“Who else preceded his enlightenment writings?”
If I had to write a history of natural rights theory, I’d start with Aristotle, go through the Stoics, skip ahead to the Reformation (Locke was a Puritan, remember) and people like Martin Luther, then on to the Enlightenment, which in general anticipated the liberality of Locke’s philosophy before Locke arrived. But more to the point, Locke was directly influenced by more immediate predecessors like Richard Hooker, and contemporaries known as Whigs (not to be confused with America’s Whig party), most importantly Lord Shaftesbury.
Thomas Hobbes was also a contemporary, (of a previos generation) and every bit the modern, but I wouldn’t exactly call him a proponent of natural rights.
Thank you, I’d like to study more on the subject.