Puritanism and Natural Philosophy revisited: the case of Ralph Austen (c. 1612–1676)

ABSTRACT

Twentieth-century historians of science emphasised the apparent connection between puritanism and experimental natural philosophy in mid-seventeenth-century England, but revisionist scholarship exposed the incorrect religious taxonomies undergirding this thesis. As both a staunch puritan and a well-connected figure in scientific networks, Ralph Austen provides an opportunity to re-examine the thesis. A horticulturalist, cider manufacturer and lay theologian based in Oxford from 1646 until his death in 1676, Austen was a friend and collaborator of Samuel Hartlib and Robert Boyle. He was also a pious puritan, steeped in Reformed divinity, and friends with premier Interregnum puritans, including John Owen. Austen’s life and career demonstrate that Baconian aims to reform learning could happily go hand-in-hand with, and be inspired by, puritan ideals, though they hampered his reputation in post-Restoration natural-philosophical circles. At the same time, via Austen we learn that puritan theologians responded positively to Baconian ideas, something hitherto underrepresented in the literature.

KEYWORDS:

• Natural philosophy
• puritanism
• Hartlib circle
• John Owen
• Royal Society

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Michael Edwards, Samuel Tunnicliffe, and an anonymous reviewer, who provided insightful comments on earlier drafts of this article. I also wish to acknowledge the generous support of Gurnee Hart and the estate of Christopher Hogwood, who between them endowed the scholarship that made this research possible.

Declaration of Interest

Nothing to declare.

Notes

1 Evelyn, ed., Pomona, 1^st ed., 1–4.

² Beale, Nurseries, Orchards, Profitable Gardens, and Vineyards Encouraged, 1.

³ Newton to Oldenburg, 2 September 1676, in Turnbull, ed., Correspondence of Isaac Newton, 2^nd vol., 93.

⁴ Newton to Oldenburg, 14 November 1676, in ibid., 181.

⁵ Newton to Oldenburg, 28 November 1676, in ibid., 185; Oldenburg to Newton, 2 January 1677, in ibid., 187.

⁶ Only four historians have treated Austen in any detail; see Webster, Great Instauration, 470–80; Turner, ‘Ralph Austen, an Oxford Horticulturist of the Seventeenth Century’, 39–45; idem, ‘Austen, Ralph (c. 1612–1676)’, in ODNB; Bennett and Mandelbrote, The Garden, the Ark, the Tower, the Temple, 49–51.

⁷ For biographical details see Thirsk, ‘Blith, Walter (bap. 1605, d. 1654)’, in ODNB. Note, however, that Thirsk misdates Blith’s death, which Hartlib reported to Austen on 21 October 1652, as is clear from Austen’s reply. See Austen to Hartlib, 1 November 1652, in The Hartlib Papers (hereafter HP), 41/1/12A–13B.

⁸ Richard L. Greaves, ‘Puritanism and Science: The Anatomy of a Controversy’, 345–68; Shapiro, John Wilkins, 224–50; idem, ‘Latitudinarianism and Science in Seventeenth-Century England’, 286–316; Jacob and Jacob, ‘The Anglican Origins of Modern Science’, 251–67; Mulligan, ‘Puritans and English Science: A Critique of Webster’, 456–69.

⁹ See, e.g., Shapiro, ‘Latitudinarianism and Science in Seventeenth-Century England’; Burnham ‘The Latitudinarian Background to the Royal Society, 1647-1667’.

¹⁰ Worden, ‘Politics, Piety, and Learning: Cromwellian Oxford’, 91–193; Gribben, John Owen, 66–67; Cooper, John Owen, Richard Baxter, and the Formation of Nonconformity, 108–16; Toon, God’s Statesman, 73–76; Lawrence, ‘Transmission and Transformation’. In his biographical entry, for instance, Lawrence makes no mention of Hartlib’s hopes that Goodwin might be a conduit for his plans for curricular reform at Oxford; see Lawrence, ‘Goodwin, Thomas (1600–1680)’, in ODNB. An exception to this historiographical trend is found in Sytsma’s work; see, inter alia, Sytsma, ‘Puritan Critics of New Philosophy, ca. 1660-1680’, 116–50.

