Simon Forman
| Simon Forman | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | 31 December 1552 Quidhampton, Wiltshire, England |
| Died | 5 or 12 September 1611 River Thames, London |
| Resting place | St Mary, Lambeth |
| Residence | Lambeth |
| Nationality | English |
| Education | Salisbury grammar school |
| Alma mater | Magdalen College, Oxford |
| Occupation |
astrologer alchemist medical practitioner |
| Known for | Extensive records of astrological practice, Eye-witness accounts of plays by William Shakespeare Alleged complicity in murder of Sir Thomas Overbury |
| Spouse(s) | Jean Baker |
Simon Forman (31 December 1552 – 5 or 12 September 1611) was an Elizabethan astrologer, occultist and herbalist active in London during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and James I of England. His reputation, however, was severely tarnished after his death when he was implicated in the plot to kill Sir Thomas Overbury. Writers from Ben Jonson to Nathaniel Hawthorne came to characterize him as either a fool or an evil magician in league with the devil.
Forman was born in Quidhampton, Fugglestone St Peter, near Salisbury, Wiltshire, on 31 December 1552. At the age of nine he went to a free school in the Salisbury area but was forced to leave after two years following the death of his father on 31 December 1563. For the next ten years of his life he was apprenticed to Matthew Commin, a local merchant. Commin traded in cloth, salt and herbal medicines, and it was during his time as a young apprentice that Forman started to learn about herbal remedies. After arguments with Mrs Commin, Simon found his apprenticeship terminated, and he moved to Oxford to live with cousins. He then spent a year and a half at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he studied chiefly medicine and astrology, continuing the same studies in Holland.
Through the 1570s and 1580s Forman worked as a teacher while studying the occult arts. In 1583 he moved to London starting up a practice as a physician in Philpot Lane, Westminster. Having survived an outbreak of the plague in the city that year and again in 1594 his medical reputation began to spread. Around this time a Buckinghamshire clergyman named Richard Napier (1559 – 1634) became his protégé. From 1597 he began to develop a more serious interest in the occult eventually setting up an alternative medical practice in Billingsgate, providing astrologically-based remedies keeping detailed casebooks of his clients' questions about illness, pregnancy, stolen goods, career opportunities and marriage prospects. In his new office he was able to fulfill the role of both physician and surgeon (seen as two very separate professions by his medical peers). This unorthodox practice, however, soon attracted the attention of the Company of Barber-Surgeons (now the Royal College of Surgeons of England) who successfully banned him from medical practice. Since he possessed no diploma, and following the death of one of his patients, Forman served several prison sentences. He continued to dispute with the Company of Barber-Surgeons, eventually obtaining a license to practice from the University of Cambridge in 1603.
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