John Locke was born in Wrington, Somerset on August 29, 1632. He was the eldest of his fathers two sons. His father John (him and his father shared the same first name) was a lawyer and a small landowner, he also served as a clerk for justices for the peace. His mother, Agnes Keene, was the daughter of a small-town tanner (a person who tans animal hides). England began to fall into it's epic constitutional crisis when Locke was about two years old. King Charles the first dreamed of absolute power, he decreed higher taxes without getting the approval from Parliament. The taxes were to be collected by local officials such as John's father. The civil war broke out eight years later, and Locke's father briefly served as a captain in the Parliament army. In 1649, rebels hung King Charles the first. Locke had an anglican and royalist education, one of his fathers associates whom was politically connected nominated John for the Prestigious Westminster school when John was just fifteen years old. He won a scholarship to Oxford University's most important college, Christ Church, which mainly trained men for the clergy (the body of all people ordained for religious duties). He studied Latin, Greek, logic and metaphysics. In 1656, he earned his bachelor of the arts degree, then taught rhetoric, Greek and continued to work toward getting a master of arts.
Since Locke lived through a very bloody civil war, he agreed with and shared the fears expressed by fellow Englishmen Thomas Hobbes. Hobbes stated his belief that the worst government was better than no government, liberty brought only chaos. That right or wrong, people owed allegiance to their ruler. Locke wrote a letter in October of 1656, expressing his approval that Quakers (members of a religious society devoted to peaceful principles) - whom he referred to as "mad folk " -were subjected to restrictions. Locke wrote two tracks that defended the prerogative of government (an exclusive right) to enforce religious conforming while welcoming the 1660 restoration of the Stuart Monarchy.