by John Aubrey
He had one son, a man, who dyed in Persia; one daughter, a Nunne at (I thinke) Gaunt. His widowe yet alive.
He was my honoured and worthy Friend—cujus animae propitietur Deus, Amen.
EDMUND GUNTER
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[Born 1581. Mathematician. Educated at Westminster and Christ Church. He took Holy Orders in 1615 and became Professor of Astronomy in Gresham College and vicar of St. George’s, Southwark, in 1619. He published in 1620 a Table of Artificial Sines and Tangents, to a radius of 100,000,000 parts to each minute of the Quadrant, and assisted in the invention of Logarithms. He discovered by experiments at Deptford the variation of the magnetic needle, but this discovery seemed so strange that he suspected an error and dropped his investigations in 1622. He originated Gunter’s Chain, which is still constantly used in land surveying, and first used the words cosine and cotangent, as well as inventing the decimal separator. He died in 1626.]
CAPTAIN RALPH GRETOREX, Mathematical-Instrument Maker in London, sayd that he was the first that brought Mathematicall Instruments to perfection. His Booke of the Quadrant, Sector and Crosse-staffe did open men’s understandings and made young men in love with that Studie. Before, the Mathematicall Sciences were lock’t-up in the Greeke and Latin tongues; and so lay untoucht, kept safe in some Libraries. After Mr. Gunter published his Booke, these Sciences sprang up amain, more and more to that height it is at now (1690).
When he was a Student at Christchurch, it fell to his lott to preach the Passion Sermon, which some old divines that I knew did heare, but ’twas sayd of him then in the University that our Saviour never suffered so much since his Passion as in that sermon, it was such a lamentable one—Non omnia possumus omnes [all things are not possible to all men.] The world is much beholding to him for what he hath donne well.
JOHN HALES
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[Born 1584. Theologian. He was one of the best Greek scholars of his day and lectured on that language at Oxford. In 1616 he became chaplain to Sir Dudley Carleton, the English Ambassador at the Hague, and attended the Synod of Dort, where he was converted from Calvinism to Arminianism. A lover of quiet and learned leisure, he declined all high and responsible ecclesiastical preferment, and chose and obtained scholarly retirement in a Fellowship of Eton, of which his friends, Sir Henry Savile and Sir Henry Wotton, were successively Provost. His treatise on Schism and Schismatics gave offence to Laud, but Hales defended himself so well that Laud made him a Prebendary of Windsor. Refusing to acknowledge the Commonwealth, he was deprived of his fellowship and fell into poverty. Died 1656.]
WENT TO SCHOOL, at Bath (as I take it). Fellow of Merton Colledge: afterwards fellow of Eaton College.
He was a generall Scolar, and I beleeve a good poet: for Sir John Suckling brings him into the Session of the Poets:
Little Hales all the time did nothing but smile,
To see them, about nothing, keepe such a coile.
When the Court was at Windsor, the learned Courtiers much delighted in his company, and were wont to grace him with their company.
Mr. Hales was the common Godfather there, and ’twas pretty to see, as he walked to Windsor, how his Godchildren fell on their Knees. When he was Bursar, he still gave away all his Groates for the Acquittances to his Godchildren; and by that time he came to Windsor bridge, he would have never a Groate left.
He had a noble Librarie of bookes, and those judicially chosen, which cost him not lesse then 2500 pounds; and which he sold to Cornelius Bee, Bookeseller, in Little Britaine (as I take it, for 1000 pounds) which was his maintenance after he was ejected out of his Fellowship at Eaton-College. Mris. Powney told me that she was much against the sale of ’em, because she knew it was his Life and joy. He had then only reserved some few for his private use, to wind-up his last dayes withall.
I have heard his nephew, Mr. Sloper, say, that he much loved to read Stephanus, who was a Familist, I thinke that first wrote of that Sect of the Familie of Love: he was mightily taken with it, and was wont to say that sometime or other those fine Notions would take in the world. He was one of the first Socinians in England, I thinke the first.
The Ladie Salter (neer Eaton) was very kind to him after his Sequestration; he was very welcome to her Ladyship and spent much of his time there: (from her Nephew.)
