Paul Rycaut

Sir Paul Rycaut FRS (23 December 1629, in London – 16 November 1700, in Hamburg) was a British diplomat and historian, and authority on the Ottoman Empire.

His Huguenot father was held in the Tower of London, during the English Civil War, for his Cavalier sympathy, but the sequestration of his property was lifted.

Rycaut was born in Aylesford, Kent and graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1650. In 1652, he was admitted to Gray's Inn. While studying at Alcalá de Henares, he learned Spanish and translated the first part of Baltasar Gracián's The Critick. Rycaut was then employed as private secretary to Heneage Finch, 3rd Earl of Winchilsea, ambassador to Constantinople. He became British Consul and factor at Smyrna. From 1689 to 1700, he was Resident at Hamburg.

On 12 December 1666, Rycaut was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Knighthood was conferred on him in 1685.

His letters to William Blathwayt are held at Princeton University.

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