¹¹ There were, notoriously, few moderate responses to Descartes’s philosophy among Dutch Reformed divines; see Israel, Dutch Republic, 889–99.

¹² Turner, ‘Ralph Austen, an Oxford Horticulturist of the Seventeenth Century’; Turner, ‘Austen, Ralph (c. 1612–1676)’. There is no extant evidence concerning Austen or any of his relations in the local parish church of St Edward the Confessor, where he was almost certainly baptised, and which was remodelled significantly in the 1670s.

¹³ Blith, English Improver Improved, 269 (due to a pagination error this is printed as 259).

¹⁴ Turner, ‘Ralph Austen, an Oxford Horticulturist of the Seventeenth Century’, 39.

¹⁵ Herefordshire Archives and Record Centre, B47/S16; Plot, Natural History of Stafford-Shire, 384.

¹⁶ See Austen, Observations, 14, where he compares the nature of a tree to the nature of a soul, which is fully in every part of the body, ‘tota in toto, & tota in qualibet parte’, a common scholastic doctrine which the philosopher Henry More dubbed ‘holenmerism’.

¹⁷ Austen, Treatise of Fruit-Trees, 1^st ed., preface ‘To the Reader’.

¹⁸ The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, DR 18/10/63/8-9.

¹⁹ à Wood, Athenæ Oxonienses, 2^nd vol., 780. The record of the parliamentary visitation that we have belonged to Austen and was donated to the Bodleian in 1687, probably by his executors; see Bodleian MS e Mus. 77.

²⁰ Blith, English Improver Improved, 268–69 (pagination error reads 258–59).

²¹ à Wood, Athenæ Oxonienses, 2^nd vol., 780; Bodleian Library Records e. 533, fol. 161^r.

²² Austen to Benjamin Martin, 26 February 1652, HP 41/1/2A–3B. Hartlib recorded in the margins of this letter that Martin was ‘One of Mr Speakers Gentlemen’.

²³ Austen, Treatise of Fruit-Trees, 1^st ed., preface ‘To the Reader’.

²⁴ Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum, 109.

²⁵ Austen, Treatise of Fruit-Trees, 1^st ed., preface ‘To the Reader’.

²⁶ Austen, Observations, 14.

²⁷ Reid, Metaphysics, 142–47.

²⁸ Austen, Treatise of Fruit-Trees, 1^st ed., 91; cf. Aristotle, The Politics, 1256b.

²⁹ Hakewill, Apologie, sigs. b2^v–b2^r; Zagorin, Francis Bacon, 33.

³⁰ Poole, ‘The Evolution of George Hakewill’s Apologie’, 2.

³¹ Webster, Great Instauration, 21–22. For Twisse’s Aristotelianism, see Hutton, ‘Thomas Jackson, Oxford Platonist, and William Twisse, Aristotelian’, 647–52.

³² Webster, Great Instauration, 478.

³³ Sharrock, ‘Good Reader’, in Austen, Observations.

³⁴ Austen, Treatise of Fruit-Trees, 1^st ed., 91.

³⁵ Ibid., 92–93.

³⁶ Austen To Hartlib, 23 April 1652, HP 41/1/6A.

³⁷ Austen, Treatise of Fruit-Trees, 2^nd ed.

³⁸ Austen, Treatise of Fruit-Trees, 1^st ed., 45.

³⁹ Austen, Treatise of Fruit-Trees, 2^nd ed., 44.

⁴⁰ Ibid., 42.

⁴¹ Ibid., 55.

⁴² Ibid., 63.

⁴³ Ibid., 66.

⁴⁴ Ibid., 76–78.

⁴⁵ Ibid., 76–77.

⁴⁶ Austen to Beale, 7 September 1658, HP 52/169A–B.

⁴⁷ Beale to Austen, 16 September 1658, HP 52/171B–172B.

