Henry Cromwell 1659-1728

Henry CROMWELL 1659-1728

Biographical Note

Second son of Thomas Cromwell, who was a cousin of Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector. He was probably educated at home and thereafter spent a life divided between London and Lincolnshire, where he had an estate at Beesby. He is noted as a man of fashion and womanising, something of a dilettante, but he also wrote verse and translated a number of Latin poets. he was friendly with both John Dryden and Alexander Pope, and some youthful correspondence between Pope and Cromwell was published in 1726, to the embarrassment of the former.

Books

In his will, Cromwell left his "books and writings" to his cousin, Henry Greene, clerk. Greene evidently did not retain them, as Cromwell's library was auctioned in London, beginning 6 March 1729; no catalogue survives, but the sale was advertised in the Daily Journal as his "entire collection ... consisting chiefly of classicks and history, in several languages".

Sources

• Will of Henry Cromwell, The National Archives PROB 11/623/61.
• Alston, R. C., Inventory of sale catalogues ... 1676-1800, St Philip, 2010.
• Pritchard, Jonathan. "Cromwell, Henry (1659–1728), translator and poet." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.