Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe
Born	1659 / 1661 (?)
Died	24 April 1731 (?)
Occupation	Writer, journalist, spy
Genres	Adventure
Influenced Johann Wyss Jonathan Swift

Daniel Defoe (1659/1661 [?] — April 24 [?], 1731)^[1] was an English writer, journalist, and spy, who gained enduring fame for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Events 1479 BC - Thutmose III ascends to the throne of Egypt, although power effectively shifts to Hatshepsut (according to Year 1731 ( MDCCXXXI) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Employment is a Contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. A literary genre is a category of literary composition Genres may be determined by Literary technique, tone, Content, or even (as in the case of fiction Johann Rudolf Wyss ( March 4, 1782 - March 21, 1830) was a Swiss Author, Writer, and folklorist who wrote the Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 Events 1479 BC - Thutmose III ascends to the throne of Egypt, although power effectively shifts to Hatshepsut (according to The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located A writer is anyone who creates a written work although the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally as well as those who have written in many different forms A journalist (also called a newspaperman) is a person who practices Journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events trends The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (of York Mariner Who lived Eight and Twenty Years all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America near the Mouth Defoe is notable for being one of the earliest practitioners of the novel, helped popularise the genre in Britain and is even referred to as one of the founders, if not the founder, of the English novel. A novel (from Italian novella, Spanish novela, French nouvelle for "new" "news" or "short story The Kingdom of Great Britain, also known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain, was a State in northwest Europe, in existence from 1707 to 1800 ^[2] A prolific and versatile writer, he wrote more than five hundred books, pamphlets, and journals on various topics (including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology and the supernatural). He was also a pioneer of economic journalism. The following is a list of scholarly Journals in Economics, and contains most of the prominent journals in the field including those ranked highest in impact-adjusted

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 Pamphleteering and prison 1.3 Later life and writings 2 Novels 3 Defoe and the Anglo-Scottish Union of 1707 4 See also 5 References 6 Bibliography 7 External links

Biography

Early life

Daniel Foe (his original name), was probably born in the parish of St. Giles Cripplegate, London. Cripplegate was a City gate in London Wall and a name for the region of the City of London outside the gate London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. (Daniel later added the aristocratic sounding "De" to his name and on occasion claimed descent from the family of De Beau Faux. ) Both the date and the place of his birth are uncertain with sources often giving dates of 1659 or 1661. His father, James Foe, though a member of the Butchers' Company, was a tallow chandler. The Worshipful Company of Butchers is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London, England. In Daniel's early life he experienced first-hand some of the most unusual occurrences in English history: In 1664, when Defoe was probably about four years old, a Dutch fleet sailed up the River Thames and attacked London. In 1665 70,000 were killed by the plague. On top of all these catastrophes, the Great Fire of London (1666) hit Defoe's neighbourhood hard, leaving only his and two other homes standing in the area. This article is about the Great Fire of 1666 For other great fires in London see Early fires of London or Second Great Fire of London. ^[3] All of this happened before Defoe was around seven years old, and by the age of about thirteen, Defoe's mother had died. ^[4] Both of his parents were Presbyterian dissenters, and he was educated in a Dissenting Academy at Stoke Newington run by Charles Morton (later vice-president of Harvard University). Presbyterianism is a family of Christian denominations within the Reformed branch of Protestant Western Christianity The term dissenter (from the Latin dissentire, “to disagree” labels one who dissents or disagrees in matters of opinion belief etc Note For an area with a similar name see Newington, in the London Borough of Southwark.

