into several clubbs of the virtuosi," and secured the friendship, among others, of Milton's friend, Samuel Hartlib, to whom he addressed the "Advice of W. P. for the Advancement of some Particular Parts of Learning[1]." It was upon Hartlib's encouragement, also, that he began his abortive " History of Trades[2]."
In 1648 Petty removed from London to Oxford, where the University had been recently reorganized by the parliamentary party. He was soon made deputy to Clayton, the professor of anatomy, and succeeded him in January, 1650, "Dr Clayton resigning his interest" in the professorship "purposely to serve him." Meanwhile he had become a doctor of medicine and a fellow of Brasenose College[3], and, in December, 1650, had added to his reputation by participating in the reanimation of one Ann Green, a wench hanged at Oxford for the supposed murder of her child[4]. At about the same time he was chosen vice-principal of Brasenose and professor of music in Gresham College. The vice-principalship he retained until 9 August, 1659, the Gresham professorship until 8 March, 1660[5]. In April, 1651, the visitors to the University had granted him the unusual favour of two years' leave of absence, with an allowance of ₤3o per annum[6]. The occasion of this grant and the nature of his occupation during the next few months are unknown; Lord Edmond Fitzmaurice conjectures that he travelled. However that may be, there soon came to him an appointment which exercised a determining influence upon the entire course of his subsequent life;
- ↑ Bibliography, no. 3.
- ↑ Hartlib to Boyle, 16 Nov., 1647, Boyle's Works vi. 76; Petty's Reflections, 164. Cf. note on p. 118, and supplement to the Bibliography.
- ↑ On Petty's connection with the Royal College of Physicians, which began about this time, see the note on p. 27.
- ↑ An account of this exploit, embellished with verse in English and in Latin, is contained in the pamphlet, News from the Dead, which was published at Oxford by Robinson in 1650 and again in 1651. The second edition is carelessly reprinted in Morgan's Phoenix Britannicus, 233—248. The authorship of the pamphlet has not been ascertained. Wood ascribes it to Richard Watkins Clark, Life and Times of Wood, i. 155. But Derham, who wrote in 1707, had been informed that the writer was Dr Ralph Bathurst, one of the participating physicians. Derham's Psycho and Astro-theology, i. 236, note. I see no sufficient reason for thinking that Petty wrote it. The mention of Hester Ann Green among his "works" (Suppl. to Bibliography) may refer to the experiment of resuscitation, and not to the account of it.
- ↑ Ward, Lives of the Professors of Gresham College, 228.
- ↑ Burroughs, Register, 335.
