Hugh Plat

[1] His father owned property in St Pancras, London, bequeathed much of it to the foundation and endowment of a free grammar school and six almshouses at Aldenham, Hertfordshire, and was buried at St. James's, Garlickhythe, on 28 November 1600.

Plat matriculated as a pensioner of St John's College, Cambridge, on 12 November 1568 and he graduated as a Bachelor of Arts in 1572.

For research, he often visited Sir Thomas Heneage's estate at Copt Hall, Essex, and other large properties.

William, the fourth son of his second marriage, was buried in Highgate Chapel on 11 November 1637, beneath an elaborate tomb.

In 1572 he made his first appearance in print as the author of 'The Floures of Philosophie, with Pleasures of Poetrie annexed to them, as wel pleasant to be read as profitable to be followed of al men,; dedicated to Anne Dudley, Countess of Warwick.

'The Floures of Philosophie' comprises 883 short sentences from Seneca; 'The Pleasures of Poetry' is a collection of miscellaneous poems.

Plat developed an interest in natural science: mechanical inventions, domestic economy—and especially in agriculture, to which he devoted most of his later life.

Plat collected recipes for preserving fruits, distilling, cooking, housewifery, cosmetics, and the dyeing of hair.

[5] The first part of the volume reappeared posthumously as 'A Closet for Ladies and Gentlemen, on the art of Preseruing, Conserving, and Candying.

coal mixed with clay and other substances, and kneaded into balls—in a tract called 'Of Coal-Balls for Fewell wherein Seacoal is, by the mixture of other combustible Bodies, both sweetened and multiplied,' London, 1603.

His major work on gardening appeared in 1608, 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.'

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.

'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.