He lodged (after his Sequestration) at Mris. Powney’s house, a widowe-woman, in Eaton, opposite to the churchyard, adjoyning to the Christopher Inne southwards. She is a very good woman and of a gratefull spirit. She told me that when she was maried, Mr. Hales was very bountifull to them in setting them up to live in the world. She was very gratefull to him and respectfull to him: a woman primitively good, and deserves to be remembred. She has been handsome: a good understanding, and cleanlie. I wish I had her Christian name.
She has a handsome darke old-fashioned howse. The hall, after the old fashion, above the wainscot, painted cloath, with godly sentences out of the Psalmes, etc., according to the pious custome of old times; a convenient garden and orchard.
’Tis the howse where I sawe him, a prettie little man, sanguine, of a cheerfull countenance, very gentile, and courteous; I was recieved by him with much humanity: he was in a kind of violet-colourd cloath Gowne, with buttons and loopes (he wore not a black gowne) and was reading Thomas a Kempis; it was within a yeare before he deceased. He loved Canarie; but moderately, to refresh his spirits.
He had a bountifull mind. I remember in 1647, a little after the Visitation, when Thomas Mariett, Esq., Mr. William Radford, and Mr. Edward Wood (all of Trinity College) had a frolique from Oxon to London, on foot, having never been there before; they happened to take Windsore in their way, made their addresse to this good Gentleman, being then Fellow. Mr. Edward Wood was the Spookes-man, remonstrated that they were Oxon Scholars: he treated them well, and putt into Mr. Wood’s hands Ten shillings.
This Mris Powney assures me that the poor were more relievable (that is to say) that he recieved more kindnesse from them than from the Rich. That that I putt downe of my Lady Salter is false. She had him to her house indeed, but ’twas to teach her sonne, who was such a blockhead he could not read well.
He might have been restored to his Fellowship again, but he would not accept the offer. He was not at all Covetous, and desired only to leave X pounds to bury him.
He lies buried in the Church yard at Eaton, under an altar monument of Black marble, erected at the sole chardge of Mr. Curwyn, with a too long Epitaph. He was no Kiff, or Kin to him.
EDMUND HALLEY
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[Born 1656. Astronomer. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society at the age of twenty-two. But for Halley, Newton’s Principia would not have existed: his suggestions originated it and, although his father’s death had left him in poor circumstances, he printed Newton’s work at his own expense and averted the threatened suppression of the third book. In 1691 Halley was refused the Savilian Professorship of Astronomy at Oxford, owing to a suspicion of his being a materialist. Assistant Secretary to the Royal Society 1685–1693. Deputy Controller of the Mint at Ipswich 1696. William III gave him command of a war-sloop, the Paramour Pink, in 1698, with orders to study the variation of the compass and to attempt to discover what land lay to the south of the Western Ocean. Halley penetrated to the Antarctic, and explored the Atlantic from shore to shore until 1700. The following year he published a general chart of the variation of the compass shown by Halleyan lines. He then made a thorough survey of the tides and coasts of the English Channel, of which he published a map in 1702. In 1703 he was made Savilian Professor of Geometry at Oxford. He was also elected Secretary of the Royal Society in 1713 and became Astronomer Royal in 1721. At the age of sixty-four, he began the process of observing the moon through its complete cycle of eighteen years and, in 1729, was elected a foreign member of the Paris Academy of Sciences. Peter the Great admitted him familiarly to his table and, at Vienna, he was presented with a diamond ring from the Emperor’s own finger. Halley worked out the Law of I
nverse Squares, the first detailed description of a circulatory theory of the Trade Winds and Monsoons, and a new method of finding the roots of equations. He discovered the law connecting elevation in the atmosphere with its density and first measured height by barometric readings. He improved diving apparatus, experimented on the dilatation of liquids by heat and, by his scientific voyages, laid the foundations of physical geography. But his most enduring fame was caused by his accurate prediction of the return in 1758 of the comet (named after him) of 1531, 1607 and 1682. He died in 1742 after drinking a glass of wine against his doctor’s orders.]
MR. EDMUND HALLEY, Artium Magister, the eldest son of Edmund Halley, a Soape-boyler, a wealthy Citizen of the City of London, of the Halleys, of Derbyshire, a good family. He was born in Shoreditch parish, at a place called Haggerston, the backside of Hogsdon.
