{{Short description|British political writer and journalist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}} '''Sir John Birkenhead''' or '''Berkenhead''' (''c''.1617 – 4 December 1679) was an English political writer and journalist, imprisoned several times during the Commonwealth for his obtrusive royalism.
Birkenhead was the supposed son of Randall Birkenhead (''c''.1580 – 1636) and Margaret Middleton (d. 1669). The parish register of Witton-cum-Twambrooks records a baptism for John Birkenhead, son of Randall, in {{OldStyleDateDY||1616|24 March 1615}} but an 1869 note next to the entry claims it is "Fictitious".<ref>{{cite book |title=Whitton Chapel vital register 1561-1678 |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-XX63-346?i=434&cc=1614792 |url-access=registration |via=FamilySearch |at=fol. 65 recto}}</ref>
He was educated at Witton Grammar School, Northwich.<ref name="crum1">{{cite journal | author=Margaret Crum| title=Review| journal=The Review of English Studies| year=1971| volume=NS 22| issue=85| pages=81–83| jstor=512036}}</ref> He proceeded to the University of Oxford, and was a fellow of All Souls' from 1639 to 1648.<ref>{{acad|id=BRKT657J|name=Birkenhead, John}}</ref> Birkenhead began producing England's first official news-book ''Mercurius Aulicus'' in 1643. The principal writer was Peter Heylin but Birkenhead brought satire, slanders and incisive polemics which the parliamentary party found difficult to rebuff.
His loyalty to the royalist party was rewarded on the restoration of the monarchy when he was made licenser of the press and joint editor, with Henry Muddiman, of the new official news-book ''Mercurius Publicus''. His contribution to journalism after the restoration was slight, concentrating more on a political career and being elected MP for Wilton, Wiltshire in June 1661. He was knighted the following year and was a founding member of the Royal Society. In 1664 he was sworn in as a Master of Requests, serving until his death.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://www.history.ac.uk/publications/office/masters| title= Masters of Requests|publisher= Institute of Historical Research|access-date = 17 June 2013}}</ref>
Birkenhead was described by John Aubrey in his Brief Lives as "exceedingly confident, witty, not very grateful to his benefactors, would lye damnably. He was of midling stature, great goggli eies, not of a sweet aspect."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Aubrey |first1=John |section=John Birkenhead (1615-1679) |editor-last=Clark |editor-first=Andrew |title='Brief Lives,' chiefly of Contemporaries, set down by John Aubrey, between the Years 1669 & 1696 |volume=1 |pages=104–106 |location=Oxford |publisher=Clarendon Press |date=1898 |url=https://archive.org/details/brieflives01clargoog/page/n132/mode/2up |access-date=24 May 2023}}</ref>
He is buried in an unmarked grave near the school door at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster.
==Notes== <references/>
==Bibliography== *{{cite book | title=Sir John Berkenhead, 1617-1679: A Royalist Career in Politics and Polemics| url=https://archive.org/details/sirjohnberkenhea0000thom| url-access=registration| last=Thomas| first=Peter W. | year=1969| publisher=Clarendon Press (OUP)| location=Oxford}}
{{White's Professor of Moral Philosophy, Oxford}} {{University of Oxford}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Birkenhead, John}} Category:1679 deaths Category:English male journalists Category:Original fellows of the Royal Society Category:People educated at Sir John Deane's College Category:English MPs 1661–1679 Category:White's Professors of Moral Philosophy Category:Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford Category:Year of birth uncertain