⁴⁸ Austen, Observations, 39–40.

⁴⁹ Austen to Hartlib, 6 May 1653, HP 41/1/26A.

⁵⁰ Austen, Treatise of Fruit-Trees, 1^st ed., 40.

⁵¹ Austen, Treatise of Fruit-Trees, 1^st ed., 24, 26–27. Bacon’s Historia Vitae et Mortis was first published in Latin in 1623; as his references make clear, however, Austen had read William Rawley’s English translation, which was published as Francis Bacon, The Historie of Life and Death. With Observations Naturall and Experimentall for the Prolonging of Life. Written by the Right Honouralbe Francis Lord Verulam, Viscount S. Alban., trans. William Rawley (London: Printed by I. Okes, for Humphrey Mosley, 1638).

⁵² Zagorin, Francis Bacon, 123–24.

⁵³ Blith, English Improver Improved, 268–69.

⁵⁴ Austen to Hartlib, 26 July 1652, HP 41/1/10A-11B.

⁵⁵ Hartlib, ed., A Designe for Plentie, sig. A2^v.

⁵⁶ Austen, Treatise of Fruit-Trees, 1^st ed., sig. ¶^r.

⁵⁷ Austen to Hartlib, 14 June 1653, HP 41/1/34A–35B. Austen records the sale price of the book as being 18d; Royston and other stationers could purchase it from Robinson for 15d, but Hartlib could get copies at 12d a piece.

⁵⁸ Austen first mentions the money in a letter to Hartlib of 26 October 1654, HP 41/1/74A.

⁵⁹ Austen enquired as to the whereabouts of the money on 26 December 1654 (HP 41/1/76A–77B), 5 January 1655 (41/1/78A–79B), and 29 April 1655 (41/1/82A–83B).

⁶⁰ Austen to Hartlib, 7 September 1655, HP 41/1/98A–99B.

⁶¹ Hunter, Robert Boyle, 92.

⁶² Webster, ‘Water as the Ultimate Principle of Nature’, 104n31.

⁶³ Sharrock, preface to ‘Good Reader’, in Austen, Observations.

⁶⁴ Sharrock, The History of the Propagation & Improvement of Vegetables, sigs. A2^r–A2^v .

⁶⁵ Hunter, Robert Boyle, 139.

⁶⁶ Austen, Observations, sig. A2^v.

⁶⁷ Hunter, 122, 135.

⁶⁸ à Wood, Athenæ Oxonienses, 2^nd vol., 780.

⁶⁹ Boyle, The Sceptical Chymist, 355.

⁷⁰ See Austen to Hartlib, 23 April 1652, in HP 41/1/6A–7B, where Austen asks for the manuscript that he has sent to Hartlib to be returned to him ‘for I haue not any Coppie in the same forme’.

⁷¹ Hartlib to Boyle, 13 May 1658, in Hunter, Clericuzio, and Principe, eds., Correspondence of Robert Boyle, 1^st vol., 270–72.

⁷² Hartlib to Boyle, 25 March 1658, in ibid, 1:202.

⁷³ Hartlib to Boyle, 1 November 1659, in ibid., 1:381.

⁷⁴ Austen’s reply spoke of ‘that secret society rich, & wealthy, as you stiled them’; Austen to Hartlib, 5 June 1660, in HP 41/1/133B.

⁷⁵ Hartlib to Worthington, 17 December 1660, in Worthington, The Diary and Correspondence of Dr. John Worthington, 1^st vol., 245–52.

⁷⁶ On this see Webster, Great Instauration, 57–67.

⁷⁷ Austen to Hartlib, 11 March 1661, in HP 41/1/137A.

⁷⁸ Austen to Hartlib, 3 May 1661, in HP 41/1/139A.

⁷⁹ Austen to Hartlib, 11 March 1661, in HP 41/1/137A.

⁸⁰ Ibid. Austen related his plan to capitalise on Boyle’s patronage in a letter to Hartlib of 7 October 1658 (HP 45/2/5A–5B).

