“ PHILLIPS, EDWARD (1630–1696) , English author, son of Edward Phillips of the crown office in chancery, and his wife Anne, only sister of John Milton, the poet, was born in August 1630 in the Strand, London. His father died in 1631, and Anne Phillips eventually married her husband’s successor in the crown office, Thomas Agar. Edward Phillips and his younger brother, John, were educated by Milton. Edward entered Magdalen Hall, Oxford, in November 1650, but left the university in 1651 to be a bookseller’s clerk in London. ”

“ He began a monthly historical review in 1688 entitled Modern History or a Monthly Account of all considerable Occurrences, Civil, Ecclesiastical and Military, followed in 1690 by The Present State of Europe, or a Historical and Political Mercury, which was supplemented by a preliminary volume giving a history of events from 1688. ”