Walter Yonge of Colyton and Devon (1579 - 1649), lawyer, merchant and diarist, was the descendant of Sir George Yonge, and son of John Yonge of Colliton and Devon, a well known merchant in Elizabethan England. Yonge was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, and was called to the bar from Middle Temple. In 1628 he was High Sheriff of Devon. Among his activities as a merchant were his investment in the Dorchester Company, a joint-stock company promoting fishing and colonisation in New England. He was also Member of Parliament for Honiton in the Long Parliament from 1640, but did not sit after Pride's Purge 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 of Ashe (b 1619 -d. July 7, 1669) in 1646. His descendants included his great-great-grandson, Sir William Yonge, and great-grandson Sir Walter Yonge. 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.
References
- D Brunton & D H Pennington, Members of the Long Parliament (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1954)
- Yonge family
- Concise Dictionary of National Biography (1930)
