John Mennes
Sir John Mennes | |
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Career
Mennes was the third son of Andrew Mennes of Sandwich, Kent and Jane Blechnden.[1]
Educated at his local grammar school in Sandwich, and
In 1643, once the King had lost the Navy, Mennes transferred to the Army and became a general of artillery and in 1644 he became Governor of North Wales.
Mennes and Pepys
In November 1661, after the
He died in London in 1671, aged 71, while still in the post of Controller. The bulk of his estate passed to his nephew Francis Hammond.[1]
Poetry
Mennes's verses appeared in 1656 in a collection entitled Musarum Deliciæ or the Muses's Recreation. They appear to have been written for amusement in correspondence with James Smith, whose replies were included, both being light and satirical in tone. The publisher, Henry Herringman, stated that he collected the poems from "Sir John Mennis "[sic]" and Dr. Smith's drollish intercourses". Another anthology, Wit Restored, appeared in 1658, with verse letters from Smith to Mennes, "then commanding a troop of horse against the Scots". Another piece was written to Mennes "on the Surrender of Conway Castle".
A satirical poem on John Suckling's feeble military efforts at the Battle of Newburn is attributed to Mennes. Mennes was himself satirised by John Denham, whose poem about Mennes going from Calais to Boulogne to "eat a pig" is mentioned by Samuel Pepys in his diary.[4]
Shakespeare anecdote
According to Thomas Plume, Mennes told him he had once met William Shakespeare's father John Shakespeare – a "merry cheeked old man" who said of his son that "Will was a good honest fellow, but he durst have cracked a jest with him at any time".[5] Katherine Duncan-Jones points out that this is impossible, as Mennes was two years old when John Shakespeare died. She thinks Plume may have been recording an anecdote related by Mennis about his father.[6]
Family
In 1641 Mennes married Jane Liddel (died 1662), perhaps as his second wife. They had no children.
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i John Mennes at Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
- ^ Tanner, J R (1903). A Descriptive Catalogue of the Naval Manuscripts in the Pepysian Library. Vol. 1. The Navy Records Society. pp. 314, 383.
- ^ The Diary of Samuel Pepys
- ^ Robert Bell, Lives of the most eminent literary scientific men of Great Britain, Longmans, 1839, p. 56.
- ^ Kate Pogue, Shakespeare's Family, Greenwood, 2008, p. 24.
- ^ Katherine Duncan-Jones, Ungentle Shakespeare: Scenes from His Life, Cengage Learning EMEA, 2001, p. 8.
External links
- Hutchinson, John (1892). . Men of Kent and Kentishmen (Subscription ed.). Canterbury: Cross & Jackman. pp. 96–97.