Richard Forster (c.1546–1616) was an English physician.

Life

He was son of Laurence Forster, and was born at

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a city in the West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its city status until the Middle Ages. The city is governed b ...

about 1546, and was educated at

All Souls' College, Oxford All Souls College (official name: College of the Souls of All the Faithful Departed) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full members of t ...

. He graduated at Oxford, M.B. and M.D., both in 1573. He became
fellow
of the

College of Physicians A college of physicians is a national or provincial organisation concerned with the practice of medicine. {{Expand list, date=February 2011 Such institutions include: * American College of Physicians * Ceylon College of Physicians * College of Phy ...

of London about 1575, but his admission is not mentioned in the ''Annals.'' In 1583 he was elected one of the censors, in 1600 treasurer, and

Lumleian lecturer The Lumleian Lectures are a series of annual lectures started in 1582 by the Royal College of Physicians and currently run by the Lumleian Trust. The name commemorates John Lumley, 1st Baron Lumley, who with Richard Caldwell of the College endowed ...

in 1602. He was president of the college from 1601 to 1604, and was again elected in 1615 and held office till his death on 27 March 1616. He had considerable medical practice, and was also esteemed as a mathematician, as reported by

William Camden William Camden (2 May 1551 – 9 November 1623) was an English antiquarian, historian, topographer, and herald, best known as author of ''Britannia'', the first chorographical survey of the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, and the ''Ann ...

, when recording his death, William Clowes, the surgeon, praises him, and in 1591 writes of Forster as 'a worthie reader of the surgerie lector in the Phisition's college,' showing that he gave lectures before the Lumleian lectures were formally instituted in 1602. He was a practicing astrologer, and it was through Forster that

Christopher Heydon Sir Christopher Heydon (14 August 1561 – 1 January 1623) was an English soldier, Member of Parliament, and writer on astrology. He quarrelled with his family over its estates in Norfolk. Background Born in Surrey, Heydon was the eldest son ...

's manuscript ''An Astrological Discourse with Mathematical Demonstrations'', defending astrology, passed to Nicholas Fiske.

Richard Harvey Richard Allen Harvey (born 25 September 1953) is an English composer and musician. Originally of the mediaevalist progressive rock group Gryphon, he is best known now for his film and television soundtracks. He is also known for his guitar co ...

indicated him as a leader of the astrologer-physicians. In 1582 he was appointed Consul of the English nation in Ottoman Syria, in "the parts of Alepo, Damasco, Aman, Tripolis, Jerusalem, and all other ports whatsoever in the provinces of Syria, Palestina, and Jurie"

Works

In 1567 he dedicated to Henry FitzAlan, 19th Earl of Arundel an astrological work. Forster had been introduced to Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, by Sir Henry Sidney, and dedicated to the earl in 1575 his

ephemerides In astronomy and celestial navigation, an ephemeris (pl. ephemerides; ) is a book with tables that gives the trajectory of naturally occurring astronomical objects as well as artificial satellites in the sky, i.e., the position (and possibly ...

.''Ephemerides Meteorologicae Richardi Fosteri artium ac medicinae doctoris ad annum 1575 et positum finitoris Londini emporii totius Angliae nobilissimi diligenter examinatae.'' Besides the prose dedication, in which astronomy is said to be the handmaid of medicine, twenty lines of Latin verse on Leicester's cognisance, the bear, precede the tables of which the book is made up.

Notes

References

External links

''British History Online'' pageInspiring physicians biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Forster, Richard 1546 births 1616 deaths 16th-century English medical doctors 17th-century English medical doctors English astrologers 16th-century astrologers 17th-century astrologers People from Coventry Alumni of All Souls College, Oxford 16th-century English diplomats Presidents of the Royal College of Physicians