Defoe, Daniel: - Daniel Defoe was born in 1660, in london, and became initially christened daniel foe, converting his name across the age of thirty-five to sound greater aristocratic. Like his man or woman robinson crusoe, Defoe become a third child. His mother and father, james and mary foe, had been presbyterian dissenters. James foe was wax and candle merchant. As a boy, daniel witnessed two of the greatest disasters of the seventeenth century: a recurrence of the plague and the extremely good fireplace of london in 1666. Those events may additionally have shaped his fascination with catastrophes and survival in his writing.