Although Defoe was a Christian himself, he decided not to become a dissenting minister, and entered the world of business as a general merchant, dealing at different times in hosiery, general woolen goods, and wine. Though his ambitions were great and he bought both a country estate and a ship (as well as civet cats to make perfume), he was rarely free of debt. Civets are small lithe-bodied mostly arboreal Mammals native to the tropics of Africa and Asia In 1684, Defoe married a woman by the name of Mary Tuffley, receiving a dowry of £3,700. With his recurring debts, their marriage was most likely a difficult one. They had eight children, six of whom survived. In 1685, he joined the ill-fated Monmouth Rebellion, but gained a pardon by which he escaped the assizes of Judge George Jeffreys. The Monmouth Rebellion of 1685, also known as the Pitchfork Rebellion, was an attempt to overthrow James II, who had become King of England at The Bloody Assizes were a series of trials started at Winchester on 25th August 1685 in the aftermath of the Battle of Sedgemoor, which ended the Monmouth Rebellion George Jeffreys may be George Jeffreys (composer (c 1610 -1685 English organ composer George Jeffreys 1st Baron Jeffreys of Wem (1645-1689 In 1692, Defoe was arrested for payments of £700 (and his civets were seized), though his total debts may have amounted to £17,000. His laments were loud, and he always defended unfortunate debtors, but there is evidence that his financial dealings were not always honest.

Following his release, he probably traveled in Europe and Scotland, and it may have been at this time that he traded in wine to Cadiz, Porto, and Lisbon. Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. Cádiz ( Spanish:) is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the province of the same name, a province which is one of eight Lisbon (Lisboa liʒˈboɐ is the Capital and largest city of Portugal. By 1695 he was back in England, using the name "Defoe", and serving as a "commissioner of the glass duty", responsible for collecting the tax on bottles. In 1696, he was operating a tile and brick factory in Tilbury, Essex and thought to be living in nearby Chadwell St Mary. Tilbury is a town in the borough of Thurrock, Essex, England. Chadwell-St-Mary is a Dispersed settlement, Church of England parish and former Civil parish in the Unitary authority of Thurrock

Pamphleteering and prison

"Wherever God erects a house of prayer the Devil always builds a chapel there; And 'twill be found, upon examination, the latter has the largest congregation. "

— Defoe's The True-Born Englishman, 1701

Defoe's first notable publication was An Essay upon Projects, a series of proposals for social and economic improvement, published in 1697. From 1697 to 1698, he defended the right of King William III to a standing army during disarmament after the Treaty of Ryswick (1697) had ended the War of the Grand Alliance (1689 – 97). William III or William of Orange (14 November 1650 &ndash 8 March 1702 He is informally known in Northern Ireland and Scotland as "King Billy" A standing army is an Army composed of full time career Soldiers who 'stand over' in other words who do not disband during times of peace Disarmament refers to the act of reducing limiting or abolishing Weapons. The Treaty of Ryswick was signed on 20 September 1697 and named after Ryswick (now known as Rijswijk) in the Dutch Republic. The Nine Years' War (1688–97 – often called the War of the Grand Alliance or the War of the League of Augsburg – was a major war of the late 17th His most successful poem, The True-Born Englishman (1697), defended the king against the perceived xenophobia of his enemies, satirising the English claim to racial purity. Xenophobia is an intense and/or irrational dislike and sometimes fear of people from other countries In 1701, Defoe, flanked by a guard of sixteen gentlemen of quality, presented the Legion's Memorial to the Speaker of the House of Commons, later his employer, Robert Harley. Robert Harley may refer to Robert Harley (1579-1656 Robert Harley 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer Robert Harley (c It demanded the release of the Kentish petitioners, who had asked Parliament to support the king in an imminent war against France. The Parliament of England was the Legislature of the Kingdom of England. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics.

Defoe's pamphleteering and political activities resulted in his arrest and placement in a pillory on July 31, 1703, principally on account of a pamphlet entitled "The Shortest Way with the Dissenters", in which he ruthlessly satirised the High church Tories, purporting to argue for the extermination of dissenters. A pamphleteer is a historical term for someone who creates or distributes Pamphlets Pamphlets were used to broadcast the writer's opinions on an issue for example in order Events 30 BC - Battle of Alexandria: Mark Antony achieves a minor victory over Octavian 's forces but most of his army subsequently Year 1703 ( MDCCIII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year " High Church " relates to Ecclesiology and Liturgy in Anglican theology and practice In the political tradition of some English-speaking countries, the term Tory has referred to a variety of political parties and Creeds since it was However, according to legend, the publication of his poem Hymn to the Pillory caused his audience at the pillory to throw flowers instead of the customary harmful and noxious objects, and to drink to his health. The historicity of this story, however, is questioned by most scholars, although the scholar J. R. Moore later said that “no man in England but Defoe ever stood in the pillory and later rose to eminence among his fellow men. ”^[4]