⁸¹ In 1980 Patrick Collinson, the great scholar of Elizabethan and early Stuart religion, remarked that the discussion about what constituted ‘puritanism’ resembled ‘a debate conducted among a group of blindfolded scholars in a darkened room about the shape and other attributes of the elephant sharing the room with them.’ See Collinson, ‘A Comment: Concerning the Name Puritan’, 484. For the claim that the capital ‘P’ is ‘problematic’, see Goldie, Roger Morrice and the Puritan Whigs, 15n1.

⁸² Shapiro, John Wilkins, passim; idem, ‘Latitudinarianism and Science in Seventeenth-Century England’, 292.

⁸³ Austen to Hartlib, 1 April 1653, in HP 41/1/20A.

⁸⁴ On this see Hutton, Rise and Fall of Merry England, 200–226.

⁸⁵ Lawrence, ‘Goodwin, Thomas (1600–1680)’; Van Dixhoorn and Wright, eds., Minutes and Papers of the Westminster Assembly, 1^st vol., 14.

⁸⁶ Van Dixhoorn and Wright, eds., Minutes and Papers of the Westminster Assembly, 1^st vol., 14; see also HP 13/307A–308B.

⁸⁷ Milton, ‘“The Unchanged Peacemaker”? John Dury and the Politics of Irenicism’, 95–117.

⁸⁸ Hunter, Robert Boyle, 83–84; Mortimer, Reason and Religion, 213–14; Webster, ‘Worsley, Benjamin (1617/18–1677)’, in ODNB; for the catalogue of Worsley’s library upon its auction, see Dunmore and Chiswell, eds., Catalogus Librorum.

⁸⁹ Hartlib, A Designe for Plentie, sig. A2^v; Austen to Hartlib, 14 June 1653, in HP 41/1/34A-35B. After Hartlib brought Barkstead to Austen’s attention, Austen suggested the regicide as a potential source of patronage in December 1654; see Austen to Hartlib, 26 December 1654, in HP 41/1/76A-77B.

⁹⁰ Popkin, ‘Hartlib, Dury and the Jews’, 118–36; Oster, ‘Millenarianism and the New Science: The Case of Robert Boyle’, 137–48.

⁹¹ An overview of the historiography is provided in Lake, ‘The Historiography of Puritanism’, 346–71; see also Coffey, ‘The Problem of “Scottish Puritanism”’, 67–71.

⁹² In emphasising the Calvinistic nature of English puritanism I am following the explicit claims of Dewey Wallace and David Hall, and the more implicit assumptions of Michael Winship. See Wallace, ‘Puritan Polemical Divinity and Doctrinal Controversy’, 206–22; Hall, The Puritans, 14–28; Winship, ‘Were There Any Puritans in New England?’, 118–38, esp. 124; idem, Hot Protestants, 1–6. On the early-modern Reformed tradition more generally, see Muller, Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics, 2^nd ed., which remains the quintessential study.

⁹³ Benedict, Christ’s Churches Purely Reformed, 384.

⁹⁴ Here I am following Andrew Cambers’ definition of puritanism as rooted in shared practices of piety; see Cambers, Godly Reading, 13–14. for the practice of sermon-gadding, see Hunt, The Art of Hearing, 190–207.

⁹⁵ Gribben, John Owen, 36–43.

⁹⁶ Stephen, ed., Dictionary of National Biography, 2^nd vol., 260–61.

⁹⁷ Austen, The Strong Man Armed Not Cast Out, 53.

⁹⁸ Mandelbrote, ‘John Wilkins and the Gardens of Wadham College’, 212. Mandelbrote’s claim is built on Sharrock’s reference to ‘Mr Austen of Wadham Coll. a skillfull florist’, in Sharrock, The History of the Propagation & Improvement of Vegetables, 19, but there are no records of Austen having been employed by the College.

⁹⁹ Austen to Hartlib, 12 December 1653, in HP 41/1/58A–59B.

