John Aubrey: My Own Life (2 page)

Dr George Bathurst (d.1645), son of George Bathurst (1579–1656) and Elizabeth Villiers (Dr Ralph Kettell’s step-daughter). Brother of Ralph Bathurst. Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford (1631).

Mr Ralph Bathurst (1620–1704), Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford (1640), and President from 1664 until his death. Medically trained, ordained (1644); pursued chemical researches after 1648 with Thomas Willis and John Lydall. Fellow of the Royal Society (1663).

Mr John Birkenhead (1617–79), journalist, poet, satirist. In Oxford during the Civil War he established the
Mercurius Aulicus
, the weekly ‘intelligencer’ of the King’s party, England’s first official newsbook (1643–5). Under the Restoration he became Licenser of the Press (1660–3). MP for Wilton (1661), knighted (1662). Fellow of the Royal Society (1663).

Hon. Robert Boyle (1627–92), scientist, son of 1st Earl of Cork, Fellow of the Royal Society (1660); best remembered for Boyle’s Law, stating that the pressure and volume of a gas have an inverse relationship when temperature is constant.

Viscount William Brouncker (1620–84), 2nd Viscount Brouncker of Lyons, mathematician, Fellow of the Royal Society (1660) and 1st President (1663).

Sir Thomas Browne (1605–82), writer and scientist, author of
Religio Medici
(1643) and
Hydriotaphia, Urn-Burial, or, A Discourse of the Sepulchral Urns Lately Found in Norfolk
(1658).

Mr William Browne (d.1669), Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, Aubrey’s tutor, afterwards vicar of Farnham.

Mr Thomas Bushell (
c
.1594–1674), mining engineer, mint master, speculator. Creator of the grotto at Enstone that captured Aubrey’s imagination. Held Lundy Island for Charles I during the Civil War.

Dr Walter Charleton (1620–1707), physician and natural philosopher, Physician in Ordinary to Charles I (1643), antiquary, author of
Chorea gigantum, or, The Most Famous Antiquity of Great Britain, Vulgarly Called Stone-heng . . . Restored to the Danes
(1663). Fellow of the Royal Society (1663).

Dr William Chillingworth (1602–44), theologian, studied at Trinity College, Oxford, friend of Thomas Hobbes. Converted to Roman Catholicism (1629), soon returned to the Anglican Church. Royalist.

Mr Henry Coley (1633–1704), astrologer and mathematician, Mr William Lilly’s adopted son and amanuensis.

Mr Jan Amos Comenius (1592–1670), Czech philosopher and educationist, visited England in 1641, where Samuel Hartlib, his host, did much to spread his educational ideas.

Mr Samuel Cooper (
c
.1607–72), painter, miniaturist. Lived in King Street, Covent Garden (1642), and Henrietta Street, Covent Garden (1650), painted Oliver Cromwell and Charles II; appointed the King’s Limner (or portraitist) in 1663.

Mr Edward Davenant (1596–1679), vicar of Gillingham, Dorset, then of Poulshot Parsonage, near Devizes, until the Civil War, mathematician, taught Aubrey algebra.

Sir Kenelm Digby (1603–65), courtier, diplomat, natural philosopher, alchemist, author, Roman Catholic. Married Venetia Stanley.

Mr William Dobson (1611–46), portrait painter, patronised by Anthony Van Dyck. Moved to Oxford with Charles I’s court in 1643, became Serjeant Painter to the king.

Mr William Dugdale (1605–86), antiquary, herald, the first English medieval historian, author of
Monasticon Anglicanum
(1655–73) and
Antiquities of Warwickshire
(1656).

Sir George Ent (1603–89), friend and colleague of William Harvey, Fellow of the Royal Society (1663), demonstrated anatomy. Knighted by Charles II in 1665.

Mr George Ent (d.1679), son of Sir George Ent. Fellow of the Royal Society (1677). Aubrey’s travelling companion in France.

Mr Anthony Ettrick (1622–1703), friend of Aubrey from Trinity College, Oxford and Middle Temple. They travelled together to Ireland in 1660. Lawyer and Recorder of Poole (1662–82).

Mr John Evelyn (1620–1706), diarist, Fellow of the Royal Society (1663), naturalist, annotated Aubrey’s natural history of Wiltshire and Surrey manuscripts.

Lord Thomas Fairfax of Cameron (1612–71), Parliamentarian army officer, made commander-in-chief of the New Model Army, which he led to victory at the Battle of Naseby (1645).

Mr William Faithorne (
c
.1616–91), engraver and portraitist who drew Aubrey.