After his three days in the pillory, Defoe went into Newgate Prison. For the prison in East Granby, Connecticut, see Old Newgate Prison. Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, brokered his release in exchange for Defoe's co-operation as an intelligence agent. Robert Harley 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer ( 5 December 1661 &ndash 21 May 1724) was an English statesman of the Stuart Within a week of his release from prison, Defoe witnessed the Great Storm of 1703, which raged from 26 to 27 November, the only true hurricane ever to have made it over the Atlantic Ocean to the British Isles at full strength. The Great Storm of 1703 is arguably the most severe storm or Natural disaster ever recorded in the southern part of Britain. A tropical cyclone is a storm system characterized by a low pressure center and numerous Thunderstorms that produce strong winds and Flooding It caused severe damage to London and Bristol, uprooted millions of trees, and over 8,000 people lost their lives, mostly at sea. The event became the subject of Defoe's The Storm (1704), a collection of eyewitness accounts of the tempest. In the same year he set up his periodical A Review of the Affairs of France, which supported the Harley ministry, chronicling the events of the War of the Spanish Succession (1702 – 14). In the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714 several European powers combined to stop French succession to the Spanish throne and what would likely have been a resulting The Review ran tri-weekly without interruption until 1713. When Harley was ousted from the ministry in 1708 Defoe continued writing it to support Godolphin, then again to support Harley and the Tories in the Tory ministry of 1710 to 1714. After the Tories fell from power with the death of Queen Anne, it is widely thought Defoe continued doing intelligence work for the Whig government. Anne (6 February 1665 – 1 August 1714 became Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland on 8 March 1702 succeeding William III of England and II of The Whigs (with the Tories) are often described as one of two political parties in England and later the United Kingdom from the late 17th to

Later life and writings

The extent and particulars of Defoe's writing in the period from the Tory fall in 1714 to the publication of Robinson Crusoe in 1719 is widely contested. In the political tradition of some English-speaking countries, the term Tory has referred to a variety of political parties and Creeds since it was Defoe comments on the tendency to attribute author-less tracts to him in his self-vindicatory Appeal to Honour and Justice (1715), a defence of his part in Harley's Tory ministry (1710 – 14). Other works that are thought to anticipate his novelistic career include: The Family Instructor (1715), an immensely successful conduct manual on religious duty; Minutes of the Negotiations of Monsr. Mesnager (1717), in which he impersonates Nicolas Mesnager, the French plenipotentiary who negotiated the Treaty of Utrecht (1713); and A Continuation of the Letters Writ by a Turkish Spy (1718), a satire on European politics and religion, professedly written by a Muslim in Paris. Nicolas Mesnager (or Le Mesagner) (1658-1714 was a French Diplomat. The Treaty of Utrecht that established the Peace of Utrecht, rather than a single document comprised a series of individual peace treaties signed in the Dutch Letters Writ by a Turkish Spy was an eight-volume collection of articles ostensibly written by an Ottoman spy named "Mahmut" A Muslim (مسلم pronounced Muslim, not Muzlim) is an adherent of the Religion Paris (ˈpærɨs in English; in French) is the Capital of France and the country's largest city

From 1719 to 1724, Defoe published the novels for which he is now famous (see below). In the final decade of his life, he also wrote conduct manuals, including Religious Courtship (1722), The Complete English Tradesman (1726), and The New Family Instructor (1727). He published a number of books decrying the breakdown of the social order, such as The Great Law of Subordination Considered (1724) and Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business (1725), and works on the supernatural, like The Political History of the Devil (1726), A System of Magick (1726), and An Essay on the History and Reality of Apparitions (1727). His works on foreign travel and trade include A General History of Discoveries and Improvements (1727) and Atlas Maritimus and Commercialis (1728). Perhaps his greatest achievement alongside the novels is the magisterial A tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain (1724 – 27), which provided a panoramic survey of British trade on the eve of the Industrial Revolution. A tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain is an account of his travels by English author Daniel Defoe, first published in three volumes from 1724 The Industrial Revolution was a period in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when major changes in agriculture manufacturing and transportation had a profound effect on the

