Hugh May - Biography

Biography

Hugh May was the seventh son of John May of Rawmere, in Mid Lavant, West Sussex, by his wife, Elizabeth Hill, and was baptised on 2 October 1621. He was a first cousin of Baptist May, Charles II's Keeper of the Privy Purse. As a member of a Royalist family, Hugh May spent the years of Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth in the service of the Duke of Buckingham. May arranged the transport of artworks from the Duke's York House to Holland, where the Duke was in exile. Here, May was exposed to recent developments in Dutch Classical architecture, and the simple but refined brick-built houses designed by Jacob van Campen and Pieter Post. May was a friend of the painter Peter Lely, and in 1656 the two of them travelled to Charles II's court in exile. Besides Lely, May's circle included Samuel Pepys, who called May a "very ingenious man", Roger North and John Evelyn, whom May assisted in translating Roland Fréart's Parallel of Architecture. No drawings by May survive, and he perhaps relied on draughtsmen instead. He died at the age of 63, and was buried in the church at Mid Lavant.