Paul Rycaut's
Huguenot father was held in the
Tower of London, during the
English Civil War, for his
Cavalier sympathies, 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 the Ottoman Empire. He became the English
consul and
factor at
Smyrna (now
İzmir). From 1689 to 1700, he was
Resident at
Hamburg. He was active in frustrating the
Company of Scotland's efforts to raise capital in the city. On 12 December 1666, Rycaut was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society. A knighthood was conferred on him in 1685. He died in
Hamburg in November 1700, aged 70, of a stroke. ==Works==