Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T15:49:23.176Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

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

15 Emery, F.V., ȈIrish geography in the seventeenth century’ in Ir. Geography, 3, (1958), pp 264–7Google Scholar

16 His motives in publishing the book were expressed on the title-page as ‘for the common good of Ireland, and more especially for the benefit of the adventurers and planters therein’.

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.

19 Boyle, , Works, 5, 259, 261Google Scholar; R. Child to Hartlib, 2 Feb. 1652(3] (Hartlib MSxv).

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

21 Maddison, R.E.W., The life of the hon. Robert Boyle, F.R.S. (London,1969), p. 84.Google Scholar

22 R. Wood to Hartlib, Dublin, 27 May 1657 and 26 May 1658 (Hartlib MSS xxxiii and xv (4) ).

23 R. Wood to Hartlib, 27 May 1657 (Hartlib MS xxxiii). For a more detailed discussion of Symner, see Barnard, T.C., ‘Miles Symner and the new learning in seventeenth-century Ireland ’ in R.S.A.I. Jn., cii (1972), pp 129–42.Google Scholar

24 R. Wood to Hartlib, 13 May 1656 (recte 1657), 24 June 1656 (recte 1657), 27 July 1657 (Hartlib MS xxxiii); same to same, 5 May 1658 (ibid., xv), Symner’s corrections (ibid., Ixii (45)); Turnbull, , Hartlib, Dury and Comenius, pp 107–8.Google Scholar

25 Prendergast MS i, pp 162, 172 (King’s Inns, Dublin); N.L.I., MSS 2745, f.i; H, 959, p. 112; H, 961, pp 219, 237, 257; H.M.G., Ormonde MSS, ii, 244.

26 [ Molyneux, C.], An account of the family and descendants of Sir Thomas Molyneux, Kt. (Evesham, 1820), p. 20 Google Scholar; H.M.C., Ormonde MSS, ii, 244.

27 N.L.I., MS II, 961, pp 219, 237, 257

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.

31 Petty, W., Reflections on some persons and things in Ireland (London, 1660), p. 17.Google Scholar

32 Bodl., Carte MSS 30, f.636, 41, ff 10, 12, 213, f.661; Cal. S.P., Ire., 1660–62, p. II.

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

34 Evidence of Worsley’s practical work as surveyor-general between 1652 and 1658 is in T.C.D., MS F.3.18, f.139v; B.M., Lansd. 821, f 352; Hardinge, W.H., ‘On manuscript, mapped and other townland, surveys in Ireland… 1640–1688’, in R.I.A. Trans., Antiquities, 24 (1873), p. 9 Google Scholar; Thurloe state papers, vi, 37. For Symner’s work, see Barnàrd, ‘Miles Symner’ for Osborne’s, see below, p. 67.

35 Barnard, ‘Miles Symner’.

36 Osborne, H., A more exact way to delineate the plot of any spacious parcel of land (Dublin, 1654).Google Scholar

37 W. Petty to R. Boyle, Dublin, 15 Apr. 1653 (B.M., Add. MS 6193, f.70v, printed in Boyle, Works, v, 297).

38 Molyneux, W., Sciothericum telescopicum (Dublin, 1686), quoted in Hoppen, p. 75.Google Scholar

39 M. Symner to ?Sir Robert King, Dublin, 24 Oct. 1648 (B.M., Sloane MS 427, f.85).

40 See, for example, Petty’s letter to Henry More printed by Webster, Charles in ‘Henry More and Descartes : some new sources’ (British Journal for the History of Science, 4 (1969), pp 367–8).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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’.

