Pym, John

b. 1584; d. 1643

English parliamentarian, born at Brymore, Somerset. He studied at Broadgates Hall (later Pembroke College), Oxford, and at the MiddleTemple. He entered Parliament in 1621, and in a few years became one of the leading speakers in the House of Commons. He was a manager of Buckingham's impeachment in 1626, a supporter of the Petition of Right in 1626, and a vigorous opponent of the tonnage and poundage scheme in 1629. He gradually became one of the most effective leaders against the government's oppressive measures, and in 1640 was intimately associated with the impeachment of Strafford and Laud. He was amongst those who prepared the Grand Remonstrance in 1641, and was one of the Five Members whom Charles I came in person to Westminster to arrest in 1642. Pym was subsequently concerned with organising for war. He was responsible for the Militia Ordinance, the Nineteen Propositions, and the Committee of Public Safety. He secured the Scots alliance and kept parliamentary forces in the field by raising taxes and maintaining supplies. Pym was a great parliamentarian; moderate and logical both in religion and politics, an able administrator and fine tactician. His death in 1643 left a gap in the Parliamentarian leadership which could not be adequately filled.

© JM Dent/Historybookshop.com