Samuel Hartlib

Life & Legacy

Samuel Hartlib or Hartlieb (c. 1600 – 10 March 1662) was a polymath of German-Polish origin, who settled, married and died in England. He was the son of Georg Hartlieb, a German merchant in Elbing (Elbląg), whose family had migrated to Poland at the beginning of the 16th century, and Elizabeth Langthon, a daughter of a rich English merchant in Danzig (Gdańsk). Hartlib was a noted promoter and writer in fields that included science, medicine, agriculture, politics and education. He was a contemporary of Robert Boyle, whom he knew well, and a neighbour of Samuel Pepys in Axe Yard, London, in the early 1660s. He studied briefly at the University of Cambridge upon arriving in England.