The Economic Writings of Sir William Petty/Volume 1/Introduction/GrauntsLife

by William Petty

 

GRAUNT'S LIFE.

John Graunt, the author of the "Natural and Political Observations upon the Bills of Mortality" was the son of Henry Graunt, a Hampshire man^[1] but a citizen of London^[2], who carried on the business of a draper at the sign of the Seven Stars in Birchin Lane. Of the eight children born to Henry Graunt and Mary, his wife, John, who first saw the light between seven and eight in the morning of April 24th, 1620, was probably the eldest^[3]. While a boy he had been educated in English learning and he afterwards acquired Latin and French by studying mornings before shop-time. There is also some indication that he was not lacking in artistic tastes. He was apparently not only the friend of Samuel Cooper, the miniaturist^[4], and of the portrait painter John Hayls^[5], but he was also a collector himself. Pepys found his prints "indeed the best collection of anything almost that ever I saw, there being the prints of most of the greatest houses, churches and antiquitys in Italy and France, and brave cutts^[6]." Graunt was bound apprentice to a haberdasher of small wares, and he mostly followed that trade, though free of the Drapers' Company. That he became a person of standing in his world we have ample assurance. He went through all the offices of the City as far as common council-man, bearing that office two years. He was known as a great peacemaker and was often chosen an arbitrator between disputing merchants. He had, before the completion of his thirtieth year, sufficient influence to secure for his friend Petty the professorship of music at Gresham College^[7], and at the time of the Fire he had become "an opulent merchant of London, of great weight and consideration in the city^[8]." So much, in large part but inference, it is still possible to collect concerning the earlier career of John Graunt, citizen and draper. It is, however, to his "Observations upon the Bills of Mortality," first published in 1662, that Graunt owes whatever posthumous reputation he has attained, and the merit of that book is great enough to entitle him to wider fame than he has achieved.

Why Graunt began his examination of the London Bills, or when, we can but conjecture. He himself speaks of his studies with a certain lightness. Having engaged his thoughts, he knew not by what accident, upon the bills of mortality, he happened to make observations, for he designed them not, which have fallen out to be both political and natural^[9]. Thus does Graunt insist, somewhat over-elaborately, upon the casualness of studies which must, in fact, have demanded both time and patience. In the appendix to the third edition, however, after the recognized success of the "Observations" had established their author's position in the scientific world, he speaks with more assurance of his "long and serious perusal of all the bills of mortality which this great city hath afforded for almost four score years^[10]." This is certainly in strong contrast not only to the apologetic air of the original dedication, but also to the care with which, in the preface to the first edition, the tradesman-author excused himself, as it were, to the philosophers of Gresham College, for his presumption in invading the field of scientific investigation. He had observed that the weekly bills were put by those who took them in to little use other than to furnish a text to talk upon in the next company^[11]; and he "thought that the Wisdom of our City had certainly designed the laudable practice of taking and distributing these Accompts for other and greater uses... or at least that some other uses, might be made of them." It is probably to the latter suggestion, supplied perhaps by his friend Petty, and perhaps by Graunt's own "excellent working head," rather than to his belief in the prescience of the corporation of London that we owe the writing of the "Observations."

The preface to the first edition of the "Observations" is dated 25 January, 1661/2. They met apparently a favourable reception. Before they had been in print two months, Pepys, ever alert to hear some new thing, was buying a copy at Westminster Hall^[12]. To others, as to him, they must have "appeared at first sight to be very pretty," for a new edition was called for within the year^[13]. The greatest compliment however, which Graunt received on account of his book, and doubtless the compliment which he most appreciated, was his election into the Royal Society. The 5th February, 1662, fifty copies of the "Observations" were presented by Dr Whistler on behalf of the author to the "Society of Philosophers meeting at Gresham Colledg." The epistle dedicatory to their president, Sir Robert Moray, was at once read, whereupon thanks were ordered to be returned to Graunt, and he was proposed a candidate^[14]. Bishop Sprat says that Graunt was recommended to the Royal Society—for as such the Society of Philosophers were presently incorporated—by no one less than the King himself, and that "in his election it was so far from being a prejudice that he was a shopkeeper of London, that His Majesty gave this particular charge to His Society, that if they found any more such tradesmen, they should be sure to admit them all, without any more ado^[15]." The Society, however, seems to have had, even thus early in its history, a fitting sense of its own dignity. At any rate it took adequate precautions that Graunt be not admitted until his fitness for membership had been established beyond question. On the 12th February a formidable committee, composed of Sir William Petty, Dr Needham, Dr Wilkins, Dr Goddard, Dr Whistler, and Dr Ent, was appointed to examine the book. Their report is not preserved by Birch, but it must have been favourable, for 26th February Graunt was elected a fellow of the Society. In spite of his assertion, in the epistle dedicatory to Sir Robert Moray, that he was none of their number nor had the least ambition to be so^[16], Graunt promptly accepted the election and subscribed his name at the next meeting of the Society^[17]. His connection with the Royal Society appears to have been, on the whole, rather formal than vital. He was, indeed, for some five years after his election a frequent attendant at its meetings, he proposed one candidate, Sir John Portman, for election as a member, he served on several committees, and he was even a member of the Council of the Society from 30 Nov., 1664 to 11 April, 1666. He took, however, but small part in the scientific proceedings. Only once did he make a communication in any way similar to his "Observations," and in that communication^[18], although he spoke of the rapid increase of carp by generation, what obviously interested him was not, as we might have expected, the increase of the fish in numbers, but rather their growth in size.

