![]() ![]() Encouraged by Lilly, Gadbury returned to Oxfordshire in 1652 and settled there to study astrology. ![]() Amongst the flourishing religious sects he found inspiration in the Family of Love, whose charismatic leader Abiezer Coppe advocated drinking, smoking and free love as viable routes to spiritual liberation.ĭuring this heady period Gadbury first met William Lilly, 25 years his senior and firmly established as England's leading astrologer. Gadbury, then in his early twenties, became a follower of the Levellers - a political movement spread by the victorious soldiers of the New Model Army who demanded liberty of conscience, the redistribution of wealth and a democratic constitution. He was in London during the turbulent period following the execution of Charles I (1649) when England became a republic. As a youth he was apprenticed to a tailor until about the age of sixteen when reconciliation with his wealthy grandfather enabled him to be educated at Oxford. John Gadbury was born in the early hours of 1st January 1628 (OS) at Wheatley in Oxfordshire. It may be that William Gadbury eloped with Curson's daughter at any rate he disapproved of the match and disinherited her. His mother, whose name isn't known, was the daughter of Sir John Curson, a prosperous Oxfordshire gentleman and a Roman Catholic. His father, William Gadbury, was a farmer. There was apparently some scandal surrounding the marriage of Gadbury's parents. ![]()
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