Dr John Fell (1625–86), Dean of Christ Church (1660), Vice Chancellor of Oxford University (1666–9), Thomas Willis’s brother-in-law, disciplinarian. Persuaded Edward Sheldon to permit the Sheldonian Theatre to be used as a printing house (1669). Bishop of Oxford (1676) and uniquely allowed to hold this role while continuing as Dean of Christ Church.

Dr Thomas Gale (1635–1702), antiquary and classical scholar, Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge (1666), High Master of St Paul’s School, London (1672), Fellow of the Royal Society (1677).

Mr Thomas Gore (1632–84), lord of the manor at Alderton, antiquary who wrote on heraldry. Aubrey calls him ‘The Cuckold of Alderton’.

Mr Edmund Halley (1656–1742), astronomer, educated at St Paul’s School under Thomas Gale; best remembered for discovering a comet.

Father Harcourt, William Barrow (
c
.1609–79), Jesuit priest, ordained 1641, served as missioner in London for 35 years. A victim of the Popish Plot; evaded arrest until 7 May 1679, then imprisoned, tried and condemned to death.

Mr James Harrington (1611–77), political theorist, moderate republican, Groom of the Bedchamber to Charles I during his imprisonments at Holmby and Carisbrooke, founder of the Rota Club, author of
Oceana
(1656), imprisoned after the Restoration.

Mr Samuel Hartlib (
c
.1596–
c
.1662), Polish merchant, intelligencier.

Dr William Harvey (1578–1657), discovered the circulation of the blood.

Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke (1584–1650), patron of Anthony Van Dyck, entertained Charles I at Wilton House every summer, renowned huntsman.

Philip Herbert, 5th Earl of Pembroke (1621–69), son of Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke and Susan de Vere.

Philip Herbert, 7th Earl of Pembroke, (1653–83), unruly huntsman who kept a menagerie of animals at Wilton House.

Thomas Herbert, 8th Earl of Pembroke, (1656–1733), Fellow of the Royal Society (1685) and President (1689), dedicatee of Aubrey’s natural history of Wiltshire.

Mr Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679), philosopher and political theorist, born in Malmesbury, subject of Aubrey’s longest biography.

Dr William Holder (1616–98), clergyman and music theorist. Fellow of the Royal Society (1663).

Wenceslaus Hollar (1607–77), etcher, born in Prague, patronised by Thomas Howard, 2nd Earl of Arundel, worked as an illustrator for the printer John Ogilby and the antiquary and herald Sir William Dugdale. Converted to Roman Catholicism. Made a map of London before the Great Fire (1666).

Mr Robert Hooke (1635–1703), natural philosopher, assistant in Oxford to the chemist Thomas Willis, then to Robert Boyle. Fellow of the Royal Society (1663), Curator of Experiments (1662). Moved into Gresham College to lecture on the history of nature and art (1664) and became Professor of Geometry. Author of
Micrographia, or, Some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses, with observations and inquiries thereupon
(1665). Made an Official Surveyor for rebuilding London after the Great Fire.

Sir John Hoskyns (1634–1705), MP for Hereford (1685), Fellow of the Royal Society (1663); President (1682–3) and Secretary (1685–7).

Sir Charles Howard (1630–1713), landowner and natural philosopher, inherited the estate at Deepdene, near Dorking, Surrey, where he created an elaborate Italianate garden. Fellow of the Royal Society (1663).

Lord Henry Howard, 6th Duke of Norfolk (1628–84), second son of Henry Howard, 15th Earl of Arundel, and Lady Elizabeth Stuart. He succeeded his brother Thomas Howard, 5th Duke of Norfolk, in 1677. After the Restoration, he was summoned to the House of Lords in his own right, as the 5th Duke was insane. Fellow of the Royal Society (1666).

Lord Thomas Howard (Maltravers), 14th Earl of Arundel, 4th Earl of Surrey, and 1st Earl of Norfolk (1585–1646), art collector and politician. Grandfather of Lord Henry Howard, 6th Duke of Norfolk.

Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of Clarendon (1638–1709), politician, eldest son of Edward Hyde (1st Earl of Clarendon). MP for Lyme Regis in the Convention Parliament and Commissioner of Trade (1660), attended the Middle Temple, Knight of the Shire for the county of Wiltshire during the Cavalier Parliament until the death of his father (1674), when he became 2nd Earl of Clarendon. Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1685), supporter of James II, lived in seclusion under William and Mary.

Mr George Johnson (1632–83), at Blandford School with Aubrey; lawyer, granted a reversion of the Mastership of the Rolls (1667), but died before the incumbent holder of the post so was unable to appoint Aubrey to one of the lucrative secretary positions as he had promised.

Mr Inigo Jones (1573–1652), architect, Surveyor General of the King’s Works (1615), and stage designer who collaborated with Ben Jonson. He attributed Stonehenge to the Romans.

