Editing Nicholas Culpeper (section)

==Biography==
Culpeper was the son of Nicholas Culpeper (senior), a cleric. Shortly after his birth his father died and he was taken to [[Isfield]], the home of his maternal grandfather, the Reverend [[William Attersoll]], where he was brought up by his mother. Attersoll was an influence on the young boy's political and religious beliefs and taught him both Latin and Greek. As a boy Culpeper became interested in astronomy, astrology, time, his grandfather's collection of clocks, and medical texts in Attersoll's library. Meanwhile his grandmother introduced him to the world of medicinal plants and herbs. He would go on, throughout his life, spending time in the countryside cataloguing plants.

From the age of 16 he studied at [[Cambridge University|Cambridge]], but it is not known at which college, although his father studied at [[Queens' College, Cambridge|Queens']], and his grandfather was a member of [[Jesus College, Cambridge|Jesus College]]. He was then apprenticed to an [[apothecary]]. After seven years his master absconded with the money paid for the [[indenture]], and soon after, Culpeper's mother died of breast cancer.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21427-2004Nov30.html |last=Scialabba |first=George |date=30 November 2004 |access-date=31 October 2007 |newspaper=[[Washington Post]] (online) |title=The Worst Medicine; book review of 'Heal Thyself: Nicholas Culpeper and the Seventeenth-Century Struggle to Bring Medicine to the People'}}</ref>

In 1640, Culpeper married Alice Field, the 15-year-old heiress of a wealthy [[grain trade|grain merchant]], which allowed him to set up a [[pharmacy]] at the [[halfway house]] in [[Spitalfields]], London, outside the authority of the [[City of London]], at a time when medical facilities in London were at breaking point. Arguing that "no man deserved to starve to pay an insulting, insolent physician" and obtaining his herbal supplies from the nearby countryside, Culpeper could provide his services free of charge. This and a willingness to examine patients in person rather than simply examining their urine (in his view, "as much piss as the [[Thames]] might hold" did not help in diagnosis), Culpeper was extremely active, sometimes seeing as many as 40 patients in a morning. Using a combination of experience and [[astrology]], he devoted himself to using herbs to treat his patients.

During the early months of the [[English Civil War]], Culpeper was accused of witchcraft and the [[Society of Apothecaries]] tried to rein in his practice. Alienated and radicalised, he joined the London [[Trained bands]] in August 1643 under the command of [[Philip Skippon]] and fought at the [[First Battle of Newbury]],<ref name="ODNB"/> where he carried out [[Battlefield medicine|battlefield surgery]]. He was taken back to London after sustaining a serious chest injury from a bullet, from which he never fully recovered.<ref name="Harmes 2014"/> There he cooperated with the Republican [[astrologer]] [[William Lilly]] on ''A Prophesy of the White King'', which predicted the King's death. Culpeper died of [[tuberculosis]] in [[London]] on 10 January 1654 at the age of 37 and was buried in [[New Churchyard|New Churchyard, Bethlem]].<ref name="ODNB"/><ref>Robert Hartle, 2017, ''The New Churchyard: from Moorfields marsh to Bethlem burial ground, Brokers Row and Liverpool Street'', Crossrail: London, p. 177.</ref> Only one of his seven children, Mary, reached adulthood. He was survived by his wife, Alice, who married the astrologer [[John Heydon (astrologer)|John Heydon]] in 1656. The date of her death is uncertain: some sources say 1659, but others that she was licensed as a midwife in 1665.