he initiated the legal attacks on Thomas Wentworth and William Laud and attacked the operation of the Star Chamber. It is probable that he even used popular supporters to stage riots, attempting to prevent the Lords from vetoing the abolition of episcopacy. When control of the army became an issue, concerning the Irish Rebellion in Sept/Oct 1641, Pym directed the house's defiance and helped draft the "Grand Remonstrance" of grievances, presented to the King on December 1, 1641. However, many moderate MPs were alienated by the radical momentum, led by the Puritan opposition to Charles I. Thus Pym lost the unity of the Commons, which had allowed him to oppose the King from a firm platform; previously the King had to agree to demands, because he could not raise an army alone to fight the opposition. Pym was one of five members sought for arrest when the King entered the House of Commons on January 5, 1642 but forewarned they had already fled, to return to some acclamation a week later.This shows how great an emphasis Charles placed on Pym's 'leadership' of the Puritan opposition group, and how closely he was identified with the Parliamentary cause.

When the English Civil War began in 1642, Pym became involved in the financial problems, heading the Committee of Safety from July 4, 1642. He was a key organizer of Parliament's needed loans and taxes to fund their army and fight the King, and negotiated the Solemn League and Covenant which gained the support of Scottish Presbyterians. These two things laid firm foundations for Parliament's success in 1645-6, because they now had financial and military resources far beyond those of the Royalists. Pym died, probably of cancer, at Derby House in 1643 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. Following the Restoration of 1660, his remains were exhumed, despoiled and finally re-buried in a common pit.