The lives of the professors of Gresham College: to which is prefixed the life of the founder, Sir Thomas Gresham. With an appendix, consisting of orations, lectures, and letters, written by the professors, with other papers serving to illustrate the lives / By John Ward.

  • John Ward
Date:
1740
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The lives of the professors of Gresham College: to which is prefixed the life of the founder, Sir Thomas Gresham. With an appendix, consisting of orations, lectures, and letters, written by the professors, with other papers serving to illustrate the lives / By John Ward. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    23/544
    clu^/ing matters of theology and fate affairs) to dlfcoiirfc and conffdcr “ of philofophtcal enquiries^ and fuch as j-clated thereimto ; as phyfck^ “ anffomy, geometry, afironomy, navigation, ftaticics, magneticks', chy- micks, mechantcks, and natural experime?its, veitb the jlate of thefe jludies, as then cultivated at home and abroad. ylbcut the 'sear ‘‘ 1649, fome oj us being removed to Oxford, ffrfi^ Dr. Wilkins, then I, “ andJoon after Dr. Goddard, our company divided. Thofe in London “ continued to meet there, as before, and we with them, when we had “ occafion to be there. And thofe of us at Oxford, with Dr. Ward fince bijliop of Saliffury, Dr. Ralph Bathurff now prejident of Lrinity “ college in Oxford, Dr. Petty fnee Sir William Petty, ] 'r. Willis “ then an eminent phyfician in Oxford, and divers others, continued fuch “ meetings in Oxford, and brought thofe fludies into fajhi on there ; mcei- “ mg firfi at Dr. Pettfs lodgings in an apothecary's houfe, bccaife of “ the convenience of injpediing drugs, and the like, as there was occajiof, “ and after his^ remove to Ireland (tho not fo conjlantly) at the lodgings of Dr. Wilkins, then warden ofWadham college-, and after his remov- “ al to Trinity college in Cambridge, at the lodgings of the honourable “ Mr. Robert Boyle, then ref dent for divers years in Oxford. Thofe “ meetings in London continued, and after the kings return in 1660 were “ mcreafed, with the acceffion of divers worthy and honourable perfons-, “ and were afterwards incorporated by the name of the royal jeeiety, and fo continue to this day^. This account is confirmed by another cek- brated writer, who fpeaking of their meetings at Oxford fais : “ Tlhus “ they continued^ without any great intermiffions, till about the year 1658. “ But then being call'd away to feveral parts of the nation, and the “ greateft number of them coming to London, they ufiially met at Gre^ “ fham college, at the Wednefdays and Thurfdays leBurcs of Dr. Wren, and Mr. Rook ; where there joyn'd with them feveral eminent perfons “ of their common acquaintance, the lord vifeount Broiincker, the now “ lord Brereton, Sir Paul Deil, Mr. John Evelyn, Mr. ^Henflmw, ‘‘ Mr. Slingfby, Dr. Timothy Clark, Dr. Ent, Mr. Ball, Mr. Phil!, Dr. Crone, and divers other gentlemen, wkofe inclinations lay the fanie “ way. This cufiom was obferv'd once, if not twice, a week in term “ time, till they were fcatter'd by the miferable diftraSlions of that fatal year-, till the continuance of tbeir meetings there might have made “ them run the hazard of the fate of Archimedes, for then the place of “ their meeting was made a quarter for foldiers IVhat is here f'aid of their meetings at the leBures of Mr. 'Wren and Mr. Rooke, will be fhewn more fully in the lives of thofe two gentlejnen'^ -, which meetmgs, as Dr. Wallis obferves, were at the reftoration in 1660 again attended with a larger concourfe of perfons eminc7it for their charadler and learning. And November the 2^ that year, after the conclufion of Mr. Wren's ledlure, having withdrawn into Mr. Rooke's apparLnetit, they agreed to form themfelves inf a fociety (being till that time only a volimtary af- fembly) and to continue their weekly meetings there during the terms, a?id at other times at Mr. Ball's in the Temple \ And Dece?nber the 29 fol- * Dr. Wallis’s Account of his onun life, in the preface to Langtoft’s Chronicle, V. i, p. l6i. Hijiory of the R. S. p. 57. ‘ Pag. 91, and 96. ** See the gTCHRisT. Wren, p.97. lowing