¹⁰⁰ Austen to Hartlib, 20 August 16555, in HP 41/1/94A–95B.

¹⁰¹ This work went through five editions in the seventeenth century: in 1673, 1676, 1678, 1685, and 1699.

¹⁰² Greaves, ‘Coles, Elisha (b. in or before 1608, d. 1688)’. Thomas Goodwin, writing a preface to the third edition of Coles’ work in 1678, recorded that he had ‘known the Author long (full Twenty Eight years)’; see Goodwin, ‘To the Christian Reader’, in Coles, A Practical Discourse of God’s Sovereignty, 3^rd ed., sig. a^r.

¹⁰³ Austen to Hartlib, 29 April 1655, in HP 41/1/82A–83B.

¹⁰⁴ Austen, Spirituall Use, 2^nd ed., 182.

¹⁰⁵ Austen, Spirituall Use, 1^st ed., sig. *2^v.

¹⁰⁶ Ibid., 13.

¹⁰⁷ Ford, preface ‘To the Reader’, in Austen, Spirituall, 2^nd ed.; on Ford, see Wright, ‘Ford, Stephen (d. 1695/6), in ODNB.

¹⁰⁸ ‘J.F.’, ‘To my deare Friend and Brother in the Lord Mr. R. Austine’, in Austen, Spirituall Use, 2^nd ed., sigs. ††^r–††^v.

¹⁰⁹ Langley to Hartlib, 30 June 1651, in HP 15/3/5A–6B.

¹¹⁰ Austen to Hartlib, 8 July 1653, in HP 41/1/38A–39B.

¹¹¹ Millington, Bibliotheca Oweniana, 27.

¹¹² Austen to Hartlib, 10 February 1654, in HP 41/1/66A–67B.

¹¹³ See Austen to Hartlib, 20 February 1654, in HP 41/1/68A–69B, where Austen relates that ‘Mr Vice Chancellor is now in London’ and asks Hartlib if he would ‘mention the businesse to him’, suggesting that a meeting between Hartlib and Owen had already been arranged. The list of subscribers to Hartlib’s scheme, recorded partly in Dury’s hand and partly by a scribe, is in HP 4/3/21A.

¹¹⁴ Bodleian Library, MS. e Mus. 77, p. 100.

¹¹⁵ Ibid., pp. 70–71.

¹¹⁶ Lincoln College, LC/R/2 fols. 89^r, 91^r.

¹¹⁷ Magdalen College Archives, LCE/30, 1657, fol. 3^v.

¹¹⁸ The Christ Church Dean and Chapter Book appears in Austen’s hand between these dates; see Christ Church Archives, D&C/i/b.3, pp. 2–68.

¹¹⁹ See Austen to Hartlib, 14 June 1653, in HP 41/1/34A–35B, where he complains to Hartlib that ‘I professe I thinke I haue not receiud 40^s: by my offise at Christ Church this Twelue month’.

¹²⁰ CCA, Disbursements Book, 1659–60, xii.b.102, pp. 29, 57, 85, 113.

¹²¹ Austen, ‘The Spiritual Use, of an Orchard, 1st Ed.’, 13. Austen described these events in the third person, but it is clear that the narrative refers to himself.

¹²² Austen, 12, 14. Austen is alluding to Malachi 4:2 and Proverbs 4:18.

¹²³ Stachniewski, The Persecutory Imagination, 27–61.

¹²⁴ See, e.g., Ferguson, John Owen on the Christian Life, 100, where Ferguson acknowledges that ‘the pulpit was the creator of anxious hearts’ (italics original).

¹²⁵ Clarke, Politics, Religions, and the Song of Songs in Seventeenth-Century England, passim.

¹²⁶ Rous, The Heavenly Academie, 26–27. Rous went on to treat the subject more extensively in The Misticall Marriage.

¹²⁷ Gribben, John Owen, 131–32; Owen, Of Communion with; Sherlock, Discourse Concerning the Knowledge of Jesus Christ, 13, 117, 140, 363, 388.

