John Partridge (astrologer)

Although starting out in life humbly enough (he was working as a shoemaker in Covent Garden around 1680), Partridge managed to teach himself enough Latin, Greek, Hebrew and astrology to enroll at Leyden University, Holland.

His program for reform involved eliminating the elements derived for the medieval Arabic tradition in favour of a return to Ptolemy.

On that date, Swift published another letter (purportedly by a "man employed in the Revenue") confirming Partridge's death.

[2] The letter was reprinted by other writers and publishers along with its brilliant accompanying eulogy: Here five foot deep lyes on his back A cobbler, starmonger, and quack… Who to the stars in pure good-will, Does to his best look upward still.

Partridge's intense unpopularity among Church supporters, those whose deaths he had falsely predicted, anti-Whigs, and those who felt his "astrology" was in reality quackery kept the hoax going long after Swift finally dispensed with it.