author
Arthur Maynwaring
1668–1712
A lively early-18th-century political writer, journalist, and Whig MP, he moved from government office into the thick of party debate. His career was brief, but he left a clear mark on the world of print politics.
1 Audiobook
Reflections on Dr. Swift's Letter to Harley (1712) and The British Academy (1712)
by Mr. (John) Oldmixon, Arthur Maynwaring
About the author
Born in 1668 at Ightfield in Shropshire, Arthur Maynwaring, also spelled Mainwaring, was an English official, journalist, and Whig politician. Reliable reference sources agree that he sat in the House of Commons from 1706 until his death in 1712, and that he was closely involved in political writing as well as public office.
He is remembered not just as a member of Parliament, but as a sharp partisan author in an age when politics and print were deeply intertwined. Accounts of his life describe him as an energetic polemical writer whose journalism helped serve Whig causes, giving him a place in the fast-growing political press of the early 1700s.
Maynwaring died in 1712, aged 44. Though he is not among the best-known names of his period, he offers a vivid glimpse of a moment when pamphlets, newspapers, and Parliament were all part of the same political struggle.