49 Hoppen, p. 155.

50 Hale, Thomas, An account of several new inventions and improvements (London, 1691), p. xxxii.Google Scholar

51 Wood to Hartlib, 1 July 1657, 31 Aug. 1659 (Hartlib MS xxxiii); Oughtred, William, The key to the mathematicks (London, 1647),Google Scholar [B6]v; Webster, C., ‘Decimalization under Gromwell’ in Mature, 229 Google Scholar (12 Feb. 1971), p. 463. Wood was appointed professor of mathematics at the projected college at Durham. Turnbull, G.H., ‘Oliver Cromwell’s college at Durham’ in Research Review (research publication of the Institute of Education, Univ. of Durham), 3 (1952), pp 45.Google Scholar

52 Boyle letters, vii, no 25 (Royal Society of London); Boyle papers, XXV, 145–50 (ibid); Aubrey, J., Brief lives, ed. Clark, A. (Oxford, 1898), 2, 147 Google Scholar; Philosophical transactions, iii (London, 1681), pp 45–7; Wood, A., Fasti Oxon., cols 90, 121.Google Scholar

53 Hoppen, pp 118–19.

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.

56 Salusbury, T., Mathematical collections and translations (London, 1661),Google Scholar, i Sig.*2.

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

58 On this controversy, see Helden, Albert van, ‘Christopher Wren’s De corpore Saturni ’ in Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London, 23 (1968), pp 213–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

59 Rigaud, S.J., Correspondence of scientific men of the seventeenth century (Oxford, 1841), 1, 254.Google Scholar

60 Molyneux papers, DM 1/1, 2v, 7v, 9, 53v, 69v, 72v, 74, 75, 78v, 88, 89, 122, 127v; DM 4/15, B.M., Sloane MS 4811, if 5^-7; ‘Sir Tilomas Molyneux’ in Dublin Univ. Review, xviii (1841), pp 476, 486–7, 488.

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

63 Child to Hartlib, 13 Nov 1651, 23 June 1652, 29 Aug. 1652 (Hartlib MS xv); Wood to Hartlib, 23 Nov. 1656, 3 Mar. 1657, 8 Apr. Zi Ì3May l657 (ibid., xxxiii); Hoppen, pp 152–3.

64 The history of the . . Down Survey by Doctor W. Petty, ed. Larcom, T.A., (Dublin, 1851), pp xiv-xv, 17, 316 Google Scholar; Hoppen, pp 93–4, 112–13

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).

66 Boyle, , Works, 5, 242 Google Scholar; Hoppen, pp 107–8.

67 SirWare, James, De Hibernia & antiquitatibus eius, disquisitiones (London, 1658), p. 351 Google Scholar; Herity, Michael, ‘Rathmulcah, Ware and MacFirbhisigh’ in U.J.A., 33, (1970), pp 50–1Google Scholar and plate III; Hoppen, pp 155-6, 196–7

68 T.C.D., General registry from 1640, pp 179, 249; Stubbs, J.W., The history of the University of Dublin (Dublin and London, 1889), p. 115.Google Scholar

69 T.C.D., General registry from 1640, pp 237, 247; Molyneux papers, DM 1/1, 95.

70 Hoppen, p. 22.

71 Molyneux papers, DM 1/1, 16v, 95v.

72 H.M.C., Ormonde MSS, ii, 244;N.L.L, MS 11, 961, pp 219, 237, 257.

73 Wood to Hartlib, 23 Mar. i66o[i] (Hartlib MS xxxiii).

74 Wood to Hartlib, 1 Jan. i66i[2] (Hartlib MS xxxiii), Baumgartner papers, Strype correspondence, i, 69, 71 (Cambridge Univ. Lib.); Boyle papers, xxv, p. 145 (Royal Society of London), Taylor, E.G.R., Mathematical practitioners of Tudor and Stuart England (Cambridge, 1954), p. 270 Google Scholar; Hoppen, p. 29.

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.

