Education
He graduated Bachelor of Arts on 18 February 1650, having become a public notary, and having already devoted much attention to botany.
He graduated Bachelor of Arts on 18 February 1650, having become a public notary, and having already devoted much attention to botany.
He is known for the doctrine of signatures of medicinal herbs or "simples", whereby the plant has some attribute which shows the botanist what its use may be. He entered New College, Oxford, in 1642, and was soon after made a postmaster of Merton College, Oxford by his mother"s brother, John French, senior fellow and registrar of the university. He afterwards resided at Putney, "where he became the most famous simpler or herbalist of his time " (Athenæ Oxfordshire) He became Bachelor of Divinity and fellow of New College and in 1660 was made secretary to Brian Duppa, bishop of Winchester, in whose service he died in 1662.