, a singular instance of an almost universal genius, and of learning,
, a singular instance of an almost
universal genius, and of learning, mechanical ingenuity,
and ceconomy, applied to useful purposes, was the eldest
son of Anthony Petty, a clothier at Rumsey, in Hampshire,
and was born May 16, 1623. It does not appear that his
father was a man of much property, as he left this son none
at his death, in 1641, and contributed very little to his
maintenance. When young, the boy took extraordinary
pleasure in viewing various mechanics at their work, and
so readily conceived the natjure of their employment, and
the use of their tools, that he was, at the age of twelve,
able to iiandle the latter with dexterity not much inferior
to that of the most expert workmen in any trade which he
had ever seen. What education he had was first at the
grammar-school at Rum?ey, where, according to his own
account, he acquired, before the age of fifteen, a competent
knowledge of the Latin, Greek, and French languages,
and became master of the common rules of arithmetic,
geometry, dialling, and the astronomical part of navigation.
With this uncommon fund of various knowledge he removed, at the above age of fifteen, to the university of
Caen in Normandy. This circumstance is mentioned among
those particulars of his early life which he has given in
his will, although, by a blunder of the transcriber, Oxford is put for Caen in Collir.s’s Peerage. Wood says
that, when he went to Caen, “with a little stock of merchandizing which he then improved, he maintained himself there, learning the French tongue, and at eighteen
years of age, the arts and mathematics.
” Mr. Aubrey’s
account is in these not very perspicuous words: “He has
told me, there happened to him the most remarkable accident of life (which he did not tell me), and which was the
foundation of all the rest of his greatness and acquiring
riches. He informed me that about fifteen, in March, he
went over to Caen, in Normandy, in a vessel that went
hence, with a little stock, and began to play the merchant,
and had so good successe that he maintained himselfe, and
also educated himselfe: this I guesse was that most remarkable accident that he meant. Here he learned the
French tongue, and perfected himself in Latin, and had
Greeke enough to serve his turne. At Caen he studyed
the arts. At eighteen, he was (I have heard him say) a
better mathematician than he is now; but when occasion
is, he knows how to recurre to more mathematical knowledge.
” These accounts agree in the main points, and we
may learn from both that he had at a very early period begun that money-making system which enabled him to realize a vast fortune. He appears to have been of opinion,
that “there are few ways in which a man can be more
harmlessly employed than in making money.
”
On his return to his native country, he speaks of being 1
preferred to^the king’s navy, but in what capacity is not
known. This he attributes to the knowledge he had acquired, and his “having been at the university of Caen.
”
In the navy, however, before he was twenty years of age,
he got together about 60l. and the civil war raging at this
time, he determined to set out on his travels, for further improvement in his studies. He had now chosen medicine
as a profession, and in the year 1643, visited Leyden,
Utrecht, Amsterdam, and Paris, at which last city he studied anatomy, and read Vesalixis with the celebrated
Hobbes, who was partial to him. Hobbes was then writing
on optics, and Mr. Petty, who had a turn that way, drew
his diagrams, &c. for him. While at Paris, he informed
Aubrey that “at one time he was driven to a great streight
for money, and told him, that he lived a week or two on
three pennyworths of walnuts.
” Aubrey likewise queries
whether he was not some time a prisoner there. His ingenuity and industry, however, appear to have extricated
him from his difficulties, for we have his own authority that;
he returned home in 1646, a richer man by IQl. than he
set out, and yet had maintained his brother Anthony as
well as himself.