At 9 yeares old, his father’s apprentice taught him to write, and arithmetique. He went to Paule’s schoole to Dr. Gale: while he was there he was very perfect in the caelestiall Globes in so much that I heard Mr. Moxton (the Globe-maker) say that if a star were misplaced in the Globe, he would presently find it. He studyed Geometry, and at 16 could make a dyall, and then, he said, thought himselfe a brave fellow.
At 16 went to Queen’s Colledge in Oxon, well versed in Latin, Greeke, and Hebrew: where, at the age of nineteen, he solved this useful Probleme in Astronomie, never donne before, viz. from 3 distances given from the Sun, and Angles between, to find the Orbe, for which his name will be ever famous.
He went to Dantzick to visit Hevelius. December 1st, 1680, went to Paris: Cardinal d’Estrée caressed him and sent him to his brother the Admirall with a lettre of Recommendation. He hath contracted an acquaintance and friendship with all the eminentst Mathematicians of France and Italie, and holds a correspondence with them.
He gott leave and a viaticum of his father to goe to the Island of Sancta Hellena, purely upon account of advancement of Astronomy, to make the globe of the Southerne Hemisphere right, which before was very erroneous, as being donne only after the observations of ignorant seamen. There he stayed some moneths. There went over with him (amongst others) a woman, and her husband, who had no child in several yeares; before he came from the Island, she was brought to bed of a Child. At his returne, he presented his Planisphere, with a short description, to his Majesty who was very well pleased with it; but received nothing but Prayse.
WILLIAM HARCOURT
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[Born 1610. Jesuit. His real name was Aylworth and he was born in Monmouthshire. He entered the Society of Jesus at Watten in 1641. He taught first philosophy and then theology at Liège for eleven years and then spent nine years as a missioner in Holland and England. During the excitement following Titus Oates’ plot, he had some narrow escapes and a large reward was offered for his capture, but he managed to get safely to Holland. He died in 1679.]
PETRIFICATION OF A Kidney.—When Father Harcourt suffered at Tyburne, and his bowells, etc. throwne into the fire, a butcher’s boy standing by was resolved to have a piece of his Kidney which was broyling in the fire. He burn’t his fingers much, but he got it; and one Roydon, a Brewer in Southwark, bought it, a kind of Presbyterian. The wonder is, ’tis now absolutely petrified. But ’twas not so hard when he first had it. It being alwayes carried in the pocket hardened by degrees, better then by the fire—like an Agate polished. I have seen it. He much values it.
THOMAS HARIOT
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[Born 1560. Mathematician. He was mathematical tutor to Sir Walter Raleigh, who sent him to survey Virginia in 1585: his Brief and True Report appears in Hakluyt’s Voyages. He made inventions which gave algebra its modern form and used telescopes simultaneously with Galileo. Through them he observed sun-spots and the comets of 1607 and 1618. Died 1621.]
MR. HARIOT WENT with Sir Walter Ralegh into Virginia, and haz writt the Description of Virginia, which is printed. Dr. Pell tells me that he finds amongst his papers, an Alphabet that he had contrived for the American Language, like Devills.
When the Earle of Northumberland and Sir Walter Ralegh were both Prisoners in the Tower, they grew acquainted, and Sir Walter Raleigh recommended Mr. Hariot to him, and the Earle setled an Annuity of two hundred pounds a yeare on him for his life, which he enjoyed. But to Hues (who wrote de Usu Globorum) and to Mr. Warner he gave an Annuity but of sixty pounds per annum. These 3 were usually called the Earle of Northumberland’s three Magi. They had a Table at the Earle’s chardge, and the Earle himselfe had them to converse with him, singly or together.
Sir Francis Stuart had heard Mr. Hariot say that he had seen nine Cometes, and had predicted Seaven of them, but did not tell them how. ’Tis very strange: excogitent Astronomi.
He did not like (or valued not) the old storie of the Creation of the World. He could not beleeve the old position; he would say ex nihilo nihil fit [nothing comes of nothing]. But a nihilum killed him at last: for in the top of his Nose came a little red speck (exceeding small) which grew bigger and bigger, and at last killed him. I suppose it was that which the Chirurgians call a noli me tangere.
