# Evan Seys > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Evan_Seys > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Evan_Seys.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Seys > Source revision: 1334906858 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|Welsh lawyer, politician, and antiquarian (died c. 1685)}} {{Use British English|date=February 2018}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2018}} '''Evan Seys''' (alternates: '''Yevan''' or '''Ievan''') (c. 1604–1685) was a lawyer who rose to national office under [Oliver Cromwell](/source/Oliver_Cromwell) as [Attorney General](/source/Attorney_General), and served as a member of parliament after the [Restoration](/source/Restoration_(England)). From c.1649 until his death he was involved in the politics of his native [Glamorgan](/source/Glamorgan), and of [Gloucestershire](/source/Gloucestershire). He was a committed and active Protestant and an antiquarian scholar. ==Family and education== Seys was the fourth son of Richard Seys of Swansea, Glamorgan and his wife Mary Evans. His father was a barrister of [Lincoln's Inn](/source/Lincoln's_Inn).[http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1660-1690/member/seys-evan-1604-85 History of Parliament Online – Seys, Evan] In 1638 Evan married Margaret, daughter of Robert Bridges of Woodchester, who died in 1651. He had a son, Richard, and daughters Margaret and Elizabeth. Evan attended [Cowbridge School](/source/Cowbridge_Grammar_School) until the age of 17, when in 1621 he went up to [Christ Church, Oxford](/source/Christ_Church%2C_Oxford).[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=119386 'Alumni Oxonienses, 1500–1714: Scadden-Sheyne', Alumni Oxonienses 1500–1714 (1891), pp. 1322–1350. Date accessed: 27 June 2012] ==Political and legal career== Seys was Recorder of [Gloucester](/source/Gloucester) in 1649 and a [Bencher](/source/Bencher) of [Lincoln's Inn](/source/Lincoln's_Inn) in 1652. He went on to hold legal office in Wales under the [Protectorate](/source/Protectorate) and was a member of the committee for governing Glamorgan. This culminated in his becoming the Attorney General to [Oliver Cromwell](/source/Oliver_Cromwell) and serving as MP for [Glamorgan](/source/Glamorgan_(UK_Parliament_constituency)) during the evanescent rule of [Richard Cromwell](/source/Richard_Cromwell) in 1659. In 1659 he was part of a broad coalition preparing the restoration of [Charles II](/source/Charles_II_of_England). From 1661 to 1681 he was MP for [Gloucester](/source/Gloucester_(UK_Parliament_constituency)). He lived in the substantial house in the cathedral close built by Abraham Blackleech.{{cite book|first=Suzanne|last=Eward|title=No Fine But a Glass of Wine|date=1985|page=295}} ==References== {{Reflist}} *Davies, Iolo, ''A Certaine Schoole'' (Cowbridge: D. Brown and Sons, 1967), pp. 13–19 (career) and 349–59 (the speech) *Dodd, A. H., "'Tuning' the Welsh Bench, 1680", ''National Library of Wales Journal'', Vol. VI/3 (Summer 1950) *Hopkin-James, Lemuel John, ''Old Cowbridge Borough, Church and School'', pp 233–6 and 307 (Cardiff : Educational Pub. Co, 1922), available online from [https://books.google.com/books?id=nrtoTlWedUcC&dq=%22evan+seys%22+++oration&pg=PA233 Google Books]. Retrieved 24 July 2010: contains excerpts from Seys's school speech in Latin and in translation *James, Brian Ll. and Francis, David J., ''Cowbridge and Llanblethian Past and Present'' (Stewart Williams, Publishers, Barry and D. Brown & Sons Ltd., Eastgate, Cowbridge, 1979), p. 49 (on the family's origins) *Jenkins, Philip, ''The Making of a Ruling Class: The Glamorgan Gentry 1640–1790'' (Cambridge University Press, 1983), pp. 101–39, 218–20, 231, 235, 261 *Jenkins, Philip, "Anti-Popery on the Welsh Marches", ''Historical Journal'', Vol. 23 (1980) *Jenkins, Philip, "'The