John Bigg (hermit)

He is recorded as being baptised on 22 April 1629 and a 1712 letter of Thomas Hearne[1] identifies him as the highly educated former clerk of Simon Mayne - a member of the long parliament, magistrate, and judge in the trial of King Charles I.

[2] Upon the restoration of the English monarchy, Bigg's employer, Mayne, was executed for regicide on 13 April 1661.

Bigg, either out of fear for his own life or despair at the state of his country, grew reclusive and took to living in a cave in Dinton, Buckinghamshire.

Bigg lived on a diet of meat, milk, ale and beer which was supplied to him from unasked charity of local people.

His boots, massive with decades of tacked on leather, remain on display at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.