Walter Yonge of Colyton and Devon (1579–1649) was an English lawyer, merchant and diarist.

Life

He was the ancestor of Sir George Yonge

George Yonge

Sir George Yonge, 5th Baronet, KCB, PC was a British Secretary at War and the namesake of Yonge Street, a principal road in Toronto, Canada, which was named in 1793 by the Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada John Graves Simcoe...

, and great-great-grandson of John Yonge

John Yonge

John Yonge , English ecclesiastic and diplomatist, was born at Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire, and educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford, where he became a fellow in 1485. Probably the son of John Yonge, Lord Mayor of London...

 of Colliton and Devon, a well known merchant in Elizabethan England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

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Yonge was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford

Magdalen College, Oxford

Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...

, and was called to the bar from Middle Temple

Middle Temple

The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers; the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn and Lincoln's Inn...

. In 1628 he was High Sheriff of Devon

High Sheriff of Devon

The High Sheriff of Devon is the Queen's representative for the County of Devon, a territory known as his bailiwick. Selected from three nominated people, he holds his office over the duration of a year. He has judicial, ceremonial and administrative functions and executes High Court...

. Among his activities as a merchant were his investment in the Dorchester Company, a joint-stock company promoting fishing and colonisation in New England

New England

New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

. He was also Member of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Honiton

Honiton (UK Parliament constituency)

Honiton was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Honiton in east Devon, formerly represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It sent members intermittently from 1300, consistently from 1640. It elected two Members of Parliament until it was...

 in the Long Parliament

Long Parliament

The Long Parliament was made on 3 November 1640, following the Bishops' Wars. It received its name from the fact that through an Act of Parliament, it could only be dissolved with the agreement of the members, and those members did not agree to its dissolution until after the English Civil War and...

 from 1640, but did not sit after Pride's Purge

Pride's Purge

Pride’s Purge is an event in December 1648, during the Second English Civil War, when troops under the command of Colonel Thomas Pride forcibly removed from the Long Parliament all those who were not supporters of the Grandees in the New Model Army and the Independents...

 in December 1648. From 1642 to 1648 he was one of the victuallers of the Navy.

Yonge married Jane Periam of Exeter and had one son, Sir John Yonge of Colliton, later created a baronet, who served alongside his father in the Long Parliament. Daughter Jane Yonge (died 1652) was married to Sir John Drake, 1st Baronet

Sir John Drake, 1st Baronet

Sir John Drake, 1st Baronet was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1660.Drake was the son of Sir John Drake of Mount Drake and Ashe and his wife Helen Butler, daughter of John Butler, 1st Baron Butler....

 of Ashe (1619 – 7 July 1669) in 1646. His descendants included his great-great-grandson, Sir William Yonge

William Yonge

Sir William Yonge, 4th Baronet KCB FRS , English politician, was the son of Sir Walter Yonge, and great-great-grandson of Walter Yonge of Colyton , whose diaries , more especially four volumes now in the British Museum Sir William Yonge, 4th Baronet KCB FRS (ca. 1693 – 10 August 1755), English...

, and great-grandson Sir Walter Yonge

Sir Walter Yonge, 3rd Baronet

Sir Walter Yonge, 3rd Baronet of Colliton was the father of Sir William Yonge, 4th Baronet and great-grandson of Walter Yonge of Colyton....

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Works

Yonge is now best remembered as an author: his well-known diaries (1604-27 and 1642-45) are valuable historical material, especially four volumes now in the British Museum (Add. MSS. 18777-18780). These were published in Britain in the 19th century by the Camden Society

Camden Society

The Camden Society, named after the English antiquary and historian William Camden, was founded in 1838 in London to publish early historical and literary materials, both unpublished manuscripts and new editions of rare printed books....

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