 |
| Article and Photo © Debs Cook |
Culpeper is often the first herbalist thought of when the 17th century is mentioned, and almost every herbal person I know owns a copy of what is considered his greatest work, the ‘English Physician’ in one form or another. Modern day herbalists still make use of many of the herbs Culpeper wrote about in his ‘English Physician and Complete Herbal’ for the same uses that Culpeper put them to and to a large extent the way Culpeper made his infusions, decoctions, ointments and poultices is the way this preparations are still made today.
Born in the village of Ockley in Surrey, his father Rev. Nicholas Culpeper, had been presented only a few months before with the living of Ockley by his family, but died at the age of 36 on the 5th October 1616 just 13 days before the birth of his only son. Shortly after his father’s death, baby Nicholas and his mother Mary were moved to live with her father, the Rev. William Attersole, a stern puritan minister of St. Margaret's church in Isfield, East Sussex. It was his grandfather that taught the young Nicholas how to read Greek and Latin, and via a collection of clocks kept by his father, Nicholas became interested in time which undoubtedly led to his interest in astrology, his grandfather also sowed the seeds of the anti-royalist that Culpeper would become as he grew up.
It was his maternal Grandmother who gave Nicholas a taste for herbs and medicinal plants, at 10 he perused his Grandmother’s copy of William Turner's ‘New Herball’ first published in 1568, and was fascinated by the illustrations of the plants. His grandmother also owned a copy of ‘Gerard’s Herbal’ which the young Culpeper read enthusiastically, taking what he read along with the knowledge given to him by his grandmother to discover the wild herbs growing around Sussex. His grandfather was not happy to let Nicholas have free reign to read anything he desired and when Nicholas was 13 he forbade him to read anything but the bible. Nicholas being the rebel that he was, is known to have taken books out of his Grandfather’s library to read elsewhere, one such book was ‘Anatomy of Man's Body’ by Thomas Vicary, who was the barber-surgeon to king Henry VIII, from this book we can surmise that young Culpeper became fascinated by the descriptions of the sexual organs and human reproduction which eventually influenced his book ‘Directory for Midwives’, published in 1651.
At the age of 16, Culpeper was sent away to Cambridge University to study theology, his grandparents had decided it was time that Nicholas followed in his father and grandfathers footsteps and become a minister. Young master Nicholas had other ideas, and he began to supplement his study of the classics, and thus broadening his education by attending lectures on anatomy and the ‘Materia Medica’ of Galen and Hippocrates.
Whilst at Cambridge, Culpeper, met and fell in love with Judith Rivers a well to do heiress, the feeling was mutual but the couple knew that Judith’s family would never agree to the pair being married, so they decided to run away together in the summer of 1634. They were due to meet at a Tavern in Lewes, Culpeper got there first and waited, but Judith never arrived, some tales say there was a storm and that Judith was so terrified she died of fright. The truth is that on the way to meet Culpeper, the coach she travelled in was struck by lightening and she was killed instantly.
Judith’s death had a profound effect on Culpeper, who by all accounts already hated his theological studies and was becoming increasingly frustrated that he couldn’t study to be a doctor. When Judith died, Culpeper, in deep shock, was taken back home to his mother in Isfield, she nursed him back to health. When he was fully recovered Culpeper refused to go back to Cambridge to resume his theological studies and was subsequently cut off by his Grandfather, losing his only means of financial support, and was forbidden to see his mother, as a result of being deprived interaction with her son, Mary Culpeper sunk in to a deep depression and died when Nicholas was 23, she was 54 years of age.
Having to make his own way after being disinherited by the Culpeper’s, Nicholas decided that if he couldn’t go to University to study to be a physician, he would become an apothecary instead and was apprenticed to a Mr. White who ran an apothecary shop in Temple Bar, London. Just 18 months after his apprenticeship began, Mr White went bankrupt and fled England for Ireland and the business closed, forcing Nicholas to seek another employer. He was successful and shortly after he became apprenticed to the apothecary Francis Drake, who owned a shop in Threadneedle Street, Bishopsgate. Having no means to pay for his apprenticeship, Culpeper is known to have struck a bargain with Drake to teach him Latin in exchange for Drake teaching him all he knew about the apothecary trade.
Culpeper joined Drake’s other apprentice, a Samuel Leadbetter and the two became firm friends, part of the training that Drake gave Culpeper included accompanying Thomas Johnson - the man who would later in Culpeper’s lifetime edit and enlarge Gerard’s Herbal in 1633 - on walks to identify and collect local herbs to be used to make remedies in Drake’s apothecary shop.
Culpeper proved to be a willing, able and dedicated student, learning all that he needed about Materia Medica and the apothecary practice and when Drake died in 1639, Leadbetter continued his training until 1640 when he became a fully licensed apothecary and took over the running of Drake’s shop. Culpeper was sent to train with Mr. Higgins, a warden of the Society of Apothecaries, but never finished his apprenticeship instead he joined Leadbetter running the shop of their old master. The two worked together until sometime in 1644, Culpeper had begun to treat patients and was in effect practising as an unlicenced physician, Leadbetter received two warnings from the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries, and the final warning instructed him “not to employ Culpeper in the making or administering of any medicine who promised to obey the same”, so Leadbetter decided to terminate Culpeper from his employ.
Back to 1640 and Culpeper met another heiress named Alice Field whilst treating her father for gouty arthritis, he then married her, he was 24 and she just 15 years of age and had inherited a rather sizeable fortune, at the time apothecary apprentices were forbidden to marry, so this action angered the Society of Apothecaries and prevented him from being able to complete his training. He made many enemies amongst the Society of Apothecaries and the College of Physicians over the years, so much so, in December of 1642 Culpeper was imprisoned and tried for practising witchcraft, an offence punishable by death in the mid-17th century. To Culpeper’s great relief he was found not guilty and acquitted of all charges.
Using the money he acquired by marrying Alice, Culpeper built a house in Spitalfields on Red Lion Street, and being outside of the City of London, Culpeper wasn’t governed by the rules set out by the College of Physicians, although his practice was only semi-legal, Culpeper became a sought after herbalist and astrologer and is said to have treated as many as 40 patients a day. By now Culpeper was getting a reputation as an outspoken atheist and he also began to display anti-royalist tendencies publicly and in 1642 he joined in the civil war fighting for the Parliamentarians at the battle of Edgehill. Part 2 to follow.
Debs Cook is the IT Media Manager for the DHM, she is a self confessed herbaholic who loves to write about the way herbs were once used and about the herbalists that used them. You can find out more about Debs over on her Herbal haven blog.