¹²⁸ Austen, Spirituall Use, 2^nd ed., 56–59. In the final quotation, Austen is alluding to St Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 12:9, and possibly also to St Peter’s words in the account of the Transfiguration (see, e.g., Matt. 17:4).

¹²⁹ Austen, Spirituall Use, 1^st ed., 1.

¹³⁰ Austen, Spirituall Use, 2^nd ed., 166.

¹³¹ Austen, Spirituall Use, 1^st ed., 27, 31; cf. idem, Spirituall Use, 2^nd ed., 44.

¹³² Austen, Spirituall Use, 1^st ed., 29; Austen, idem, Spirituall Use, 2^nd ed., 188.

¹³³ On this, see Coffey, John Goodwin, 199–232; Ollerton, ‘The Crisis of Calvinism and Rise of Arminianism’.

¹³⁴ à Wood, Athenæ Oxonienses, 2^nd vol., 780.

¹³⁵ Boyle to Oldenburg, c. 16 September 1665, in in Hunter, Clericuzio, and Principe, eds., Correspondence of Robert Boyle, 2^nd vol., 530–31.

¹³⁶ Austen to Hartlib, 23 April 1652, in HP 41/1/6A–7B.

¹³⁷ Austen to Hartlib, 25 April 1653, in HP 41/1/24A–25B.

¹³⁸ See Johnston, Revelation Restored, esp. ch. 7; Mulligan, ‘Puritans and English Science’, 463.

¹³⁹ Gribben, John Owen, 105. For an account of the more traditional interpretation, see Gribben, The Puritan Millennium, 67–79.

¹⁴⁰ Nathaniel Homes, for instance, understood Hebrews 12:26 in a more overtly ecclesiological way: ‘We therefore by new Heavens, and a new earth, understand a new forme of worship’. See Homes, The New World, 7.

¹⁴¹ Owen, Ὁυρανων Ὁυρανια, 7, 9.

¹⁴² Ibid., 12.

¹⁴³ Austen, Spirituall Use, 1^st ed., 36–37.

¹⁴⁴ Austen, Spirituall Use, 2^nd ed., 185. Austen cites Tillinghast, Generation Work, 45–46.

¹⁴⁵ Greaves, ‘Tillinghast, John (bap. 1604, d. 1655)’, in ODNB.

¹⁴⁶ See, e.g., Goodwin, A Sermon of the Fifth Monarchy, where Goodwin places the onset of the fifth monarchy at some undetermined future date.

¹⁴⁷ Austen, Spirituall Use, 2^nd ed., 75, 79.

¹⁴⁸ Austen, Spirituall Use, 1^st ed., 37.

¹⁴⁹ Worden, ‘Politics, Piety, and Learning’, 156.

¹⁵⁰ Greaves, ‘Owen, John (1616–1683)’, in ODNB. Gribben, for instance, makes no mention of Owen’s relationship to Hartlib; see Gribben, John Owen.

¹⁵¹ Owen, Oxford Orations of John Owen, ed. Toon, 15; Owen, ‘Orationes V. Clarissimi & Doctissimi Viri, Joannis Owen, S.T.P.’, in A Complete Collection of the Sermons of the Reverend and Learned John Owen, 7. The above quotation in Owen’s Latin reads as follows: ‘…sed progressus, Deo hominibusque testibus, in dilatandis scientiarum pomœriis, in promovenda, una cum pietate & religione, re literaria quotidie ponere.’

¹⁵² Owen, Oxford Orations of John Owen, 35; Owen, ‘Orationes V. Clarissimi & Doctissimi Viri, Joannis Owen, S.T.P.’, 17. The original Latin reads: ‘Quid egregios mathematicos, quibus, cum neque a priscis feliciter inventa accurate docere, neque aliorum inventis addere, satis fuerit, ipsi etiam communem virorum doctorum sortem prætergressi, nova, mira, stupenda, ex intimis naturæ rerum penetralibus eruta, ignota priscis, admiranda posteris, non sine tum ipsorum, tum academiæ laude & fama…’

¹⁵³ Owen to Cromwell, 9 September 1657, British Museum Lansdowne MS. 833. f. 179; printed in Toon, ed., The Correspondence of John Owen, 100–101. For an account of the proposed college in Dublin, see Webster, Great Instauration, 225–30.