Old Leaven': the Welsh Roundheads after 1660", ''Historical Journal'', Vol. 24 (1981) *Lewis, Samuel, ''A Topographical Dictionary of Wales'' (1833) for the 1705 endowment *Prest, Wilfred R., ''The rise of the Barristers'' (1986), p. 160 *Robbins, M., ''The Agricultural, Social and Cultural Interests of the gentry of South East Glamorgan: 1540–1640'' University of Wales, Cardiff, PhD (1974) *Vale of Glamorgan Council: "Boverton Draft Conservation Area Appraisal": on the ruins of Boverton Place" (2009) *''Victoria County History: Gloucestershire'': Manor of Dymock (in publication) * Will of Evan Seys (signed 1682, codicil 1684, proved 1684/5 at Prerogative Court at Canterbury). Index to will register at [http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documentsonline/details-result.asp?Edoc_Id=781634&queryType=1&resultcount=4 National Archives PROB 11/379]. Retrieved 24 July 2010. *''The Cambrian Quarterly Magazine'' 1830, p. 172 on the oak * Dryden's ''Absalom and Achitophel'' Pt 2 (1682): Worcester, by then first Duke of Beaufort, is eulogistically cast as "Bezaliel" lines 941–66. The Welsh he governs, "Kenites", in the biblical allegory, are also praised for their loyalty to the King: Dryden cannot have thought Seys representative of his nation. But their land is disparaged as a "Rocky Province." The whole poem is a witty and highly readable satire on the Exclusion Crisis and The Popish Plot from the Royalist perspective. And Shakespeare's ''Henry the fourth'' part 2 caricatures country justices in the personae of "Shallow" and "Silence" – of Gloucestershire no less. Seys was way above these two in point of legal expertise, general erudition, sophistication, breadth of outlook etc.; but many of his colleagues on the Glamorgan Bench were not. These two classics add background and elaboration. ==See also== * [http://www.oxfordhistory.org.uk/clivejenkins/evan_seys.pdf Article on Evan Seys by Clive Jenkins] {{s-start}} {{s-par|en}} {{succession box | title=Member of Parliament for [Glamorgan](/source/Glamorgan_(UK_Parliament_constituency)) | before= [Philip Jones](/source/Philip_Jones_of_Fonmon) | before2= [Edmund Thomas](/source/Edmund_Thomas_(Parliamentarian)) | years= 1659 | after= Not represented in Restored Rump | after2= }} {{succession box | title=Member of Parliament for [Gloucester](/source/Gloucester_(UK_Parliament_constituency)) | before= [Sir Edward Massey](/source/Edward_Massey) | before2= [James Stephens](/source/James_Stephens_(MP)) | with= [Sir Edward Massey](/source/Edward_Massey) 1661–1675 | with2= [Henry Norwood](/source/Henry_Norwood) 1675–1679 | with3= [William Cooke](/source/William_Cooke_(died_1703)) 1679 | with4= [Sir Charles Berkeley](/source/Charles_Berkeley%2C_2nd_Earl_of_Berkeley) 1679–1681 | years= 1661–1681 | after= [Sir Charles Berkeley](/source/Charles_Berkeley%2C_2nd_Earl_of_Berkeley) | after2= [Lord Herbert](/source/Charles_Somerset%2C_Marquess_of_Worcester) }} {{s-end}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Seys, Evan}} Category:1600s births Category:1685 deaths Category:Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Category:Members of the Privy Council of England Category:17th-century English lawyers Category:Welsh politicians Category:Attorneys general for England and Wales Category:People educated at Cowbridge Grammar School Category:Members of the Parliament of England (pre-1707) for Gloucester Category:English MPs 1659 Category:English MPs 1661–1679 Category:English MPs 1679 Category:English MPs 1680–1681 Category:Members of the Parliament of England (pre-1707) for constituencies in Wales --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Evan Seys](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Seys) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Seys?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.