author

active 1572-1614 Simon Harward

An English clergyman and practical writer of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, he left behind a striking mix of devotional, medical, and household works. His books open a small window onto everyday concerns in early modern England, from bloodletting to gardens to terrifying storms.

1 Audiobook

A New Orchard And Garden or, The best way for planting, grafting, and to make any ground good, for a rich Orchard: Particularly in the North and generally for the whole kingdome of England

A New Orchard And Garden or, The best way for planting, grafting, and to make any ground good, for a rich Orchard: Particularly in the North and generally for the whole kingdome of England

by active 1618 William Lawson, active 1572-1614 Simon Harward

About the author

Simon Harward was an English divine and author active between 1572 and 1614. Older reference works record that he studied at Christ's College, Cambridge, was later incorporated at Oxford, served as chaplain of New College, and held the rectory of Felmersham in Bedfordshire.

He wrote on an unusually wide range of subjects. Surviving works linked to him include Harwards phlebotomy (1601), a treatise on bloodletting, and A discourse of the severall kinds and causes of lightnings (1607), written after a destructive lightning strike at Bletchingley. Library records also connect his name with gardening and household manuals, showing how easily religious, medical, and practical writing could overlap in that period.

Little personal detail seems to be securely available now, but the books themselves make him memorable: Harward appears as one of those early modern writers who tried to explain both the body and the natural world in useful, everyday terms.