Birth of John Milton

The poet and philosopher was born on December 9th, 1608.

Portrait of Milton c. 1629, National Portrait Gallery, London. Unknown artist (detail)

In the early years of the reign of James I, on a winter morning, a baby son was born to the Milton family in a substantial wooden house in Bread Street in the City of London. Their oldest son, he was christened John, after his father, in nearby All Hallows Church, which was destroyed fifty-eight years later in the Great Fire. John was then the most popular Christian name in England. A child’s godparents were called ‘gossips’ in those days and there would have been a cheerful party, or ‘gossiping’, after the baptism.

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