¹⁵⁴ Gilson to Samuel Hartlib, 8 October 1648, in HP 10/1/1A.

¹⁵⁵ Owen, A Sermon Preached to the Honourable House of Commons, in Parliament Assembled, 92.

¹⁵⁶ Goodwin, M. S. to A. S. with a Plea for Libertie of Conscience, 100.

¹⁵⁷ Gribben, John Owen, 55, 70.

¹⁵⁸ For instance, Josselin recorded the tragic death of two of Owen’s sons in March 1656, and his preaching to parliament in September of that year. See Josselin, The Diary of Ralph Josselin, ed. Macfarlane, 363, 381.

¹⁵⁹ Ibid., 374.

¹⁶⁰ Austen, Spirituall Use, 2^nd ed., 33.

¹⁶¹ Ibid., 36.

¹⁶² Reynolds, A Sermon Touching the Use of Humane Learning, 23.

¹⁶³ See Austen to Hartlib, 6 December 1653, HP 41/1/56A–57B; 12 December 1653, HP 41/1/58A–59B; 6 February 1654, HP 41/1/63A–63B.

¹⁶⁴ Austen to Hartlib, 20 August 1655, HP 41/1/94A–95B.

¹⁶⁵ Worden, ‘Politics, Piety, and Learning’, 125–31.

¹⁶⁶ Austen to Hartlib, 10 February 1654, HP 41/1/66A–67B.

¹⁶⁷ Owen, The Doctrine of the Saints Perseverance, ‘Epistle Dedicatory’.

¹⁶⁸ Austen to Hartlib, 8 May 1655, HP 41/1/84A–85B; 12 June 1655, HP 41/1/88A–89B.

¹⁶⁹ Austen to Hartlib, 19 June 1655, HP 41/1/90A–91B; 5 July 1655, HP 41/1/92A–93B.

¹⁷⁰ Gribben, for instance, fails to mention Owen’s connection to Hartlib in his otherwise very detailed biography; see Gribben, John Owen, passim.

¹⁷¹ Austen, Spirituall Use, 2^nd ed., 195.

¹⁷² Austen, Strong Man Armed Not Cast Out, 41, 101, 115. On Hicks, see Underwood, Primitivism, Radicalism, and the Lamb’s War, 18, 20, 24–25.

¹⁷³ Jackson, Malice of the Rebellious Husband-Men Against The True Heir, 5.

¹⁷⁴ Clarke would go on to be the publisher, for instance, of the Quaker schoolmaster Christopher Taylor’s Compendium trium linguarum Latinae, Graecae, & Hebraicae (1679), George Fox’s pamphlet An epistle concerning the government of Christ and his peace (1681), and, most famously, William Penn’s A brief account of the province of Pennsilvania (1681). I have not been able to locate any works published under Clarke’s name before 1679, however.

¹⁷⁵ Sprat, History of the Royal-Society of London, 369–74. The pagination here is faulty; I refer to the six pages from sig. Aaa^r inclusive.

¹⁷⁶ Worlidge, Systema Agriculturæ, sig. E^v.

¹⁷⁷ Ibid., 95.

¹⁷⁸ Evelyn, ed., Pomona, 1^st ed., passim.

¹⁷⁹ Compare Evelyn, ed., Pomona, 1^st ed., 9; with Evelyn, ed., Pomona, 2^nd ed., 11. On the different opinions of Austen and Beale – ‘the two prima donnas of arboriculture’ – on grafting, see Webster, Great Instauration, 480.

¹⁸⁰ It is clear that the paper had already arrived by the time of the Society’s meeting of 7 December 1664, since on 10 December Oldenburg wrote to Boyle explaining that they had not had time to look at it in that meeting, but would do so the following week. Oldenburg to Boyle, 10 December 1664, in Hunter, Clericuzio, and Principe, Boyle Correspondence, 2^nd vol., 434.