Daniel Defoe died on April 26, 1731, probably whilst in hiding from his creditors. Events 1467 - The miraculous image in Our Lady of Good Counsel appear in Genazzano, Italy. Year 1731 ( MDCCXXXI) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year He was interred in Bunhill Fields, London, where his grave can still be visited. Bunhill Fields is a cemetery located in the United Kingdom, in the London Borough of Islington, north of the City of London, and managed by the City London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom.

Novels

Defoe's famous novel Robinson Crusoe (1719) tells of a man's shipwreck on a deserted island and his subsequent adventures.

The author may have based part of his narrative on the true story of the Scottish castaway Alexander Selkirk. A castaway is a person who is cast adrift or ashore While the situation usually happens after a Shipwreck, some people voluntarily stay behind on a deserted island either Alexander Selkirk, born Alexander Selcraig (1676 &ndash 13 December 1721 was a Scottish sailor who spent four years as a Castaway on an uninhabited He may have also been inspired by the Latin or English translation of Abubacer's Philosophus Autodidactas, an earlier novel also set on a desert island. TemplateInfobox Muslim scholars --> Ibn Tufail (c 1105 Guadix Spain &ndash 1185 (full Arabic name Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān ( حي بن يقظان " Alive son of Awake " Philosophus Autodidactus " The Self-Taught Philosopher The term desert island, or deserted island, refers to an Island which is uninhabited or sparsely inhabited ^[5][6][7][8]

Tim Severin's book Seeking Robinson Crusoe (2002) unravels a much wider range of potential sources of inspiration for Robinson Crusoe. Tim Severin (born 1940) is a British Explorer and Writer. He was born Timothy Severin in Assam, India, and currently Severin concludes his thorough investigations by stating that the real Robinson Crusoe figure was a castaway surgeon to the Duke of Monmouth named Henry Pitman. Pitman's short book about his real-life desperate escape from a Caribbean penal colony for his part in the Monmouth Rebellion, his shipwrecking and subsequent desert island misadventures, was published by J. The Monmouth Rebellion of 1685, also known as the Pitchfork Rebellion, was an attempt to overthrow James II, who had become King of England at Taylor of Paternoster Street, London, whose son William Taylor later published Defoe's novel. Severin argues that since Pitman appears to have lived in the lodgings above the father's publishing house and that Defoe himself was a mercer in the area at the time, Defoe may have met Pitman in person and learnt of his real-life experiences as a castaway first-hand. If he didn't meet Pitman directly, Severin points out, Defoe, upon submitting even a mere draft of a novel about a castaway to his publisher, would undoubtedly have learnt about Pitman's book published by his father, especially since the interesting castaway had previously lodged with them at their former premises.

Severin also provides sufficient evidence in his book that another publicised case^[9] of a real-life marooned Miskito Central American man named only as Will may have caught Defoe's attention, which led to the depiction of Man Friday, in his novel. The Miskitos are a group of Native Americans in Central America. This article is about the fictional character For the film see Man Friday (film.

"One day, about noon, going towards my boat, I was exceedingly surprised with the print of a man's naked foot on the shore, which was very plain to be seen on the sand. "

— Robinson Crusoe

The novel has been variously read as an allegory for the development of civilisation, as a manifesto of economic individualism, and as an expression of European colonial desires. The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (of York Mariner Who lived Eight and Twenty Years all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America near the Mouth But it also shows the importance of repentance and illustrates the strength of Defoe's religious convictions. Early critics, such as Robert Louis Stevenson, admired it, saying that the footprint scene in Crusoe was one of the four greatest in English literature, and most unforgettable. Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson (13 November 1850–3 December 1894 was a Scottish novelist poet and travel writer, and a representative of Neo-romanticism in ^[3] It has inspired a new genre, the Robinsonade, as works like Johann Wyss's The Swiss Family Robinson (1812) adapt its basic precis, and has provoked modern postcolonial responses, including J. M. Coetzee's Foe (1986). Robinsonade is a Literary genre that takes its name from the 1719 Novel Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. Johann Rudolf Wyss ( March 4, 1782 - March 21, 1830) was a Swiss Author, Writer, and folklorist who wrote the For the 1960 film produced by Disney see Swiss Family Robinson (film The Swiss Family Robinson (German Der Schweizerische Postcolonialism ( postcolonial theory, post-colonial theory) is an intellectual discourse that holds together a set of theories found among the texts and Two sequels followed, Defoe's Farther Adventures (1719) and his Serious Reflections (1720). Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels (1726) in part parodies Defoe's adventure novel. Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 Gulliver's Travels (1726 amended 1735 officially Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World in Four Parts

