Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet

Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet (25 April 1628 – 27 January 1699), statesman and essayist, son of Sir John Temple.

Born in London, and educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, he travelled across Europe, and was for some time a member of the Irish Parliament, employed on various diplomatic missions. During his time as a diplomat, Temple successfully negotiated the marriage of the Prince of Orange and Princess Mary of England, and the Triple Alliance of 1668. On his return he was much consulted by Charles II, but disapproving of the anti-Dutch courses adopted, retired to his house at Sheen.

He was called out of retirement to implement a plan of his design to reform government rule. He was the architect of the Privy Council Ministry, which, though it failed, was an early effort to establish an executive along the lines of what later came to be understood as Cabinet government.

Temple later left Sheen and purchased Compton Hall, Farnham. He renamed the house Moor Park after Moor Park, Hertfordshire, a house he much admired and which influenced the formal gardens he built at Farnham. Here Jonathan Swift was for a time his secretary. Temple installed his family motto "God has given us these opportunities for tranquility" above the door and took great pleasure from this house in his retirement from public life.

He took no part in the Glorious Revolution, but acquiesced to the new regime, and was offered, but refused, a role as Secretary of State.

Temple married Dorothy Osborne in 1655.

His literary works consist for the most part of short essays, which were collected under the title "Miscellanea". However, he did write some longer pieces such as "", and "Essay on the Original and Nature of Government".

Temple died in Moor Park, Surrey, England in 1699.

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

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* [http://essays.quotidiana.org/temple/ Essays by Temple on Quotidiana.org]

References

Sir William Temple, "Observations upon the United Provinces of the Netherlands" (Cambridge, 1932)