Pym, John

Pym, John (pĭm), 1583?–1643, English statesman. A Puritan opposed equally to Roman Catholicism and to Arminianism in the Anglican church, Pym early became prominent in the parliamentary opposition to Charles I. He organized the impeachment (1626) of George Villiers, 1st duke of Buckingham, and the passage (1628) of the Petition of Right. In the 11-year interval between Parliaments (1629–40), he supported the colonizing ventures of the Providence Island Company in the West Indies. Pym was the unquestioned leader of the House of Commons in the events leading up to the English civil war. His long speech in the Short Parliament (1640) listing popular grievances resulted in the dissolution of that Parliament. Resuming the attack in the Long Parliament (1640), he initiated the prosecution of Thomas Wentworth, earl of Strafford, and of Archbishop Laud; urged the abolition of the courts of high commission and the Star Chamber; proposed the abolition of episcopacy; and played a major role in drafting the Grand Remonstrance (1641). Pym was one of the five members of Commons whom Charles tried to remove (1642) by military arrest. After the outbreak (1642) of the civil war, Pym organized various taxation reforms for Parliament and imposed the first English excise duties. His last important act was the arrangement of an alliance with the Scots, based on English acceptance of the Solemn League and Covenant (1643; see Covenanters).

Bibliography

See biography by J. H. Hexter (1941); study by W. W. MacDonald (1981).

---

Pym, John

(born 1583/84, Brymore, Somerset, Eng.—died Dec. 8, 1643, London) English politician. As a member of Parliament (1621–43), he soon became an expert on finances and colonial affairs. He was an architect of Parliament's victory over Charles I in the first phase of the English Civil Wars. He helped form the system of taxation that survived in England until the 19th century. His skill as a parliamentary tactician preserved the unity of Parliament and led to close relations between the government and the city of London.

---

Pym, John 

Born circa 1584 in Brymore, Somersetshire; died Dec. 8, 1643, in London. English politician. One of the principal leaders of the Parliamentary opposition on the eve and during the first period of the English Civil War.

First elected to Parliament in 1614, Pym was one of the authors of the Petition of Right. He was the most brilliant representative of the allied bloc of the gentry and the bourgeoisie, and his role and influence increased significantly with the convocation of the Long Parliament in November 1640. Pym acted as the chief accuser at the trial of the Earl of Strafford, held in March and April 1641. Charles I’s attempt in January 1642 to arrest Pym, J. Hampden, and other leaders of the opposition met with failure. With the king’s departure for the north, Parliament appointed Pym chairman of a special parliamentary committee, formed in September 1641, which was a de facto provisional government. On Sept. 25, 1643, Pym concluded the Solemn League and Covenant, a treaty of alliance with the Scottish Presbyterians.

REFERENCE

Wingfield-Stratford, E. D. S. King Charles and King Pym. London, 1949.