The disappearance of Graunt's name from the minutes of the Royal Society's meetings after 1666 must be accounted one of the results of his large losses by the Fire of London. Even with the substantial assistance of his devoted friend Petty^[19], Graunt could not recover from the business reverses he then sustained. His conversion from protestantism to the Roman Catholic Church^[20] seems also to have worked to his disadvantage in worldly matters, and his affairs went from bad to worse until his death, 18 April, 1674. He was buried in St Dunstan's church, Fleet Street. "A great number of ingeniose persons attended him to his grave. Among others, with teares, was that great ingeniose virtuoso, Sir William Petty."

Of the esteem in which John Graunt was held by his contemporaries we have sufficient evidence. His old acquaintance Richard Smith, the famous book-collector, esteemed him "an understanding man of quick witt and a pretty schollar^[21]." Pepys, who also knew him well, considered his "most excellent discourses" well worth hearing^[22]." Aubrey, who had found him "a pleasant facetious companion and very hospitable," declares that "his death was lamented by all good men that had the happinesse to knowe him^[23]," And Anthony à-Wood, professing to give only "an exact history of all the bishops and writers who have had their education in the most antient and famous University of Oxford," goes out of his way to append to a sketch of Edward Grant, the classicist, an account of this man who owed his education to no university. The account begins with these enthusiastic words, "Now that I am got into the name of Grant I cannot without the guilt of concealment but let you know some things of the most ingenious person, considering his education and employment, that his time hath produced.... The said John Graunt was an ingenious and studious person, generally beloved, was a faithful friend, a great peace-maker, and one that had often been chosen for his prudence and justness an arbitrator. But above all his excellent working head was much commended, and rather for this reason, that it was for the public good of learning, which is very rare in a trader or mechanic."

 

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1. Aubrey, Brief Lives, i. 271—274.
2. Register of St Michael, Corn hill (Harleian Society), 33.
3. His is the earliest recorded christening among the children of Henry Graunt. Register, 114; cf. pp. 114, 116, 117, 119, 121, 122, 239.
4. Pepys's Diary, 2 Jan, 1662.
5. Pepys, 26 April, 1668.
6. Pepys, 20 April, 1663. "I had not time," he characteristically adds, "to look them over as I ought."
7. Aubrey, ii. 141; Ward, Lives of the Professors of Gresham College, 217.
8. Fitzmaurice, 233.
9. Graunt's Epistles dedicatory, pp. 320, 322.
10. P. 398.
11. P. 333.
12. Diary, 24 March, 1662.
13. Cf. Bibliography.
14. Birch, History of the Society, i. 75.
15. Sprat, History of the Royal Society, 67.
16. P. 324, post
17. Birch, i. 76—77.
18. Printed on p. 432.
19. Fitzmaurice, 232—236. Cf. in the MS. called "Dr Petty's Register" in the Public Records Office at Dublin (i C. 8 c. 131, ff. 63—64), the articles, dated 10 Jan., 166⁶⁄₇, whereby Petty and Graunt jointly undertook to rebuild, at a cost of ₤12,000, nine burned houses on Petty's land in Lothbury. An indication of their earlier business relations is afforded by Petty's power of attorney, 6 March, 1660, to "my trusty friend, John Graunt," etc., among the Rawlinson MSS. (A. 174, ff. 319—325) at the Bodleian Library. It was perhaps upon Petty's recommendation that Ormond employed Graunt, in 1667, to collect Walloon weavers about Canterbury and remove them into Ireland. Carte, Ormond. II. 342.
20. Aubrey, loc, cit, Graunt's conversion apparently antedated the Fire, though he may have been one of those whose change of faith was caused by it. Cf. p. xlv.
21. Smith's Obituary, ed, by Sir H. Ellis, 102.
22. Diary, 23 Jan., 1663, 11 Jan, 1664, 26 April, 1668.
23. Brief Lives, i. 273.