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John Locke Timeline

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

August 29, 1632

John Locke is born in Wrington, Somerset, England. The son of a lawyer, Locke is raised in Pensford, near Bristol.

1642

The first of the English Civil Wars breaks out when Locke is 10 years old. This conflict is between supporters of the monarchy of Charles I and parliamentary forces that will eventually be led by Oliver Cromwell. Locke’s father serves a captain in the cavalry of the parliamentarians. Locke’s rejection of any claim by the king to have a divine right to rule likely originates at this early age.

1647–51

Locke enrolls at Westminster School in London, where he studies for four years.

1652–58

Locke enters the college of Christ Church at the University of Oxford. His studies focus on philosophy and the sciences, especially medicine. After earning a four-year bachelor’s degree, Locke completes a two-year master’s degree.

1660

Charles IIKing Charles II enters London on May 29, 1660, after the monarchy was restored to Britain.
Photos.com/Jupiterimages

The English monarchy is restored following the period of Oliver Cromwell’s Commonwealth. Locke completes his first substantial political work, Two Tracts on Government.

1663

Locke is appointed senior censor at Christ Church, a job that involves supervising undergraduates and delivering lectures.

1666–67

Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st earl of Shaftesbury
Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London

Locke is introduced to Lord Anthony Ashley Cooper, later 1st earl of Shaftesbury. Locke either shares or comes to share Ashley’s goals for a constitutional monarchy, a Protestant succession, the rule of Parliament, civil liberty, religious toleration, and the economic expansion of England. In 1667 Locke joins Ashley’s household as his aide and personal physician.

1668–69

By this time Locke has become a fellow of the Royal Society and is conducting medical research with Thomas Sydenham, the most distinguished physician of the period. Ashley appoints Locke as secretary to the lords proprietors of Carolina, who are promoting the establishment of a North American colony. Locke helps to draft The Fundamental Constitutions for the Government of Carolina in 1669.

1672–79

Tower of LondonThe Tower of London consists of numerous towers built over the course of centuries. The White Tower, in the center, dates to the 11th century.
© orbandomonkos/iStock.com

In 1672 Ashley is raised to the peerage as 1st earl of Shaftesbury, and at the end of the year he is appointed lord chancellor of England. He is soon dismissed, however, having lost favor with Charles II. For a time Shaftesbury and Locke are in real danger, and it is partly for this reason that Locke travels to France in 1675, where he lives for a few years. Shaftesbury is briefly imprisoned in the Tower of London, but by the time Locke returns to England in 1679, Shaftesbury has been restored to favor as lord president of the Privy Council.

1681–83

Having sought to exclude the Roman Catholic duke of York (the future James II) from the succession, Shaftesbury is charged with treason in 1681. Though later acquitted, he flees into exile in Holland where he dies in January 1683. As Shaftesbury’s close friend, Locke is no longer safe in England, and he moves to Holland later that year.

1689

Locke completes a major work in political philosophy, Two Treatises of Government, as well as his philosophical work An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Upon the overthrow of James II in the Glorious Revolution, Locke returns to England as part of the party accompanying the princess of Orange, who is crowned Queen Mary II. He becomes actively involved in helping to draft the English Bill of Rights, though the final version does not go as far as he wants in matters of religious toleration.

1693

Locke completes Some Thoughts Concerning Education, which will become a major influence in the philosophy of education.

1695

Locke completes the most important of his theological writings, The Reasonableness of Christianity.

October 28, 1704

After a period of poor health, Locke dies in High Laver, Essex, England.

John Locke, oil painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller. In Christ Church, Oxford.

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empiricism Summary

Empiricism, in philosophy, the view that all concepts originate in experience, that all concepts are about or applicable to things that can be experienced, or that all rationally acceptable beliefs or propositions are justifiable or knowable only through experience. This broad definition accords

universal Summary

Universal, in philosophy, an entity used in a certain type of metaphysical explanation of what it is for things to share a feature, attribute, or quality or to fall under the same type or natural kind. A pair of things resembling each other in any of these ways may be said to have (or to