Sir Hugh Plat

1552–1608

Hugh Plat (sometimes spelled Platt) was born in Bedwell Green, Middlesex, England in 1552. He was baptised at St. James', Garlickhythe, on the 3^rd of May, 1552. He was the third son (but eldest surviving son) of Richard Plat, a London Brewer and Alice, nee Britles, daughter of John Birtles of Birtles, Cheshire.

Hugh owed both his station in life as a gentleman, and his considerable wealth to his father. Richard Plat was born in Hertfordshire in 1528, the son of a yeoman farmer. As a younger son, he was sent to London to apprentice with the Brewer's Company. He became free of the company in 1550 and paid a fine in lieu of the Stewardship in 1562 (the following year he was made Warden). In 1566 he leased the Old Swan brewery in Thames Street for 60 years at a sum of ~£27 per annum from the Brewer's Company. And it was this that probably laid the foundations of the family's fortunes (by the time of Sir Hugh's death the brewery was being sublet for ~£100 per annum).

Investments in Elizabethan times were made in land or properties and Richard Plat bought property in London and elsewhere (this included at St Pancras, London). Increasing wealth and land ownership also meant advancement in social status and by his death in 1600 he was a regular member of the Brewer's Court, an Alderman of the City of London and a Sheriff of London. He was granted his own arms, confirming his rise into the gentry and in 1600 even had his portrait painted.

As was common for merchants at the time, Richard was a Puritan, and he passed both his beliefs and his newly-gained status as a gentleman to his son. Richard Plat lived well into his 70s and died only eight years before his son.

Richard was an incomer to London, but Hugh was a Londoner through and through, living either at his birthplace of Bethnal Green or in the city his whole life (apart from three years as an undergraduate at Cambridge).

Though we know that Hugh went to school in London, where he received his early education remains a mystery. His father was wealthy enough to send him to one of the more prominent grammar schools, but during this time the local guilds and Puritan clerics were also establishing parish grammar schools throughout the city. Though there is some indication that he may have gone to St Anthony's (which was failing 1598, the dissolution of the monasteries having removed the priory on which the school's main income was based). This early schooling evidently gave Plat a familiarity and ease with Latin that he employed both at Cambridge and during his later life.

At the age of sixteen, Hugh was sent up to St John's College, Cambridge as a pensioner, from whence he graduated in 1571–1572 with a B.A. During the period, a 'pensioner' was effectively just an ordinary student who would not have mixed with the higher orders, the sons of the nobility, who would have lived and dined with the fellows. However, at the time St John's was a fairly recent endowment (the college was established in 1511) and would have been both a hotbed of puritan ideas and would have provided what was an advanced education for the age. Plat would have undertaken a four-year course that included voluntary attendance of University lectures as well as one-to-one tuition in rhetoric, logic and philosophy.

Soon after his return to London from Cambridge (1572) Hugh Plat published his first book: The Floures of Philoshophie, with the Pleasures of Poetrie annexed to them, aswel pleasant to be read as profitable to be followed by all men. These represents exercises, poems, and philosophy that were part of Plat's undergraduate works at St John's.

During the same year Hugh Platt became a member of Lincoln's Inn. During this period, he wrote his next publication, entitled Hvgonis Platti armig. Manuale sententias aliquot Diuinas et Morales complectens partim ' Sacris Patribus, partim ' Petrarcha philosopho et Poeta celeberrimo decerptas, London, 1584; new edit. 1594.

Plat developed an interest in natural science: mechanical inventions, domestic economy and especially in agriculture, to which he devoted most of his later life. He corresponded with lovers of gardening and agriculture, and investigated the effects of various manures.

However, Plat was not one of the scientific dilettantes of the day. He was not one of the gentry with too much time on his hands, who dabbled in natural philosophy. Rather he was interested in precisely how thing worked so that he could improve on them and use these improvements to make a profit.

In 1592 Plat exhibited to some privy councillors and chief citizens of London a series of mechanical inventions, and next year printed, as a broad-sheet, an account of them in A brief Apologie of certen new Inventions completed by H. Plat. (licensed to Richard Field in 1592).

He resided from 1594 at Bishop's Hall, Bethnal Green, later moving to the neighbouring Kirby's Castle. Both at Bethnal Green and in St. Martin's Lane. he maintained gardens, where he conducted horticultural and agricultural experiments. For research, he often visited Sir Thomas Heneage's estate at Copt Hall, Essex, and other large properties.

Plat's Works:

In 1594 there appeared The Jewell House of Art and Nature, conteining divers rare and profitable Inventions, together with sundry new Experiments in the Art of Husbandry, Distillation and Moulding. By Hugh Platte of Lincolnes Inn, Gent., London, 1594; dedicated to Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex. The volume consists of five tracts with separate title-pages, viz.:
The Floures of Philosophie, 1572, intro. Richard J. Panofsky, New York, USA, 1982.
A Briefe Apologie of Certaine New Inventions, 1593.
The Jewell House of Art and Nature, 1594.
    (1) 'Divers new Experiments;'
    (2) 'Diverse new Sorts of Soyle not yet brought into any Publique Use;'
    (3) 'Chimical Conclusions concerning the Art of Distillation;'
    (4) 'Of Moulding, Casting Metals;'
    (5) 'An offer of certain New Inventions which the Author proposes to Disclose upon reasonable Considerations.'
Diverse new sorts of Soyle not yet brought into publique use, 1594.
A Discoverie of Certaine English Wants, 1595.
Sundrie new and Artificiall remedies against Famine. Written by H.P. Esq. upon thoccasion of this present Dearth, 1596.
The new and admirable Arte of setting of Corne, 1600.
Delightes for Ladies, 1602, 1628; also Fussell, G.E., & K.R. Fussell, eds., Delightes for Ladies, 1948.
A new, cheape and delicate Fire of Cole-balles, 1603.
Certaine philosophical preparations of foode and beverage for sea-men, nd [c. 1607].
Floraes Paradise, 1608.
The Garden of Eden, 1653.
The Second part of the garden of Eden, 1675.

