32 A BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR 



He was, we find, a widower, then having charge of the 

 support of two relatives, one daughter and a nephew. 

 He who had been a father to the fatherless, and the 

 warm hearted friend of hundreds in their keen neces- 

 sities, entreats one who is almost a stranger, yet who 

 has often relieved him formerly, to "enlarge the bowels 

 of his love" towards him. 



It was probably not long after this occurrence that 

 the following petition was submitted by him : — 



" To the Right Honourable the Commons of 

 England assembled in Parliament. The 

 humble Petition of Samuel Hartlib, Sen* 

 " Sheweth — 



" That your Petitioner, ever since he came 

 into this kingdom, hath set himself apart to serve his 

 generation in the best objects : — 



"First, by erecting a little academic for the education 

 of the gentrie of this nation, to advance pietie, learn- 

 ing, moralitie, and other exercises of Industrie, not 

 usual then in common schools. 



" Secondly, by giving entertainment, and becoming a 

 solicitor for the godly ministers and scholars, who 

 were driven in those days out of the Palatinate, and 

 other Protestant Churches then laid waste. By which 

 means, — 



* Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. Nos. 6269 and 6271. Also Rennet's 

 Regis, and Chron. Folio, 1728, p. 872. 



