Thomas Hariot

, or Harriot tumbled out of his mothers womb into the lap of the Oxonian Muses, an. 1560. but in what parish I cannot yet tell. All the registers that begin before that time (namely that of S. S. Ebbe, S. Aldate, S. Thomas which begins that year, S. Michael, All-Saints and S. Peter in the East) I have searched but cannot find his name. That of S. Maries parish, wherein I suppose this our author was born, hath been lost several years, and there is no register remaining, that goes above the year 1599. After he had been instructed in Grammar learning within this City of his birth, became either a Batler or Commoner of S. Maries hall, wherein undergoing the severe discipline then, and there, kept up by Rich. Pygot and Thom. Philipson the Principals thereof, he took the degree of Bac. of Arts in 1579. and in the latter end of that year did compleat it by determination in School-street. Soon after coming to the knowledge of that heroick Knight Sir W. Raleigh, for his admirable skill in the Mathematicks, he entertain’d him in his family, allowed (g)(g) Pref. R. Hakluyt ad Orbem novum, scriptum per Mart. Angler Par. 1587. him an yearly pension, and was instructed by him at leisure-hours in that art. In 1584. he went with the said Knight, and first Colony, into Virginia, where being settled, he was imployed in the discovery and surveying thereof, and to make what knowledge he could of the commodities it yeilded, and concerning the inhabitants and their manners and customs. After his return into England Sir Walter got him into the acquaintance of that noble and generous Count Henry Earl of Northumberland, who finding him to be a gentleman of an affable and peaceable nature, and well read in the obscure parts of learning, he did allow him an yearly pension of 120 l. About the same time Rob. Hues and Walter Warner two other Mathematicians, who were known also to the said Count, did receive from him yearly pensions also, but of less value, as did afterwards Nich. Torperley, whom I shall mention elsewhere. So that when the said Earl was committed prisoner to the Tower of London in 1606. to remain there during life, our author, Hues, and Warner were his constant companions, and were usually called the Earl of Northumberlands three Magi. They had a table at the Earls charge, and the Earl himself did constantly converse with them, either singly or altogether, as Sir Walter then in the Tower, did. Our author Hariot was a great acquaintance with Sir Tho. Aylisbury Kt. a singular lover of learning and of the Mathematick arts. To whom Dr. Rich. Corbet sending (h)(h) In his Poems, printed at Lond. 1672. p. 5 [•] . a Poem when the blazing Star appeared, dated 9. Dec. 1618, doth by the way mention our author thus.

Now for the peace of God and Men advise,

(Thou that hast wherewithal to make us wise)

Thine own rich studies and deep Harriots Mine,

In which there is no dross, but all refine.

But notwithstanding his great skill in Mathematicks, he had strange thoughts of the Scripture, and always undervalued the old story of the creation of the world, and could never believe that trite position Ex nihilo nihil fit. He made a Philosophical Theology, wherein he cast off the Old Testament, so that consequently the New would have no foundation. He was a Deist, and his doctrine he did impart to the said Count, and to Sir Walt. Raleigh when he was in compiling the History of the World, and would controvert the matter with eminent Divines of those times; who therefore having no good opinion of him, did look on the manner of his death (which I shall anon mention) as a judgment upon him for those matters, and for nullifying the Scripture. When he was a young man he was stiled by an (i)(i) Hackluytus ut sup. in Praef. author of note, juvenis in illis disciplinis (meaning in the Mathematicks) excellens. When in his middle age, by (k)(k) Nath. Torperler in Praefat. ad Declides coelometricas, &c. an. 1602. another homo natus ad artes illustrandas, &c. and when dead by a (l)(l) Camden in Annal. Jac. 1. MS. sub. an. 1621. third of greater note, Mathematicus insignis. His Epitaph which was made, or caused to be made, by his Executors, or those to whom he left his goods, books, and writings, viz. Sir T. Aylesbury before mention’d and Rob. Sidney Viscount L’isle, saith that Omnes scientias calluit, & in omnibus excelluit; Mathematicis, Philosophicis, Theologicis veritatis indagator studiosissimus, Dei Triniunius cultor piissimus, &c. As for his Writings they are these.

A brief and true report of the New-found Land of Virginia; of the commodities there found to be raised, &c. Lond. 1588. qu. Put into Latine by C. C. A. and published and adorned with many admirable Cutts, by Theodore de Bry of Liege—Francof. ad Moenum 1590. fol. The English copy is mostly, if not all, involved in the third Vol. of R. Hakluyts voyages, p. 266. &c.

