1572 Born between 24 January and 19 June, son of John and Elizabeth Donne.
1576 Father dies; mother marries Dr John Symmings.
1584 Matriculates at Hart Hall (later part of Hertford College), Oxford.
Anne More born, 27 May.
1585 Probably travels to the Continent with Henry Stanley, Earl of Derby.
1588 Stepfather dies.
Defeat of Spanish Armada.
1589 Probably travels abroad.
1590–91 Mother marries Richard Rainsford.
1592 Studies law at Lincoln’s Inn until 1595 or 1596.
Writes and circulates elegies, satires and some Songs and Sonnets.
1593 Master of the Revels at Lincoln’s Inn.
Receives part of his inheritance.
Brother Henry dies in Newgate Prison after being incarcerated for making confession to a Catholic priest.
1594 Receives further share of his and Henry’s inheritance.
1596 Joins the Earl of Essex’s military expedition to Cadiz, on the southern tip of Spain.
1597 Participates in Essex’s military expedition to the Azores Islands.
Writes ‘The Storm’ and ‘The Calm’.
Enters service of Sir Thomas Egerton, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal.
Elizabeth Wolley marries Egerton, and brings her niece, Anne More, to York House, Egerton’s London mansion.
1600 Lady Egerton dies, 20 January.
1601 Member of Parliament for Brackley, Northampton.
Acquires lease to his cousin John Heywood’s lands until 1605.
Writes ‘Metempsychosis’ (dated August 1601).
Secretly marries Anne More shortly before Christmas.
1602 Reveals his marriage, imprisoned briefly in Fleet Street Prison and dismissed from Egerton’s service.
Marriage declared legal by the Court of Audience, Canterbury, 27 April.
Moves to Pyrford, near Guildford in Surrey, home of Anne’s cousin Francis Wolley.
1603 First child, Constance, born.
Death of Queen Elizabeth; accession of James I (James VI of Scotland).
1604 Second child, John, born.
1605 Travels to France and Italy.
Third child, George, born.
1606 Returns to England; moves family to Mitcham in Surrey.
Around this time begins to receive £20 a quarter from Anne’s father, Sir George More.
1607 Fourth child, Francis, born.
Takes lodging in the Strand, London.
Prefatory Latin poem published in Ben Jonson’s Volpone.
1608 Makes frequent visits to Lucy, Countess of Bedford at Twickenham.
Fifth child, Lucy, born.
Seriously ill.
Writes Biathanatos.
1609 Sixth child, Bridget, born.
‘The Expiration’ published in Alfonso Ferrabosco the Younger’s Airs.
1610 Publishes Pseudo-Martyr, a prose treatise arguing that English Catholics should take the Oath of Supremacy, and that those who refused should not be considered martyrs.
Receives honorary MA from Oxford University.
1611 Seventh child, Mary, born.
Ignatius his Conclave published in both Latin and English.
An Anatomy of the World (‘The First Anniversary’) published.
Accompanies Sir Robert Drury to France and the Netherlands; Anne and children remain on the Isle of Wight.
1612 During his absence, eighth child stillborn.
Returns to England; moves family to lodgings in London provided by Sir Robert Drury.
The First and Second Anniversaries published.
‘Break of Day’ published in William Corkine’s Second Book of Airs.
1613 Ninth child, Nicholas, born; dies within a year.
Elegy on Prince Henry published in the third edition of Joshua Sylvester’s Lachrymae Lachrymarum.
1614 Daughter Mary and son Francis die.
Member of Parliament for Taunton, Somerset.
1615 Tenth child, Margaret, born.
Takes Anglican Orders, becomes deacon and priest at St Paul’s Cathedral, London.
Appointed Royal Chaplain.
Made honorary Doctor of Divinity by Cambridge University.
Begins writing Essays in Divinity.
1616 Eleventh child, Elizabeth, born.
Vicar at Keyston, Huntingdon, and Sevenoaks, Kent.
Reader in Divinity at Lincoln’s Inn.
George More’s quarterly payments end around this time.
1617 Anne Donne dies, 15 August, seven days after the stillbirth of their twelfth child.
Writes Latin epitaph and ‘Since she whom I loved hath paid her last debt’ (‘Holy Sonnet 17 (XVII)’).
1619 Serves as chaplain to Viscount Doncaster’s embassy to Germany.
Writes ‘A Hymn to Christ, at the Author’s Last Going into Germany’.
1621 Becomes dean of St Paul’s Cathedral, 22 November.
Second edition of The Anniversaries.
1622 Rector of Blunham, Bedfordshire.
Justice of the Peace for Kent and Bedford.
Begins publishing sermons.
Honorary member of the Virginia Company, a joint-stock corporation, formed in 1606 with a charter from King James I, to settle Virginia.
1623 Gravely ill, writes Devotions upon Emergent Occasions.
1624 Devotions published.
Becomes vicar of St Dunstan’s-in-the-West, London.
1625 Death of James I; Charles I succeeds.
1627 Daughter Lucy dies.
1630 Mortally ill, writes his will.
1631 Dies on 31 March, survived by six children.
Buried at St Paul’s Cathedral, 3 April.
1632 Death’s Duel published.
1633 First edition of Donne’s poems published.
1635 Second edition of Donne’s poems published.