Hartlib, SAMUEL

Hartlib, SAMUEL, was born about 1600 at Elbing, in Prussia, son of a Polish refugee and an English mother. Coming to England about 1628, he busied himself in trade, later in agriculture, and, when he had exhausted his fortune in his experiments, projected a school to be conducted on new principles. It is highly probable that his idea inspired his friend Milton's famous Tractate on Education, addressed to Hartlib in 1644, as well as Sir William Petty's Two Letters (1647 and 1648). He was granted by Cromwell a pension of £100, increased later to £300, which after the Restoration he petitioned parliament to renew. No letters of Hartlib's are extant posterior to 1662. He wrote on education and on husbandry. See Biographical Memoir of Samuel Hartlib by H. Dircks (1865).