Defoe's next novel was Captain Singleton (1720), a bipartite adventure story whose first half covers a traversal of Africa, and whose second half taps into the contemporary fascination with piracy. The Life Adventures and Piracies of the Famous Captain Singleton (1720 is a Novel by Daniel Defoe. Piracy is Robbery committed at sea or sometimes on shore without a commission from a sovereign Nation (as distinct from Privateering It has been commended for its depiction of the homosocial relationship between the eponymous hero and his religious mentor, the Quaker, William Walters.

Colonel Jack (1722) follows an orphaned boy from a life of poverty and crime to colonial prosperity, military and marital imbroglios, and religious conversion, always guided by a quaint and misguided notion of becoming a gentleman.

Also in 1722, Defoe wrote Moll Flanders, another first-person picaresque novel of the fall and eventual redemption of a lone woman in seventeenth century England. The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders (commonly known as simply "Moll Flanders") is a Novel written by The picaresque novel ( Spanish: "picaresca", from "pícaro", for " Rogue " or " Rascal " is a The titular heroine appears as a whore, bigamist and thief, lives in The Mint, commits adultery and incest, yet manages to keep the reader's sympathy. The Mint was a district in Southwark, London, west of Borough High Street named for the mint King Henry VIII set up there at

Moll Flanders and Defoe's final novel Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress (1724) are examples of the remarkable way in which Defoe seems to inhabit his fictional (yet "drawn from life") characters, not least in that they are women. Roxana The Fortunate Mistress is a 1724 novel by Daniel Defoe. The latter narrates the moral and spiritual decline of a high society courtesan.

A work that is often read as if it were non-fiction is his account of the Great Plague of London in 1665: A Journal of the Plague Year, a complex historical novel published in 1722. The Great Plague (1665-1666 was a massive outbreak of Disease in England that killed 75000 to 100000 people up to a fifth of London 's population A Journal of the In November 1703, a hurricane-like storm hit London, now known as The Great Storm. The Great Storm of 1703 is arguably the most severe storm or Natural disaster ever recorded in the southern part of Britain. (It remains one of the greatest storms in British history. ) Yet another of the remarkable events in Defoe's life, the storm was the subject of his book The Storm. The year 1704 in literature involved some significant events Events Battle of Blenheim The capture of Gibraltar during ^[3] Defoe describes the aftermath of the incident this way: “The streets lay so covered with tiles and slates from the tops of the houses [. . . ] that all the tiles in fifty miles round would be able to repair but a small part of it. "^[3] Later, Defoe also wrote Memoirs of a Cavalier (1720), set during the Thirty Years War and the English Civil Wars. Memoirs of a Cavalier (1720 is a work of historical fiction by Daniel Defoe, set during the Thirty Years' War and the English Civil Wars. For the Mauritanian Thirty Years' War see Char Bouba war. For the band see The 30 Years War. Several military conflicts are considered English civil wars: The Anarchy ( 1135 &ndash 1154)

