Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Harvey, John (1563?-1592)
HARVEY, JOHN (1564–1592), astrologer, baptised at Saffron Walden, Essex, 13 Feb. 1563–4, was son of John Harvey, master ropemaker, and younger brother of Gabriel Harvey [q. v.] and of Richard Harvey [q. v.] He matriculated as a pensioner of Queens' College, Cambridge, in June 1578 (B.A. 1580 and M.A. 1584). In 1587 the university granted him a license to practise physic, and he became a practitioner at King's Lynn in Norfolk. Robert Greene's contemptuous reference to Harvey and Harvey's father and two brothers in his ‘Quippe for an Upstart Courtier’ (1592) led to Gabriel Harvey's well-known defence of his family in his ‘Foure Letters’ (1592). Gabriel describes John as ‘a proper toward man,’ ‘a skilful physician,’ and a M.D. of Cambridge, and mentions that he died, aged 29, shortly after returning to Lynn from Norwich in July 1592. He supplies a Latin epitaph. ‘John Harvey's Welcome to Robert Greene’ is the title of a sonnet included in Gabriel Harvey's ‘Foure Letters.’ Harvey published: 1. ‘An astrologicall addition or supplement to be annexed to the late discourse [by his brother Richard Harvey [q. v.] ] upon the Great Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter, together with the Learned Worke of Hermes Trismegistus intituled Iatromathematica, that is his Physical Mathematiques. … Lately englished by Iohn Harvey at the request of M. Charles P.,’ London, 1583 (by Richard Watkins), 8vo. The last portion of the book, the ‘Learned Worke,’ is alone in the British Museum Library. 2. ‘A Discoursive Probleme concerning Prophesies, how far they are to be valued or credited,’ London (J. Jackson for Richard Watkins), 1588, 4to (Brit. Mus.) 3. ‘An Almanacke or annuall Calendar, with a Compendious Prognostication for … 1589,’ London, 1588, 8vo (Lambeth).
[Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. ii. 126–7; Gabriel Harvey's Works, ed. Grosart, i. 187–8, 249, 253; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Hazlitt's Bibliographical Collections.]