The second of these tracts, which was also issued separately, contains notes by Plat on manures, and the last tract deals with miscellaneous topics, like the brewing of beers without hops, the preservation of food in hot weather and at sea, mnemonics, and fishing. Another edition appeared in 1613, and a revised edition, dedicated to Bulstrode Whitelocke, was prepared in 1653 by 'D. B.' (i.e. Arnold de Boate), who added 'A Discourse on Minerals, Stones, Gums, and Rosins.'

In 1595 Plat gave further results in 'A Discoverie of certain English Wantes which are royally supplied in this Treatise. By H. Plat, of Lincolnes Inne, Esquire,' London 1595 (reprinted in the Harleian Miscellany, vol. ix.). In the same year he issued 'Sundrie New and Artificiall Remedies against Famine. Written by H. P., Esq., upon thoccasion of this present Dearth,' London; new edit. 1596; and his 'Newfounde Art of Setting of Corne' appeared about the same time without date. Other editions followed in 1600 and 1601.

In consideration of his services as inventor, Plat was knighted by James I at Greenwich on 22 May 1605.

Plat collected recipes for preserving fruit, distilling, cooking, housewifery, cosmetics, and the dyeing of hair. Much of the information had already been published in his 'Jewell-house.' Though this was published, the year after his death in 1609 as Delights for Ladies. The first part of the volume subsequently reappeared posthumously as A Closet for Ladies and Gentlemen, on the art of Preseruing, Conserving, and Candying. With the manner how to make diverse kinds of Syrupes: and all kinde of Banquetting Stuffes, London, 1611.

In 1603 Plat gave an account of an invention of cheap fuel — essentially, coal mixed with clay and other substances, and kneaded into ballsóin a tract called 'Of Coal-Balls for Fewell wherein Seacoal is, by the mixture of other combustible Bodies, both sweetened and multiplied,' London, 1603. Richard Gosling reissued in 1628 an account of Plat's device, and developed it further in his 'Artificial Fire,' 1644.

His major work on gardening appeared in 1608 (just prior to his death), as Floraes Paradise beautified and adorned with sundry sortes of delicate Fruits and Flowers — with an offer of an English Antidote — a Remedy in violent Feavers and intermittent Agues. The preface is dated from Bednal Green, 2 July 1608. An appendix of new, rare, and profitable inventions describes among other things, Plat's fireballs and his experiments in making wine from grapes grown at Bethnal Green. In his description of gardening experiments, Plat states the name of his informant in all cases where he had not done the work himself. He quotes repeatedly Mr. Andrew Hill, Mr. Pointer of Twickenham, 'Colborne,' and Parson Simson. Floraes Paradise was reissued with some omissions and rearrangements by Charles Bellingham, who claimed relationship with Plat, in 1653, with a dedication to Francis Finch. It then bore the title 'The Garden of Eden; or an accurate Description of all Flowers and Fruits now growing in England. Ö By that learned and great observer, Sir Hugh Plat, Knight,' London, 1653, called the fourth edition; another edition, 1659; 5th ed. 1660. Bellingham issued a second part drawn from Plat's unpublished notes in 1660, and both were issued together in 1675, in a so-called sixth edition. Another edition followed in the year 1685.

Plat left unpublished notes and tracts on scientific topics. John Evelyn sent to Dr. Wotton in 1696 'A Short Treatise concerning Metals' by Plat.

Plat married twice. His second wife, Judith, daughter of William Albany of London, was buried in Highgate Chapel, 28 January 1636.

Sir Hugh Plat died in 1608 and and was buried at St. James's, Garlickhythe. In his will, he bequeathed land to St John's College, Cambridge, where he had been educated as a fellow-commoner.

Hugh Plat's Delights for Ladies

Initially published six years prior his death (the book was published in 1602 and Sir Hugh Plat died in 1608), the Delights for Ladies (or the Delightes for Ladies, To adorne their persons, tables, closets, and distillatories: with Beauties, Banquets, Perfumes & Waters. to give the volume it's full title) was an expansion of the information previously published in his The Jewell House of Art and Nature, conteining divers rare and profitable Inventions, together with sundry new Experiments in the Art of Husbandry, Distillation and Moulding. By Hugh Platte of Lincolnes Inn, Gent., London, 1594. The publication date puts the book just within the Tudor/Elizabethan era.

The book was very much a success and counts along with Margaret Parker's A Proper newe Booke of Cokerye, 1557 and Thomas Dawson's The Good Housewife's Jewell, 1596 and 1597 as one of the three jewells of Tudor/Jacobean cookery (all three books dealing with cookery and recipes only) and sits at the point where Medieval cookery transitioned into Early Modern cuisine. Indeed, the Delightes for Ladies was so successful that other additions were published in 1608, 1609, 1611, 1617, 1632, 1636, 1640, and 1656.

Many of the recipes hearken back to Medieval days (To Sawce a Pigge, for example), but others are with us today. Indeed, over 400 years on a number of Hugh Plat's recipes still live on today. Over the coming months, I will add all three books to this site (I am beginning with Plat) and they will act as the foundation to expanding the elizabethan recipes presented here.

It's this site's aim to provide the original text of all the Hugh Plat's recipes and to provide the modern cook with a current redaction of the recipe. You can also find more recipes from the Elizabethan period in this site's Elizabethan recipes page.