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The Hartlib circle and the origins of the Dublin Philosophical Society

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2016

Extract

Recently Mr Charles Webster has urged a less restrictive view of seventeenth-century scientific development, allotting a more important role to Samuel Hartlib and his circle. An examination of scientific activity in Ireland during the interregnum offers support for Dr Webster’s argument. This article will attempt to add to what is known of Hartlib, his friends and their interests by considering their activities in Ireland. Relating those activities to the gradual diffusion of experimental science in seventeenthcentury Ireland produces a picture rather different from that offered by Dr K. T. Hoppen in his study of the Dublin Philosophical Society’s origin.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Irish Historical Studies Publications Ltd 1974

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References

1 Webster, Charles, ‘The authorship and significance of Macaria’ in Past & Present, 56 (1972), pp 3448.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Hoppen, K.T., The common scientist in the seventeenth century (London, 1970),Google Scholar hereafter cited as Hoppen.

3 Hoppen, pp 7, 11.

4 He speaks cautiously ofcthe evidence at hand’ : (Hoppen, p. 14).

5 Loc. cit.

6 Hoppen, p. 63.

7 Hoppen, pp 13–14.

8 William Molyneux, for example, complained in 1681 of ‘living nere in a kingdome barren of all things, but especially of ingenious artificers’: W. Molyneux to J Flamsteed, Dublin, 17 Sept. 1681 (Southampton Corporation Record Office, Molyneux papers, DM 1/1, 2) ; this collection is hereafter referred to as Molyneux papers.

9 Hoppen, p. 72.

10 Hoppen, p. 158.

11 Hoppen, p. 85.

12 Hoppen, pp 11–12.

13 Arnold, and Boate, Gerard, Philosophia naturalis reformata, (Dublin, 1641).Google Scholar Mr Hoppen’s evidence for suggesting that Ussher financed this work’s publication does not appear in the source which he cites ( Turnbull, G.H., Hartlib, Dury and Comenius [Liverpool, 1947], p. 204):Google Scholar Hoppen, pp il, 231 n.40.

14 There are accounts of the Boates in SirClark, George, A history of the Royal College of Physicians of London, (Oxford, 1964), 1, 262 Google Scholar; Kittredge, G.L., Dr Robert Childs the remonstrant, (Cambridge, 1919),Google Scholar reprinted from Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, xxi, p. 117; Nieuw Nederlandsch biografisch woordenboek (Leyden, 1918), iv, cols 211–12. For their contacts with Ussher: Boate, A., Observationes medicae de affectibus omissis (London, 1649),Google Scholar sig. [B4]v; Lawlor, H.J., ‘Primate Ussher’s library before 1641’ in R.I.A. Proc., 3rd series, 6 (1901), p. 240 Google Scholar; Two biographies of William Bedell, ed. Shuckburgh, E.S., (Cambridge, 1902), p. 118 Google Scholar; The whole works of… Ussher, ed. Elrington, C.R. (Dublin, 1847–64), 16 39–40 57–9, 126–30, 168–70.Google Scholar

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17 R. Child to S. Hartlib, Lisburn, 29 Aug. 1652 and 2 Feb. 1652 [3] (Sheffield University Library, Hartlib MS xv), hereafter cited as Hartlib MSS.

18 The works of the honourable Robert Boyle, ed. Birch, T. (London, 1744), 5 259 Google Scholar; cf. A collection of the state papers of John Thürloe (London, 1742), u, 61. Mr Hoppen does not mention Hartlib ’s role as the continuer of Boate’s work: Hoppen, p. 21.

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20 Mr Hoppen was unable to find a copy of the interrogatories and so failed to associate them with Hartlib: Hoppen, pp no, 255 n.65. The queries were printed as an appendix to the 1652 edition of Hartlib’s Legacy of husbandry (part of which had actually been written by Robert Cihild), and separately- For copies of the interrogatories being sent to Ireland: Boyle, , Works, 5, 261, 264.Google Scholar

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28 Worsley had first come to Ireland in an unspecified capacity in Strafford’s household (Bodl., Clarendon state papers, 75, f.300). For his appointment as surgeon-general, see also: H.M.G., Ormonde MSS, new series, ii, 256–7, 284–5. He was re-appointed in 1647 by the long parliament but did not return to the post (Commons’ jn, v, 247).

29 Gerard Boate was appointed physician to the army in Ireland by the long parliament in 1647 He arrived in Dublin in 1649, when he was given charge of the military hospital there (Commons’ jn, v, 247; Cal. S.P dorn., 1649–50, pp 66, 588).

30 Arnold Boate was physician general to the army in Leinster (B.M., Sloane MS 4771, f.50; A remonstrance of divers remarkable passages and proceedings of our army in the kingdome of Ireland (London, 1642), title page). He left Ireland in 1646.

