?John Locke's Life
Locke was born in the village of Wrington, Somerset, on
August 29, 1632. He was educated at the University of Oxford and lectured on Greek,
rhetoric, and moral philosophy at Oxford from 1661 to 1664. In 1667 Locke began his
association with the English statesman Anthony Ashley
Cooper, 1st Earlof Shaftesbury, to whom Locke was friend, adviser, and physician.
Shaftesbury secured for Locke a series of minor government appointments. In 1669, in one
of his official capacities, Locke wrote a constitution for the proprietors of the Carolina
Colony in North America, but it was never put into effect. In 1675, after the liberal
Shaftesbury had fallen from favor, Locke went to France. In 1679 he returned to England,
but in view of his opposition to the Roman Catholicism favored by the English monarchy at
that time, he soon found it expedient to return to the Continent. From 1683 to 1688 he
lived in Holland, and following the so-called Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the
restoration of Protestantism to favor, Locke returned once more to England. The new king,
William III, appointed Locke to the Board of Trade in 1696, a position from which he
resigned because of ill health in 1700. He died in Oates on October 28, 1704.