Sir John Denham

Sir John Denham, poet, was buried on 23th March 1669 in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey, near Chaucer's tomb. He has no monument and had no inscribed gravestone.

His name and date of death were inscribed on the large black marble grave of Cowley, just in front of Chaucer's monument, in the 19th century:

Sir John Denham 1669

He was probably born in Dublin and was son of Sir John Denham (1559-1639), a judge, and his second wife Eleanor (Moore). He was educated at Oxford and studied law but his addiction to cards and dice ran him into debt. In 1634 married Anne Cotton, having at least four children including Elizabeth and Anne (who married Sir William Morley).

Just before the English Civil War he published his poem Cooper's Hill which was praised by Robert Herrick. He fled to Holland to join Prince Charles and at the Restoration in 1660 he was knighted and appointed Surveyor General of the King's Works although he was not an architect. He appointed Christopher Wren as his deputy. In 1661 he made arrangements for the coronation and became a Member of Parliament and a Fellow of the Royal Society.

His second wife was Margaret daughter of Sir William Brooke and they married in the Abbey in 1665. She was a famous beauty and very flirtatious, which drove Denham into bouts of madness. She died under mysterious circumstances on 6th January 1667 and was buried in the chancel of St Margaret's Westminster.

Further reading

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

"The History of the King's Works" vol. V, edited by H.M. Colvin, 1976

Sir John Denham, father of the poet, has a remarkable monument in St John's church, Egham in Surrey and there is also a monument to his two wives there: "The dry bones of Sir John Denham d.1639" by Roger Bowdler in Church Monuments vol.XXV, 2020