Editing Daniel Defoe (section)

== Early life ==
Daniel Foe was probably born in [[Fore Street, London|Fore Street]] in the parish of [[St Giles-without-Cripplegate|St Giles]] [[Cripplegate]], London.<ref name="EncylLon">{{Cite book |first1=Christopher |last1=Hibbert |authorlink1=Christopher Hibbert |first2=Ben |last2=Weinreb |first3=John |last3=Keay |first4=Julia |last4=Keay |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xa0D0PqiwfEC&pg=PA304 |title=The London Encyclopaedia |publisher=Pan Macmillan |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-230-73878-2 |location=London |page=304}}</ref> Defoe later added the [[Nobiliary particle|aristocratic-sounding "De"]] to his name, and on occasion made the false claim of descent from a family named De Beau Faux.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stephanson |first=Raymond |authorlink=The Yard of Wit |editor=Raymond Stephanson, Darren N. Wagner |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4nAhCwAAQBAJ |title=The Secrets of Generation Reproduction in the Long Eighteenth Century |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-4426-6693-1 |location=Toronto |page=105}}</ref> "De" is also a common prefix in Flemish surnames.<ref>{{cite web |last=Torselli |first=Stefano |title=Daniel Defoe |work=www.baroque.it |url=https://www.baroque.it/cultura-del-periodo-barocco/letteratura/scrittori-e-letterati/daniel-defoe.html |access-date=17 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170803152602/http://www.baroque.it/cultura-del-periodo-barocco/letteratura/scrittori-e-letterati/daniel-defoe.html |archive-date=3 August 2017}}</ref> His birthdate and birthplace are uncertain, and sources offer dates from 1659 to 1662, with the summer or early autumn of 1660 considered the most likely.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bastian |first=F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yNquCwAAQBAJ&q=%22early+autumn+of+1660%22&pg=PA8 |title=Defoe's Early Years |publisher=Macmillan Press |year=1981 |isbn=978-0-333-27432-3 |location=London |page=8 |access-date=23 October 2017}}</ref> His father, James Foe, was a prosperous [[tallow]] [[Chandlery|chandler]] of probable [[County of Flanders|Flemish]] descent,<ref name="SCHAFF">{{Cite book |last=Schaff |first=Barbara |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NrH8DwAAQBAJ |title=Handbook of British Travel Writing |publisher=De Gruyter |year=2020 |isbn=978-3-11-049705-2 |location=Berlin}}</ref><ref name="BRITANNICA">{{cite encyclopedia |last=Mutter |first=Reginald P.C. |title=Daniel Defoe – English author |encyclopedia=Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Daniel-Defoe |access-date=17 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211017103647/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Daniel-Defoe |archive-date=17 October 2021}}</ref>{{efn|The surname Defoe is of Flemish origin, probably derived from [[Faux (surname)|Faux]]<ref name="WRIGHT">{{cite book |last=Wright |first=Thomas |authorlink=Thomas Wright (antiquarian) |date=1894 |title=The Life of Daniel Defoe Volume 1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YxhAAAAAYAAJ |location= |publisher=Cassell |page=2 |isbn=}}</ref> or one of its variants, such as [[Defauw (surname)|Defauw]].<ref name="KONINKLIJKE">{{Cite book |last1=Stevelinck |first1=Ernest |last2=De Roover |first2=Raymond |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cxYjAQAAMAAJ |title=De comptabiliteit door de eeuwen heen tentoonstelling in de Koninklijke Bibliotheek Albert I |publisher=Royal Library of Belgium |year=1970 |location=Brussels |page=150}}</ref> Defoe lauded [[Elizabeth I|Elizabeth]] for encouraging the [[Flemish people#United Kingdom|Flemings]].<ref name="WRIGHT"/> It is thought that he was aware of his origins<ref name="WRIGHT"/> and it is possible that he understood some [[Flemish dialects|Flemish]]/[[Dutch language|Dutch]], since his library had Dutch titles.<ref>{{Cite book |last=van Ginneken |first=Jaap |authorlink=Jaap van Ginneken |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MU97AAAAQBAJ |title=Screening Difference How Hollywood's Blockbuster Films Imagine Race, Ethnicity, and Culture |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-4616-4329-6 |location=Lanham, Maryland |page=75}}</ref>}} and a member of the [[Worshipful Company of Butchers]]. In Defoe's early childhood, he lived through several significant historical events: in 1665, seventy thousand were killed by the [[Great Plague of London]], and the next year, the [[Great Fire of London]] left only Defoe's and two other houses standing in his neighbourhood.<ref name="west">Richard West (1998) ''Daniel Defoe: The Life and Strange, Surprising Adventures''. New York: Carroll & Graf. {{ISBN|978-0-7867-0557-3}}.</ref> In 1667, when he was probably about seven, a Dutch fleet sailed up the [[River Medway|Medway]] via the [[River Thames]] and attacked the town of [[Chatham, Kent|Chatham]] in the [[raid on the Medway]]. His mother, Alice, had died by the time he was about ten.<ref name="autogenerated2006">{{Cite book |title=The Broadview Anthology of Literature: The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century |publisher=Broadview Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-55111-611-2 |editor-last=Black |editor-first=Joseph Laurence |location=Toronto}}</ref><ref name="rich">{{cite book |doi=10.1002/9780470754665 |title=The Life of Daniel Defoe |year=2005 |last=Richetti |first=John |isbn=978-0-631-19529-0}}{{page needed|date=November 2022}}</ref>

=== Education ===
Defoe was educated at the Rev. James Fisher's boarding school in Pixham Lane in [[Dorking]], Surrey.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Bastian |first=F. |title=Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year Reconsidered |journal=The Review of English Studies |date=1965 |volume=16 |issue=62 |pages=151–173 |jstor=513101}}</ref> His parents were [[English Presbyterianism|Presbyterian]] [[English Dissenters|dissenters]], and around the age of 14, he was sent to [[Charles Morton (educator)|Charles Morton]]'s [[Dissenting academies|dissenting academy]] at [[Newington Green]], then a village just north of London, where he is believed to have attended the [[Newington Green Unitarian Church|Dissenting church there]].<ref>[http://www.gradesaver.com/author/daniel-defoe/ Biography of Daniel Defoe (1659?–1731)]. Retrieved 1 August 2013.</ref><ref>"Defoe in Stoke Newington". Arthur Secord, P.M.L.A. Vol. 66, p. 211, 1951. Cited in Thorncroft, p. 9, who identifies him as "an American scholar".</ref> He lived on Church Street, Stoke Newington, at what is now nos. 95–103.<ref name="Council 2020">{{cite web |last=London County Council |date=6 October 2020 |title=Daniel Defoe – Blue Plaques |url=https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/daniel-defoe/ |access-date=13 October 2020 |website=English Heritage}}</ref> During this period, the English government persecuted those who chose to worship outside the established [[Church of England]].