Allestree, Richard (b. before 1582, d. c. 1643), almanac maker and mathematician, was a younger son of William Allestree (b. before 1520, d. 1581) and his wife, Ellen. The family lived at Alvaston and Derby. Richard was an uncle of the famous royalist divine ...
12
Article
Article
Patrick Curry
Andrews, Henry (1744–1820), astronomer and astrologer, was born on 4 February 1744 in Frieston, Lincolnshire. His background was humble, and he received little or no formal education. A passion for astronomy was evident from a very early age, and by the time he was ten he had acquired a telescope, which he used to set on a table on ...
Article
Andrews, William (1634/5–1712/13), astrologer and teacher of mathematics, was a well-known compiler of almanacs. He spent his adult life in Essex, at Ashdown (1656), Saffron Walden (by 1660), and nearby Radwinter (from 1668), but it is not known whether he married. He studied astrology from about 1652 and composed his first almanac, for 1655, at the age of nineteen; a new edition followed every year until his death. Though he included political prophecies, he avoided controversy by taking a firmly patriotic line, predicting disasters for ...
Article
Askham [Ascham], Anthony (c. 1517–1559), writer on astronomy and almanac maker, was born at Kirby Wiske, near Northallerton, Yorkshire, the third son of John Ascham (d. 1544) of Kirby Wiske, who was a yeoman farmer and steward to Lord Scrope of Bolton...
Article
Baker, Humphrey (fl. 1557–1574), writer on astrology and arithmetic, whose origins are unknown, was living in London when his almanac was published in 1557. A small volume, printed in black letter, it was entitled The rules and right ample documentes, touchinge the use and practise of the common almanackes, which are named ephemerides: a briefe … introduction upon the iudicall astrologie … with a treatise … touching the coniunction of the planets … the hole faithfully and clerely translated into Englysche by Humprey Baker BL...
Article
Bassantin [Bassendyne], James (d. 1568), astronomer and astrologer, was the son of the laird of Bassendean in the Merse, Berwickshire, and was born in the reign of James IV (r. 1488–1513). He entered the University of Glasgow at an early age, and, after finishing his studies in the humanities, devoted himself to mathematics and its related sciences, in which he acquired remarkable proficiency. To improve further in these subjects he travelled in the ...
Article
Joseph Gross
Buckminster [Buckmaster], Thomas (1531/2–1599), Church of England clergyman and almanac writer, was vicar of Twickenham from 1562 to 1563, then rector at All Hallows-the-Great, London, 1564–72, and rector at St Mary Woolnoth from 1572 until his death. He is sometimes supposed to have been a relative of ...
Article
Coley, Henry (1633–1704), astrologer and mathematician, was born on 18 October 1633 in the parish of St Mary Magdalen, Oxford, the son of a joiner. His birth was said to have occurred at 32 seconds after 2.14 p.m., 'a sufficiently exact Estimate...
Image
John Dee (1527–1609) by unknown artist, 1574–86 Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Article
R. Julian Roberts
Dee, John (1527–1609), mathematician, astrologer, and antiquary, was born on 13 July 1527 in London, the only child of Rowland Dee and his wife, Joan or Joanna (1508/9–1580), daughter of William Wild.
Article
Joseph Gross
Hartgill, George (b. in or before 1555, d. in or before 1597), astronomer and astrologer, was the son of Thomas Hartgill and Anne Harvey. His family, based at Kilmington, Somerset, were minor landowners in Somerset and Dorset; his paternal grandfather, William Hartgill, steward to ...
Article
Heth, Thomas (fl. 1563–1583), writer on astrology and mathematician, was admitted to Merchant Taylors' School in 1563, where he became head scholar, under Richard Mulcaster. He entered Oxford in 1567 as a probationer fellow of All Souls and graduated BA in 1569 and MA in 1573. ...
Image
John Heydon (b. 1629, d. in or after 1670) by unknown engraver, pubd 1664 © National Portrait Gallery, London
Article
Patrick Curry
Heydon, John (b. 1629, d. in or after 1670), writer on astrology and alchemy, and occultist, was born on 10 September 1629 in Green Arbour, London, the son of Francis Heydon of Sidmouth, Devon, and Mary Chandler of Worcestershire. He was the grandson of ...
Article
Holwell, John (b. 1649, d. in or after 1686), astrologer and mathematician, born in London on 24 November 1649, was probably the John Holwell, son of Thomas and Catherine Holwell, who was baptized at St James's, Clerkenwell, on 28 November 1649. According to a family tradition he was descended from the ...
Article
Hopton, Arthur (c. 1580–1614), mathematician and almanac maker, can probably be identified as the fourth son of Richard Hopton of Hopton, Shropshire, gentleman, and his wife, Anne, daughter of Thomas Walker (also known as Leigh) of Stretton in the same county. He was educated at ...
Article
Morrison, Richard James [pseud. Zadkiel] (1795–1874), astrologer and inventor, was born on 15 June 1795, the son of Richard Caleb Morrison, a gentleman pensioner under George III. His grandfather, Richard Morrison, was a captain in the service of the East India Company...
Article
Patrick Curry
Streete, Thomas (1621–1689), astronomer and astrologer, was born on 5 March 1621 in Cork. As an ensign in Colonel Kingsmill's regiment under Inchiquin, he fought for the king at Tredagh and Dublin, and was twice captured. After the Restoration, Streete lived in London...
Article
Tipper, John (b. before 1680, d. 1713), mathematician and almanac maker, was born at Coventry. In 1699 he was elected master of Bablake Hospital school there at a salary of £20, which he supplemented by teaching mathematics, surveying, dialling, accounting, and music to private pupils. Some boarded with him; others living within ...
Image
Vincent Wing (1619–1668) by Thomas Cross, pubd 1652 © National Portrait Gallery, London
12
