Being a dissenter was not illegal, but it put you outside mainstream English life. Nonconformists believed that the Church of England had not gone far enough in rejecting the Church of Rome and that it was necessary to reject all forms of ritual and hierarchy, including the institution of bishops. Before that he had a whole series of colourful, but mainly failed, careers.ĭefoe’s family were ‘Dissenters’ or ‘Nonconformists’. In fact, he churned out over 500 books and pamphlets on just about every subject of interest to 18th-century England, but he was nearly 60 before he even turned his hand to novel writing and all his famous works were crammed into the last 10 years of his life. It is De-FOE House not DEE-foe House.)ĭaniel Defoe is known today as the writer of Robinson Crusoe and Moll Flanders. (Living as I do in Defoe House, I must put in my twopenn’th for the correct pronunciation. In later years, Daniel claimed to be descended from the noble family of De Beaux Faux, and added the ‘De’ to give an aristocratic ring to his name, becoming ‘de Foe’ and finally Defoe. He was born Daniel Foe, son of James Foe a candle maker, sometime in 1660 in the parish of St Giles Cripplegate. Daniel Defoe – novelist, wheeler dealer, spy, political agitator, journalist, jailbird and occasional tax collector.
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