Sir Roger Twysden, second Baronet, parliamentarian, antiquary, and book collector, was the eldest son of Sir William Twysden and was born 21 August 1597 at the house of his maternal grandfather, Sir Moyle Finch, in the Charterhouse in London. He inherited the family seat at Roydon Hall in Kent on the death of his mother in 1638. He had two sisters and four brothers. Of the latter, Sir Thomas Twysden (1602-1683) became a judge and a staunch royalist, and John Twysden (1607-1688) became a noted physician, despite also having trained as a barrister.

Twysden was educated at St. Paul's School in London and in 1614 entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, as a fellow commoner, although he did not graduate, and it has been suggested that he did not fit in with the college's staunchly Puritan culture. In 1620 Twysden was knighted, since it was the privilege of a baronet to present his eldest son...