76 For Osborne’s work on the survey and his connections with Petty Ferguson MS xiii, p. 131 (P.R.O.I.) ; N.L.I., MS 11, 959, pp 340, 429–30; Petty’s account book, pp 488, 511, 513, 527, 541, 561 (T.C.D. MS N.I. 4a); H.M.C., Egmont MSS, i, 582; Hardinge, W.H. in R.I.A. Trans., Antiquities, 24, 7783.Google Scholar On Osborne’s later career, see: Molyneux papers, DM 1/1, 88, 96, 98, 100, 116, 124, 131, 133; Hoppen, pp 13, 113–14; Taylor, , Mathematical practitioners, p. 240.Google Scholar

77 Hoppen, pp 113–14.

78 Hoppen, pp 86, 202–3.

79 Hoppen, p. 105.

80 Clark, , A history of the Royal College of Physicians, 1, 262 Google Scholar; Webster, C., ‘English medical reformers of the puritan revolution : a background to the “ Society of Chymical Physitians”’ in Ambix, 14 (1967), p. 20 n.19.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

81 Widdess, , A history of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, pp 610, 14–16.Google Scholar

82 For Stearne’s conservatism, see his Clarissimi viri Adriani Heereboordi, philosophiae professons ordinarli, disputationum de concursu, examen (Dublin, 1660).

83 Facs. nat. MSS Ire., part iv (2), no lxxi.

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

85 On Arthur, see B.M., Add MS 31,885; D.N.B.; Lenihan, Maurice, Limerick, its history and antiquities (Dublin, 1866), pp 182 Google Scholar n.3, 183 n.i, 185 n.2, 189.

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

87 Borr, C., Disputationum practicarum de historií aegrorum decima-nona. De caecitate (Trajectum ad Rhenum, 1650)Google Scholar; Census Ire., 1659, p. 380; Facs. nat. MSS Ire., iv (2), no lxxi, Innes Smith, R., English speaking students of medicine at Leyden (Edinburgh, 1932), p. 26.Google Scholar

88 Urwick, W., The early history of Trinity College, Dublin (Dublin and London, 1892), pp 6872.Google Scholar

89 Currer, English by birth and trained at Leyden, acted as physician to Inchiquin until the latter defected to the catholics. He was opposed to Galenic methods. R. Child to Hartlib, 2 Feb. 1652 [3] (Hartlib MS xv); Cal. S.P. Ire., 1633–47, pp 415, 445, H.M.C., Ormonde MSS, i, 257; Josten, C.H. , Elias Ashmole, 1617–1692 (Oxford, 1966), 1, 71, 108, 120–21, ii, 542–3, 551, 594, 642, 654, 730, 753. iii, 1129Google Scholar; Smith, R.I., English speaking students, p. 61 Google Scholar; Starkey, G., Natures explication and Helmont’s vindication (London, 1657),Google Scholar sig. [A 5]; Turnbull, , ‘Robert ChildPublications of the Colonial Soc. of Massachusetts, 38 (1959), p. 30.Google Scholar

90 On Heaton, see Seymour’s extracts from the commonwealth records, pp 145, 151, 154, 179 (R.C.B., Dublin, MS libr. 20); Bodl., Rawlinson MS C.439, ff 134-57; B.M., Add. MS 11,312, f.141 ; Dwyer, P., The diocese of Killaloe from the reformation to the close of the eighteenth century (Dublin, 1878), pp 161, 169Google Scholar (where his Christian name is wrongly given as Thomas) ; Further correspondence of John Ray, ed. Gunther, R.W.T., Ray Soc, vol 114 (London, 1928), p. 197 Google Scholar; How, W., Phytologia Britannica (London, 1650), pp 7, 8, 46, 57, 60–1, 64, 74, 100, 116, 120, 123Google Scholar; Pulteney, R., Historical and biographical sketches of the progress of botany in England (London, 1790), 2, 194–5Google Scholar; Threlkeld, Caleb, Synopsis stirpium Hibernicarum (Dublin, 1726),Google Scholar sig. c[i]-[ci]v.

91 Hoppen, p. 11.

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.

94 Turnbull, , Hartlib, Dury and Comenius, pp 27, 28, 29, 287, 311, 314.Google Scholar

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

99 Turnbull, , Hartlib, Dury and Comenius, p. 346.Google Scholar

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.