Defoe and the Anglo-Scottish Union of 1707

No fewer than 545 titles, ranging from satirical poems, political and religious pamphlets and volumes have been ascribed to Defoe (Note: in their Critical Bibliography (1998), Furbank and Owens argue for the much smaller number of 276 published items). Satire is often strictly defined as a literary genre or form; although in practice it is also found in the graphic and Performing arts In satire human A religion is a set of Tenets and practices often centered upon specific Supernatural and moral claims about Reality, the Cosmos His ambitious business ventures saw him bankrupt by 1692, with a wife and seven children to support. In 1703, he published a satirical pamphlet against the High Tories and in favour of religious tolerance entitled A short way with Dissenters. High Toryism is a term used in Britain Canada and elsewhere to refer to a traditionalist aristocratic conservatism which is in line with the Toryism of the nineteenth century but which Religious toleration is the condition of accepting or permitting others' religious beliefs and practices which disagree with one's own As has happened with ironical writings before and since, this pamphlet was widely misunderstood, but eventually its author was prosecuted for seditious libel, sentenced to be pilloried, fined 200 marks, and be detained at the Queen's pleasure. Irony is a literary or Rhetorical device, in which there is an incongruity or Discordance between what one says or does and what one means or This is about the law term For other uses see Sedition (disambiguation Sedition is a term of Law which refers to covert conduct

In despair, he wrote to William Paterson, the London Scot, and founder of the Bank of England and part instigator of the Darien scheme, who was in the confidence of Robert Harley, 1st Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, leading Minister and spymaster in the English Government. Sir William Paterson (born April 1658 in Tinwald Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland - died in Westminster, London, on January 22, The Bank of England (formally the Governor and Company of the Bank of England) is a state-owned institution and the Central bank of the United Kingdom The Darien scheme (colony of New Caledonia was an unsuccessful attempt by the Kingdom of Scotland to establish a Colony on the Isthmus of Panama in the Robert Harley 1st Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer ( 5 December 1661 &ndash 21 May 1724) was an English statesman of the Stuart A Spymaster is a Ringleader of a spy ring run by a Secret service. The Kingdom of England was a State (927-1707 located in Western Europe dating from the ninth or tenth century to the early eighteenth century when it was legally Harley accepted Defoe's services and released him in 1703. He immediately published The Review, which appeared weekly, then three times a week, written mostly by himself. This was the main mouthpiece of the English Government promoting the Act of Union 1707. The Acts of Union were a pair of Parliamentary Acts passed during 1706 and 1707 by the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland to put into

Defoe began his campaign in The Review and other pamphlets aimed at English opinion, claiming that it would end the threat from the north, gaining for the Treasury an "inexhaustible treasury of men", a valuable new market increasing the power of England. For the US government securities see Treasury security. Also see Treasury management. Sao Paulo Stock Exchangejpg|thumb| Virtual market arena where buyer and seller are not present and trade via intemediates and electronical information England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland By September 1706 Harley ordered Defoe to Edinburgh as a secret agent, to do everything possible to help secure acquiescence of the Treaty. Edinburgh ( ˈɛdɪnb(ərə Dùn Èideann) is the Capital of Scotland and is its second largest city after Glasgow. A Treaty is an agreement under International law entered into by actors in international law namely States and International organizations. He was very conscious of the risk to himself. Thanks to books such The Letters of Daniel Defoe, (edited by GH Healey, Oxford 1955) which are readily available far more is known about his activities than is usual with such agents.

His first reports were of vivid descriptions of violent demonstrations against the Union. "A Scots rabble is the worst of its kind," he reported. Years later John Clerk of Penicuik, a leading Unionist, wrote in his memoirs that,

He was a spy among us, but not known as such, otherwise the Mob of Edinburgh would pull him to pieces. Sir John Clerk of Penicuik 2nd Baronet, 1676 &ndash 1755 was a Scottish Politician, Lawyer, Judge, Composer and Architect

Defoe being a Presbyterian, who suffered in England for his convictions, was accepted as an adviser to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and committees of the Parliament of Scotland. The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland is the sovereign and highest Court of the Church of Scotland, and is thus the Church's governing body This article is about the pre-1707 parliament The article on the devolved legislative body established in 1999 is at Scottish Parliament. He told Harley that he was "privy to all their folly", but "Perfectly unsuspected as with corresponding with anybody in England". He was then able to influence the proposals that were put to Parliament and reported back:

Having had the honour to be always sent for the committee to whom these amendments were referrèd,
I have had the good fortune to break their measures in two particulars via the bounty on Corn and
proportion of the Excise.

