John Ayloffe

John Ayloffe (died 1685) was an English satirist, executed in London.

Life

He has been presumed to be the Ayloffe admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1666,[1] but the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography states that he matriculated at St Edmund Hall, Oxford in 1662.[2] Joseph Foster gives his surname as Ayliffe.[3]

Ayloffe was a Whig and republican. He made a reputation by placing a sabot under the chair of the Speaker of the House of Commons. The occasion was in October 1673, and the implication that French influence was prevailing.[4] A detailed account was given in a letter from Charles Hatton, who describes Ayloffe as a "kinsman", to his father-in-law William Scroggs.[5] The incident occurred during the Third Anglo-Dutch War. At this period Ayloffe was working covertly with his friend Andrew Marvell, for Dutch interests against the French. They were operating under the leadership of Peter Du Moulin.[2]

Ayloffe was a member of the Green Ribbon Club, and was implicated in the Rye House plot to assassinate the monarch Charles II. He is said to have gone to Scotland with the armed rebels led by Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyll. He was executed at Inner Temple in London.

Works

The recorded details of his life include a satiric homage to Andrew Marvell. One page of Macaulay's History of England detailed his career, and critical revisions to the brief entry of the first edition Dictionary of National Biography,[6]

References

  1. ↑ "Ayloffe, - (ALF666)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Chernaik, Warren. "Ayloffe (Ayliffe), John". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/937. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  3. ↑ 'Alumni Oxonienses, 1500-1714: Appleyard-Azard', Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714: Abannan-Kyte (1891), pp. 29-50. URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=117043 Date accessed: 08 March 2012.
  4. ↑ "The Dictionary of National Biography". Historical Research 2 (6): 93–97. 1925. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2281.1925.tb01870.x. ISSN 0950-3471.
  5. ↑ Edward Maunde Thompson (editor), The Correspondence of the Family of Hatton vol. 1 (1878), p. 118; archive.org.
  6. ↑ 'Satire and Sedition: The Life and Work of John Ayloffe' George de Forest Lord. Huntington Library Quarterly Vol. 29, No. 3 (May, 1966), pp. 255-273