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Brief Lives, Vol. 2

Chapter 123: John Partridge (1643/4-1715).
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About This Book

A collection of concise biographical sketches of contemporaries and earlier figures recorded by an antiquarian observer, combining factual entries—births, offices, publications, and inscriptions—with personal anecdotes, hearsay, heraldic and parish-register notes, bibliographic references, and occasional critical judgments. Entries range from terse records to extended reminiscences, often citing documentary sources or witness statements, and reflect an informal, detail-driven approach aimed at preserving lives, reputations, and local traditions for reference and remembrance.


John Partridge (1643/4-1715).

[510]John Partridge, astrologue, the son of ... Partridge (yet living, 1680, an honest waterman at Putney[511] in Surrey).

He was borne, as by his scheme[512] appeares, January the 18th, 1643/4, lat. London.

He was taught[513] to read, and a little to write. He learn'd no farther then As in praesenti.

He was bound apprentice to a shoe-maker in ..., anno aetat....; where he was kept hard to his trade.

At 18 he gott him a Lillie's grammar, and Goldman's dictionary, and a Latin bible, and Ovid's Metamorphoses.

He is of an excellent healthy constitution and great temperance, of indefatigable industrie, and sleepes but ... houres.

In ... yeeres he made himselfe a competent master of the Latin tongue, well enough to reade any astrologicall booke, and quickly became a master of that science. He then studyed the Greek tongue, and also the Hebrew, to neither of which he is a stranger. He then studyed good authors in physique, and intends to make that his profession and practyse; but is yet (1680) a shoemaker in Convent Garden.

Scripsit, viz.:—

first, The Hebrew Kalendar, 1678.

Ecclesilogia (almanack), 1679.

The same againe, 1680.

Vade Mecum, 8vo.

The King of France his nativity.

A discourse of two moones.

Mercurius Coelestis (almanack), 1681.

Prodromus, a discourse of the conjunction of Saturn and Mars, anno 1680.