He made a Philosophical Theologie, wherin he cast-off the Old Testament, and then the New-one would (consequently) have no Foundation. He was a Deist. His Doctrine he taught to Sir Walter Raleigh, Henry Earle of Northumberland, and some others. The Divines of those times look’t on his manner of death as a Judgement upon him for nullifying the Scripture.
JAMES HARRINGTON
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[Born 1611. Political theorist. He left Oxford without taking a degree and travelled to Holland, where he joined the Court of the Elector Palatine. Later he travelled through France to Rome, where he refused to kiss the Pope’s toe, excusing himself afterwards to Charles I by saying that he would not kiss the foot of any prince, after kissing the King’s hand. He also visited Venice, where he was greatly impressed by the system of government. In 1656 he published Oceana, his model of a commonwealth. Harrington’s main principle is that power depends upon the balance of property, and normally of landed property. The senate prepares laws, which are voted upon by the people, and the magistrates carry them out. Elaborate systems of rotation and balloting are worked out in detail, and the permanence of the system is secured by the equilibrium of all interests. His republic is a moderate aristocracy. Harrington died in 1677.]
HIS GENIUS LAY chiefly towards the Politiques and Democraticall Government.
Anno 1647, if not 6, he was by Order of Parliament made one of his Majestie’s Bedchamber. Mr. Harrington and the King often disputed about Government. The King loved his company; only he would not endure to heare of a Commonwealth: and Mr. Harrington passionately loved his Majestie. He was on the Scaffold with the King when he was beheaded; and I have oftentimes heard him speake of King Charles I with the greatest zeale and passion imaginable, and that his death gave him so great a griefe that he contracted a Disease by it; that never any thing did goe so neer to him.
He made severall Essayes in Poetry, viz. love-verses, &c.; but his Muse was rough, and Mr. Henry Nevill, an ingeniose and well-bred Gentleman, a member of the House of Commons, and an excellent (but concealed) Poet, was his great familiar and Confident friend, and disswaded him from tampering in Poetrie which he did invita Minervâ, and to improve his proper Talent, viz. Politicall Reflections.
Whereupon he writ his Oceana, printed London 1656. Mr. T. Hobbes was wont to say that Henry Nevill had a finger in that pye; and ’tis like enough. That ingeniose Tractat, together with his and H. Nevill’s smart discourses and inculcations, dayly at Coffe-houses, made many Proselytes.
In so much that, anno 1659, the beginning of Michaelmasterme, he had ever night a meeting at the (then) Turke’s head, in the New Pallace-yard, where was made purposely a large ovall-table, with a passage in the middle for Miles to deliver his Coffee. About it sate his Disciples, and the Virtuosi. The Discourses in this Kind were the most ingeniose, and smart, that ever I heard, or expect to heare, and bandied with great eagernes
se: the Arguments in the Parliament howse were but flatt to it.
Here we had (very formally) a Balloting-box, and balloted how things should be caried, by way of tentamens [experiment]. The room was every evening full as it could be cramm’d. One time Mr. Stafford and his Gang came in, in drink, from the Taverne, and affronted the Junto (Mr. Stafford tore their Orders and Minutes). The Soldiers offerd to kick them downe stayres, but Mr. Harrington’s moderation and persuasion hindred it.
The Doctrine was very taking, and the more because, as to human foresight, there was no possibility of the King’s returne. But the greatest part of the Parliament-men perfectly hated this designe of Rotation by Ballotting; for they were cursed Tyrants, and in love with their Power, and ’twas death to them, except 8 or 10, to admitt of this way, for H. Nevill proposed it in the Howse, and made it out to them, that except they embraced that Modell of Goverment they would be ruind.
Pride of Senators-for-Life is insufferable; and they were able to grind any one they owed ill will to to powder; they were hated by the armie and the countrey they represented, and their name and memorie stinkes—’twas worse then Tyranny. Now this Modell upon Rotation was that the third part of the Senate should rote out by ballot every yeare, so that every ninth yeare the Howse would be wholly alterd; no Magistrate to continue above 3 yeares, and all to be chosen by Ballot, then which manner of Choice, nothing can be invented more faire and impartiall.