Ephemiris Chyrometrica. MS. in the Library at Sion coll. Lond.

Artis Analyticae praxis ad aequationes Algebraicas nova expedita & generali methodo, resolvandas, tractatus posthumus, &c. Lond. 1631. in a thin fol. and dedic. to Henry E. of Northumberland. The sum of this book coming into the hands of Aylesbury before-mention’d, Walt. Warner did undertake to perfect and publish it, conditionally that Algernon eldest Son of the said Henry E. of Northumb. would, after his Fathers death, continue his pension to him during his natural life. Which being granted at the earnest desires and entreaties of Aylesbury made to that Lord, Warner took a great deal of pains in it, and at length published it in that sort as we see it now extant. By the way it must be known that this Walt. Warner was a Leicestershire man born, but whether educated in this University, I cannot as yet find, that he was esteemed as good a Philosopher as Mathematician, that he made and invented a Logarithmical table, i. e. whereas Brigg’s table fills his Margin with numbers encreasing by unites, and over against them sets their Logarithms, which, because of incommensurability, must needs either be abundant or deficient, Mr. Warner (like a Dictionary of the Latine before the English) fill’d the Margin with Logarithms encreasing by Unites, and did set to every one of them so many continual meane proportionals between one and 10. and they for the same reason must also have the last figure incompleat. These after the death of Warner came through the hands of one Tovey sometimes Fellow of Christs coll. in Cambridge, (afterwards beneficed in Leicestershire and took to Wife the the Neece of Warner) into those of Herbert Thorndyke Prebend of Westminster, sometimes Fellow of Trin. coll. in Cambridge, and from him after his death (which happened in July 1672.) into those of Dr. Rich. Busby Prebend of the said Church. They were in number ten thousand, but when John Pell D. D. sometimes a member of Trin. coll. in Cambridge became acquainted with Warner, they were by him, or his direction, made an hundred thousand, as the difference of hands will shew in the MS. if Dr. Busby will communicate it. He also (I mean Warner) wrote a Treatise of Coynes and Coynage, in relation to Mint-affairs; a copy of which John Collins Accomptant to the Royal Fishery Company had in his possession, but what became of it after his death, I know not. The sixth book of Optiques in Marsennus is generally said to be his, and the seventh is Hobbes’s of Malmsbury. He also did make it appear (m)(m) So used to say Dr. G. Morley sometimes B. of Winton, and Dr. Joh. Pell. in a MS. of his composition, that the blood in a body did circulate, which he communicating to the immortal Harvy, he took his first hint thence concerning that matter, which he afterwards published as the first inventor. I have been informed by those that knew Warner well, that he had but one hand, and was born so, that as he received a pension from the Earl of Northumberland, so did he, tho smaller, from Sir Tho. Aylesbury, and lastly that he died at the Wolstable near the waters-side, not far from Northumberland house, (which is near Charing Cross) where he commonly winter’d (but kept his summer with Sir Thomas in Winsore-Park) much about the time when the Long Parliament began, in Nov. 1640. or rather in the latter end of that year, leaving behind him a brother, who was High-Sherriff of Leicestershire, or at least prick’d for that office, in the beginning of the rebellion that hapned under K. Ch. 1. As for our author Hariot, who for some time lived in Sion coll. near to London, 1621 died 2 July in sixteen hundred twenty and one; whereupon his body was conveyed to S. Christophers Church in London, by the brethren of the Mathematical faculty, and by them committed to the earth with solemnity. Over his grave was soon after erected a comely Monument, with a large Inscription thereon, but destroyed with the Church it self, by the dreadful fire that hapned in that City, in the beginning of Sept. in 1666. This person tho he was but little more than 60 years of age, when he died, yet had not an unusual and rare disease seized upon him, he might have attained, as ’tis thought, to the age of 80. The disease was an ulcer in the Lipp, and Dr. Alex. Rhead was his Physitian, who, tho he had cured many of worser, and more malignant, diseases; yet he could not save him. In the treatise of ulcers, in the said Rheads (n)(n) Printed at Lond. 1650. Treat. 2. Lect. 26. works, is this mention of him. Cancerous Vlcers also seise on this part (the Lipp) &c. This grief hastned the end of that famous Mathematician Mr. Harriot, with whom I was acquainted but short time before his death. Whom at one time, together with Mr. Hues, who wrote of Globes, Mr. Warner and Mr. Torpley, the Noble Earl of Northumberland the favourer of all good learning, and Mecaenas of learned men, maintained whilst he was in the Tower for their worth and various literature.