¹⁸¹ Birch, History of the Royal Society, 1^st vol., 504.

¹⁸² Royal Society Archives (hereafter RSA), RB/1/37/23, fols. 134^r–135^r.

¹⁸³ Birch, History of the Royal Society, 1^st vol., 504, 509.

¹⁸⁴ Austen to Boyle, 14 January 1665, in Hunter, Clericuzio, and Principe, Boyle Correspondence, 2^nd vol., 450–51.

¹⁸⁵ Austen, Treatise of Fruit-Trees, 3^rd ed., sig. A3^v.

¹⁸⁶ Boyle to Oldenburg, c. 16 September 1665 in Hunter, Clericuzio, and Principe, Boyle Correspondence, 2^nd vol., 530–31.

¹⁸⁷ Oldenburg to Boyle, 18 September 1665, in ibid., 532–33.

¹⁸⁸ Oldenburg to Boyle, 10 December 1664, in ibid., 2:434–35.

¹⁸⁹ Beale and Lawrence, Nurseries, 6–7.

¹⁹⁰ RSA, CLP/7i/30, between fols. 102 and 103.

¹⁹¹ Beale to Boyle, 29 November 1676, in Hunter, Clericuzio, and Principe, Boyle Correspondence, 4^th vol., 431–34.

¹⁹² Foster, ed., Alumni Oxonienses, 3^rd vol., 887.

¹⁹³ Beale to Boyle, 29 November 1676, in Hunter, Clericuzio, and Principe, Boyle Correspondence, 4^th vol., 431–34, at 431.

¹⁹⁴ Stubbs, ‘John Beale, Philosophical Gardener of Herefordshire: Part II’, 335n41.

¹⁹⁵ Beale and Lawrence, Nurseries, 5.

¹⁹⁶ Ibid., 6, 8.

¹⁹⁷ Beale to Boyle, 29 November 1676, in in Hunter, Clericuzio, and Principe, Boyle Correspondence, 4^th vol., 431.

¹⁹⁸ Beale to Boyle, 25 April 1664, in Hunter, Clericuzio, and Principe, Boyle Correspondence, 2^nd vol., 269–71.

¹⁹⁹ Evelyn, ed., Pomona, 1^st ed., 26.

²⁰⁰ Austen, Observations, 39–40; Beale and Lawrence, Nurseries, 7.

²⁰¹ Austen to Beale, 28 January 1666, in RSA RB/3/1/9, fol. 18^v.

²⁰² Hunter, Science and Society, 97.

²⁰³ Houghton, Husbandry and Trade Improv’d, 4^th vol., 5–6.

²⁰⁴ Stubbs, ‘John Beale, Philosophical Gardener of Herefordshire: Part II’, 328; Hunter, Clericuzio, and Principe, Boyle Correspondence, 2^nd vol., 313n.

²⁰⁵ Compare Birch, History of the Royal Society, 1^st vol., 407; with The Record of the Royal Society of London, 3^rd ed., 309–13.

²⁰⁶ On Austin, see Hunter, The Royal Society and Its Fellows, 164–65; Blom and Blom, ‘Austin, John [Pseud. William Birchley] (1613–1669)’, in ODNB.

²⁰⁷ Beale and Lawrence, Nurseries, 8.

²⁰⁸ Austen, A Dialogve (or Familiar Discourse) and Conference, titlepage, sig. A2^v.

²⁰⁹ Oldenburg reported to Newton in early 1677 ‘that Mr Austen is dead, wthout leaving any child’; see Oldenburg to Newton, 2 January 1677, Turnbull, ed., Correspondence of Isaac Newton, 2^nd vol., 187.

²¹⁰ à Wood, Athenæ Oxonienses, 2^nd vol., 780.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Jesus College, University of Cambridge Gurnee Hart and Hogwood PhD Scholarship.