FRtR > Biographies > Soame Jenyns

A Biography of Soame Jenyns (1704-1787)


Soame Jenyns, a minor poet and a member of the British Parliament from 1741 to 1780, was a member of the Board of Trade and Plantations when he wrote this pamphlet, the full title of which was "The Objections to the Taxation of our American Colonies by the Legislature of Great Britain, briefly consider'd." In this he argues the case for Parliament's right to tax the colonies, and states briefly the theory of virtual representation.

He was an essayist, poet, and politician, whose writings, though now nearly forgotten, were highly estimated by his own generation.