Ashley, afterwards the first earl of Shaftesbury, had made Locke's acquaintance at Oxford in July 1666. Locke, at the request of his partner, Thomas, had procured some medicinal water from Astrop for Ashley, who was on a visit to his son at Oxford. A congeniality of opinions favoured the development of a rapid and lasting friendship between two of the ablest men of the time. Locke accompanied Ashley to Sunninghill, where there were other fashionable waters, and soon afterwards accepted an invitation to become a member of Ashley's family. He was accordingly settled at Exeter House in the Strand, Ashley's town residence, by the summer of 1667.
Locke's first services to Ashley were medical. In 1668 he performed an operation for an internal abscess, from which Ashley suffered, and kept the wound open by a silver tube, frequently mentioned by the satirists of the day. Ashley, according to the statement of his grandson, prevented Locke from practising as a physician outside of his own family; but the notes of a few cases which he attended are preserved in the British Museum. He had formed a close friendship with Thomas Sydenham [q.v.], whom he consulted in Ashley's case. He accompanied Sydenham on visits to some of his patients; he wrote a Latin poem, prefixed to the second edition (1668) of Sydenham's work on fevers; and composed a preface and dedication (never used, but preserved in the Shaftesbury papers) for an intended work of Sydenham upon smallpox. Sydenham, in the preface to the third edition of his work upon fever (1676), refers to the approval of his method by Locke, to whom, he declares, no man of the time is superior in judgment and manners. Sydenham also took an interest in a medical work projected by Locke, of which a fragment, dated 1669, is preserved in the Shaftesbury papers (printed by Mr. Fox Bourne, i. 222-7). Locke's philosophical tendencies appear in his denunciation of the futility of scholastic discussions in medicine, and his advocacy of the scientific appeal to experience, which Sydenham's methods had illustrated. Locke occasionally acted as a physician in later years, but his time was now chiefly occupied by Ashley's affairs. In 1669 he negotiated the marriage between Ashley's son and Lady Dorothy Manners, and attended Lady Dorothy in her confinement when the third Lord Shaftesbury was born (26 Feb. 1670-1). He was treated as a valued and confidential friend by the whole family.
Ashley was one of the 'lords' proprietors of Carolina, under a patent granted in 1663. Some colonists were sent out in 1669, and a constitution drawn up for the government. The original draft, dated 21 June 1669, is in Locke's handwriting in the Shaftesbury papers, and has been printed in the 'Thirty-third Report of the Deputy-keeper of Public Records.' It is printed as adopted by the proprietors in Locke's works. The general scheme is aristocratic, and negro slavery permitted. There is, however, a remarkable provision, allowing any seven persons to form a church upon professing belief in God and in the duty of public worship. This provision expresses Locke's opinions; but it does not appear how far he was responsible for the other provisions in a piece of constitution-mongering which never came into operation. Locke acted as secretary to the proprietors, and was much occupied by the business until the autumn of 1672.
In April 1672 Ashley was created Earl of Shaftesbury, and in November he became lord chancellor. He made Locke secretary of presentations, with a salary of 500l. a year. Locke had to attend to the church business coming under the chancellor's control, and to appear with the chancellor on state occasions. When Shaftesbury delivered his famous 'delenda est Carthago' speech against Holland, Locke, as the third Lord Shaftesbury states, had to stand at his elbow with the written copy as prompter.
The council of trade was reconstructed, with Shaftesbury as president, in September 1672. Locke was at once employed in connection with it, and on 15 Oct. 1673 became secretary, on the death of Benjamin Worsley, with a salary of 500l., raised afterwards to 600l. a year, but never paid, as appears from a petition made by him in 1689. His duties in regard to all manner of colonial questions occupied him for the next two years. He seems to have had some thoughts of visiting America (Fox Bourne, i. 288), and he was a shareholder for some time in a company formed to settle the Bahamas. The council of trade was dissolved on 12 March 1674—5. Shaftesbury had been dismissed from office at the end of 1673, and Locke had no further prospects of official employment. Shaftesbury granted him an annuity of 100l. at seven years' purchase (Christie, ii. 64) at the end of 1674, which, with his own property, enabled him to live in tolerable comfort. He was able to invest various sums by 1675, which proves that he must have had an income superior to his wants (ib. i. 431-2).
Besides his duties in office and as a confidential servant of Shaftesbury, Locke had various interests during these years. In September 1672 he paid a first visit to France, and after his return translated three