For Scotland he used different arguments, even the opposite of those he used in England, for example, usually ignoring the English doctrine of the Sovereignty of Parliament, telling the Scots that they could have complete confidence in the guarantees in the Treaty. Sovereignty is the exclusive Right to control a Government, a country, a people or oneself Some of his pamphlets were purported to be written by Scots, misleading even reputable historians into quoting them as evidence of Scottish opinion of the time. The same is true of a massive history of the Union which Defoe published in 1709 and which some historians still treat as a valuable contemporary source for their own works. Defoe took pains to give his history an air of objectivity by giving some space to arguments against the Union, but always having the last word for himself.

He disposed of the main Union opponent, Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, by just ignoring him. Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun (1653 - September 1716 was a Scottish writer politician and patriot. Nor does he account for the deviousness of the Duke of Hamilton, the official leader of the various factions opposed to the Union, who seemingly betrayed his former colleagues when he switched to the Unionist/Government side in the decisive final stages of the debate. The Dukedom of Hamilton is a title in the Peerage of Scotland created in 1643 the holder is the premier peer of Scotland.

Defoe made no attempt to explain why the same Parliament of Scotland which was so vehement for its independence from 1703 to 1705 became so supine in 1706. Independence is the Self-government of a Nation, Country, or State by its residents and population or some portion thereof generally exercising He received very little reward from his paymasters and, of course, no recognition for his services by the government. He made use of his Scottish experience to write his Tour thro' the whole Island of Great Britain, published in 1726, where he actually admitted that the increase of trade and population in Scotland, which he had predicted as a consequence of the Union, was "not the case, but rather the contrary".

Defoe's description of Glasgow (Glaschu) as a "Dear Green Place" has often been misquoted as a Gaelic translation for the town. Glasgow (ˈglæzgoʊ is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom Scottish Gaelic ( Gàidhlig) is a member of the Goidelic branch of Celtic languages. The Gaelic Glas could mean grey or green, chu means dog or hollow. Glaschu probably actually means 'Green Hollow'. The "Dear Green Place", like much of Scotland, was a hotbed of unrest against the Union. The local Tron minister urged his congregation "to up and anent for the City of God". The St George's-Tron Church in Glasgow, Scotland, commonly known simply as "The Tron" (though it should not be confused with the 17th–century Tron Church In Christian churches, a minister is someone who is authorized by a church or religious organization to perform clergy functions such as teaching of beliefs The 'Dear Green Place' and "City of God" required government troops to put down the rioters tearing up copies of the Treaty, as at almost every mercat cross in Scotland. A mercat cross is a Market cross found in Scottish cities and towns where trade and commerce was a part of economic life

When Defoe revisited in the mid 1720s, he claimed that the hostility towards his party was, "because they were English and because of the Union, which they were almost universally exclaimed against".

See also

• English Dissenters
• Libertatia

References

Bibliography

• Daniel Defoe, A General History of the Pyrates ISBN 0-486-40488-9 (Dover Publications, 1999) (on Libertatia, a pirate utopia)
• Daniel Defoe, The Storm ISBN 0-14-143992-0 Penguin Classics, 2005
• A tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain, 1724 – 27
• Daniel Defoe, a biography by William Minto for the "English Men of Letters" series. A tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain is an account of his travels by English author Daniel Defoe, first published in three volumes from 1724 William Minto ( 10 October 1845 - 1 March 1893) Scottish man of letters was born at Auchintoul, Aberdeenshire

External links

• Works by Daniel Defoe at Project Gutenberg
• Daniel Defoe fiction at The Literature Network
• Full online versions of various copies of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe and the Robinsonades
• An account of his life and works
• Summary of Robinson Crusoe
• Robinson Crusoe (London: W. Taylor, 1719), commented html-text of the first edition. Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to Digitize, archive and distribute Cultural works
• Works by Daniel Defoe in ebook
• Defoe's Review - a user-annotated online edition in blog format
• complete text downloads in HTML, PDF, text formats at ebooktakeaway. com
• Full texts in German and English - eLibrary Projekt (eLib)

---

© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic