John Pym, English politician (b. 1583)
John Pym (20 May 1584 – 8 December 1643) was an English politician, who helped establish the foundations of Parliamentary democracy. One of the Five Members whose attempted arrest in January 1642 sparked the First English Civil War, his use of procedure to outmanoeuvre opponents was unusual for the period and he was respected by contemporaries rather than admired. In 1895, the political historian Goldwin Smith described him as "the greatest member of Parliament that ever lived".His father died when he was seven months old, and Pym was brought up by his stepfather Sir Anthony Rous, inheriting his Puritan views and deep opposition to the reforms of Archbishop William Laud. He was also a leading member of the Providence Island Company, an attempt to establish a Puritan colony in Central America.
Described as 'a true revolutionary', he led the opposition to arbitrary rule under first James I, then Charles I. His leadership in the early stages of the war was essential to the Parliamentarian cause, particularly his role in negotiating the Solemn League and Covenant with the Scots Covenanters; his death from cancer in December 1643 was seen as a major blow.Originally buried in Westminster Abbey, after the Stuart Restoration in 1660, his body was dumped in a pit at nearby St Margaret's, Westminster along with those of other Parliamentary leaders. Although his reputation later suffered in comparison to less complex figures like John Hampden and Viscount Falkland, he is now viewed as an astute politician and effective speaker, whose ideas and language were adapted by Patriots during the American Revolution and 19th-century American liberals.