Purchas, SAMUEL

Purchas, SAMUEL, was born at Thaxted in Essex in 1577, and educated at St John's College, Cambridge. He was presented by the king in 1604 to the vicarage of Eastwood, which he soon resigned to his brother, as the chosen labour of his life required residence in London. Later he became rector of St Martin's, Ludgate, and chaplain to Archbishop Abbot, and died in September 1626, if not in a debtor's cell, yet in difficulties. His great works were Purehas his Pilgrimage, or Relations of the World and the Religions observed in all ages (1613; 4th ed. much enlarged, 1626), and Hakluytus Posthumus, or Purehas his Pilgrimes: containing a History of the World, in Sea Voyages and Land Travels by Englishmen and others (4 vols. folio, 1625). The fourth edition of the former usually accompanies the latter as if a fifth volume, although a quite distinct work. Purchas himself thus describes the two books: 'These brethren holding much resemblance in name, nature, and feature, yet differ in both the object and the subject. This [the Pilgrimage] being mine own in matter, though borrowed, and in form of words and method; whereas my Pilgrimes are the authors themselves, acting their own parts in their own words, only furnished by me with such necessaries as that stage further required, and ordered according to my rules.' Another work is Purehas his Pilgrim: Microcosmus, or the History of Man; relating the wonders of his Generation, varieties in his Degeneration, and necessity of his Regeneration (1619).