Dr Ralph Kettell (1563–1643), Fellow and President (1599) of Trinity College, Oxford; over 80 years old when Aubrey was a student.

Mr Robert Latimer (
c
.1570–1634), rector of Leigh-de-la-Mere, schoolteacher who taught Thomas Hobbes and much later Aubrey.

Mr Edward Lhwyd (1660–1709), succeeded Robert Plot as keeper of the Ashmolean Museum. Fellow of the Royal Society (1708).

Mr William Lilly (1602–81), astrologer. His first almanac was printed in 1644.

Dr John Locke (1632–1704), philosopher and physician. Fellow of the Royal Society (1668).

Mr Francis Lodwick (1619–94), linguistics scholar, corresponded about the ‘Universal Character’, author of
A Common Writing
(1647),
The Ground-Work or Foundation Laid . . . for the Framing of a New Perfect Language
(1652), which helped inspire John Wilkins’s
An Essay towards a Real Character
(1668), and a proposal for a phonetic alphabet, in which related sounds were denoted by related symbols, which appeared in the Royal Society’s
Philosophical Transactions
(1686). Fellow of the Royal Society (1681).

Mr David Loggan (1632–94), artist and engraver
,
born in Poland, settled in London after 1656, left London because of the plague in 1665 and moved to Nuffield, Oxfordshire. Drew portraits of Aubrey, Anthony Wood, Elias Ashmole and others. Appointed engraver to Oxford University (1669), lived on Holywell Street. His
Oxonia illustrata
(1675), a set of bird’s-eye views of all the colleges, academic halls, and university buildings, together with a map, was intended to accompany Anthony Wood’s
Historia Et Antiquitates Univ. Oxon.
(1674).

Sir James Long (1617–92), unsuccessful commander of Royalist cavalry during the Civil War. Aubrey’s close friend and informant on natural history. Fellow of the Royal Society (1663).

Mr Christopher Love (1618–51), Presbyterian minister executed for plotting against the Commonwealth.

Mr John Lydall (1625–57), Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford.

Mr Thomas Mariett (d.1691), friend of Aubrey from Trinity College, Oxford, and Middle Temple; landowner in the Midlands and High Sheriff of Warwickshire.

General George Monck (1608–70), 1st Duke of Albemarle, army officer and naval officer, commander under the Commonwealth (1650–3), commander-in-chief of all forces in Scotland (1654–5), champion of the English Parliament when it was purged by the English army after the fall of the Protectorate (1659–60). Brought his army from Scotland to London to guard Parliament; the City of London gave him command of its militia.

Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727), natural philosopher and mathematician, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge (1668), Lucasian Professor of Mathematics (1669), collector of alchemical books, corresponded with Robert Boyle about alchemy. Author of
Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
) (1687), Fellow of the Royal Society (1672), quarrelled with Robert Hooke; became President (1703) after Hooke’s death.

Lord Norris of Rycote (1655–93), James Bertie, made 1st Earl of Abingdon in 1682. One of the peers who invited William of Orange to become King of England. His first wife’s mother was the daughter of Aubrey’s kinsman Sir John Danvers of West Lavington in Wiltshire. Aubrey’s patron.

Mr Titus Oates (1649–1705), informer, chaplain to the Protestants in the household of a Catholic nobleman, Henry Howard, Earl of Norwich and future 6th Duke of Norfolk (1676). Converted to Catholicism. Summoned before the House of Commons in October 1678 and questioned about the Popish Plot. Tried for perjury (1685). Released from prison after the deposition of James II.

Mr John Ogilby (1600–76), translator, printer, the King’s Cosmographer.

Mr Henry Oldenburg (
c
.1619–77), German theologian, natural philosopher and scientific correspondent, Fellow of the Royal Society (1663) and First Secretary (1663); began the scientific journal
Philosophical Transactions
.

Mr Andrew Paschall (
c
.1631–96), Fellow of Queens’ College, Cambridge (1653), rector of Chedzoy, Somerset (1662); Chancellor (1689) and Prebend (1690) of Wells. Participated in the search for a Universal Language together with Aubrey, Lodwick, Hooke, Ray and Pigott.

Mr William Penn (1644–1718), Quaker, founder of Pennsylvania. Fellow of the Royal Society (1681)

Colonel John Penruddock (1619–55), Royalist, fought for the King in the Civil War, seized Salisbury (1655), proclaimed Charles II king; defeated at South Molton, tried, condemned, beheaded at Exeter (16 May 1655).

Dr William Petty (1623–87), economist, friend of Hobbes, Fellow of the Royal Society (1660). Aubrey says he was the ‘inventor of political arithmetic’.

Mr Fabian Philips (1601–90), lawyer of Middle Temple, London.

Mr Thomas Pigott (1657–86), Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford, Fellow of the Royal Society (1679).