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33 Notably Abraham Yarner and Joseph Waterhouse, for whom see : Barnard, T.C., ‘Social policy of the commonwealth and protectorate in Ireland’, Oxford D. Phil, thesis, 1972, pp 399400,Google Scholar n.5 (in addition to the copy in Bodley, a copy is deposited in T.C.D.); Widdess, J.D.H., A history of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, 1654–1963 (Edinburgh and London, 1963), pp 11, 19, 20.Google Scholar

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35 Barnard, ‘Miles Symner’.

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41 Wood’s slightly more ambiguous approach is found in his letters to Hartlib of 28 Aug. 1657 and 25 May 1659 (Hartlib MSS xxxiii), quoted în.Barnard, ‘Social policy’, p. 339.

42 In 1648 Worsley told Hartlib that he had ‘abdicated much reading of bookes, vulgare received traditions, and common or schoole opinions…’ and would henceforth believe 4 only that w[hi]ch is immediately deduced from, or built upon, reali & certayne experiments…’. (Worsley to Hartlib, Amsterdam, 27 July 1648, Hartlib MS xlii (1)).

43 Copious evidence of this is found in Wood’s, Child’s and Worsley’s tt2ts to Hartlib in the Hartlib MSS.

44 Purver, M., The Royal Society: concept and creation (London, 1967), p. 125 Google Scholar n.109.

45 Worsley was in London in 1656–57 and in 1659; Petty in London wring 1658; while Wood visited Oxford in 1658.

46 Hoppen, pp 96, 149–50, 181.

47 Hoppen, pp 21–2, 200–1.

48 B.M., Sloane MS 427, f.85; R. Wood to Hartlib, 10 June [1657] (Hartlib MS xxxiii). On the context of these schemes • Salmon, Vivian, ‘Language-planning in 17th century England, its context and aims’ in In memory of J. R. Firth, ed. Bazell, G.E. (London, 1966).Google Scholar The identity of Johnson, the author of this scheme, is discussed in Barnard, ‘Miles Symner’.

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54 Wood had been appointed receiver general in October 1658: Jennings’s transcripts from the commonwealth records, formerly in P.R.O.I., A/23 (Christian Brothers’ school, Richmond St North, Dublin). For his appointments after 1660: Wood to Hartlib, 23 Mar. 1660 [1] (Hartlib MS xxxiii); Liber mun. pub. Hib., i, pt ii, 132, 136, 137.

55 Hoppen, p. 120.

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57 B.M., Sloane MS 427, f85v.

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61 R. Child to Hartlib, 28 Oct. 1653 (Hartlib MS xv); Hartlib MSS lv (21) and lxx (7).

62 Hoppen, pp 64, 93; cf. Brooks, E.StJ., ‘Henry Nicholson, first lecturer in botany and the earliest physic garden’ in Hermathena, lxxxiv (1954).Google Scholar

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65 Prendergast MS i, p. 41 (King’s Inns, Dublin). For other experiments conducted by Petty and Morgan, see: Petty to Hartlib, Dublin, 22 Jan. 1653¾] (Osborn collection, Yale University Library).

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75 Mr Hoppen stated that Wood ‘had come to Ireland about 1683’, and mentioned no connection with Ireland earlier than 1676- Hoppen, pp 20, 113–14.

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84 B.M., Add. MS 31,885, f.ig2;F T.G.D., MS N.I. 4a, p. 487; Prendergast MS ii, p. 270 (King’s Inns, Dublin); Lenihan, Maurice, ‘The fee-book of a physician of the 17th century’ in Jn. Kilkenny andS.E. of Ireland Arch. Soc, new series, 6 (1867), p. 14.Google Scholar

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86 B.M., Add. MS 31,885, ff 8–13, 190. Arthur possessed books by Ramon Lull.

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92 Hoppen, pp 25, 30–1, 52, 53.

93 Hartlib to ?Lord Cork, 12 Oct. 1658 (Chatsworth, Lismore MS 30, item 30); Wood to Hartlib, 16 Nov. 1658 (Hartlib MS xxxiii), Worsley to Hartlib, 10 Feb. 1657^8] (Hartlib MS xlviifô)); Dalgarno, G., Ars signorum (London, 1661)Google Scholar, sig. [A8]v.

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95 Ibid., p. 247.

96 Commons’ jn., vii, 287; Acts & ordinances, interregnum, ii, 356. King’s father presented Symner to church livings in the Elphin diocese in the 1630s: Elphin succession lists, p. 128 (R.C.B. MS Libr. 41); Cotton, Fasti, iv, 149.

97 R. Wood to Hartlib, 5 Dec. 1660, 19 Jan. 1660[i], 23 Mar. 1660[i] (Hartlib MSS xxxiii).

98 R. Child to Hartlib, 13 Nov- 1651 (ibid., xv) ; Correspondence of Hartlib, Haak, Oldenburg, and others of the founders of the Royal Society with Governor Winthrop of Connecticut, ed. Winthrop, R.C. (Boston, Mass., 1878), p. 11.Google Scholar

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100 Boate, G., Irelands naturall history (London, 1652),Google Scholar sig. [A7]-[A7]V I am grateful to Mr William O’Sullivan, Professor H. R. Trevor-Roper, and Mr Charles Webster for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.