A Portrait of Samuel Hartlib
By Charles Webster
Particularly because the massive Hartlib archive has been available in digitised form since 2013, it is amazing that Hartlib himself has not been the subject of a modern English language monograph. Acceleration in the pace of Hartlib studies is essentially a characteristic of the last few years, during which the ambitious French study on Hartlib by Stéphane Haffemayr, dating from 2018, is the major item of relevance. My Portrait of Samuel Hartlib is an entirely different construction, but it pursues the same objective of confirming Hartlib as a figure of central importance in the British, European and American history of that revolutionary period.
Hartlib’s achievement was all the more remarkable considering the disadvantages stemming from his status as an obscure immigrant, of only indifferent social or professional status, and soon the sufferer of extreme poverty and ever-escalating ill-health. However, his position as an outsider imported various benefits, among these being his education in Silesia, which was cosmopolitan and diverse. Additional strengths were acquired as a private student in Cambridge, which prepared him for an intimate alignment with the developing Puritan ascendancy. He was therefore well prepared for settlement in London, where he remained from 1628 until his death in 1662.
There he proved his utility as a source of a wide variety of intelligence, ranging from international affairs to economic and technical matters. His services were valued by aspiring politicians, the incipient religious leadership and powerful members of the Puritan nobility. Critical among these was John Pym, who soon emerged as a dominant voice among the Parliamentary political leadership.
A particular asset of Hartlib was his association Jan Amos Komenský (Comenius), the Czech exile, whose visit to England in 1641-2 raised hopes for the wholesale adoption of his revolutionary educational programme. This proved to be impracticable. But Hartlib compensated for this through his participation in the remarkable efflorescence of educational initiatives that characterised the interregnum and Cromwellian protectorate.
This period proved to be the highpoint in Hartlib’s career, when he became universally known and enjoyed cordial relations with the evolving political leadership, including Oliver Cromwell. In recognition of his sworn commitment to public service he was awarded a state pension, although this was never sufficient to support the ever-expanding horizons of his ambitions.
The extent of his influence was increased by his emergence as a major publisher in the general field of reform, especially agriculture, which at that date held the key to economic development. This has led this period in agriculture to be labelled as ‘The age of Hartlib.’ Initiatives of this kind reflected the status of natural leadership that Hartlib attained, particularly among the avant-garde of the younger generation. In this context he generated a variety of schemes for the organisation of advanced research, most of which proved to be impracticable. However, these initiatives generated a taste for active cooperation which expressed itself in the emergence of informal working parties that I call the Hartlibian scientific movement. These, I claim, were something of a precursor to more formal organisations such as the Royal Society.
The importance of these informal agencies should not be underestimated. As economic historians now appreciate, among the enduring achievements of the team led by Hartlib were the first policy statements that are now recognised as the basis for what is now known as the ‘Hartlibian Political Economy’. This was not merely an abstract theoretical framework, but was a spur to economic development and the transformation of foreign policy, aiming at nothing less that Britain’s world dominance.
Hartlib participated in this revolutionary intellectual reorientation in further respects such as his active involvement in apocalyptic speculation which, during this period, was a spur to many practical issues such as the consolidation of alliances between the Protestant states. But this body of thinking also reflected the sense of Britain’s special place of leadership in world reformation. The nation came to be regarded as the epitome of the Communion of Saints and the locus of the New Jerusalem. It was these themes that were uppermost in their minds, when Hartlib and his friends exchanged the last of their letters before his painful death in March 1662.
'A Portrait of Samuel Hartlib: In Search of Universal Betterment' by Charles Webster is an Open Access title available to read and download for free or to purchase in all available print and ebook formats at the link below.
