William Mew
English clergyman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
William Mew (Mewe) (1602 – c.1669) was an English clergyman, a member of the Westminster Assembly. He is known also for a drama, Pseudomagia, and for the contribution to beekeeping of the design for a transparent hive.
Life
Mew was a graduate of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he was admitted in 1618 and was B.A. in 1622.[1][2] Mew held also a B.D. degree. Pseudomagia, a Neo-Latin drama, is thought to have been performed at Emmanuel around 1626.[3][4][5]
On 29 November 1643 he preached a fast-day sermon to Parliament, later printed as The Robbing and Spoiling of Jacob and Israel.[6] He is mentioned for constant attendance in the Westminster Assembly.[7] He was approached to answer Milton's divorce tracts, as he wrote in 1659 to Richard Baxter.[8] In this frank correspondence Baxter expressed his deepest fears and suspicions, becoming at one point (6 August 1659) "hysterical".[9]
He became vicar of Eastington, Stroud in Gloucestershire, for which the patron was Nathaniel Stephens, a local MP and one of Oliver Cromwell's colonels.[10] Previously he had been a lecturer in London. Known as a preacher, he conformed in 1662.[11] He was a commissioner for Gloucestershire in 1654.[12]
Mew's hive was made known by Samuel Hartlib.[13] Mew's design followed a suggestion in Pliny and proved influential, being adapted by John Wilkins and Christopher Wren.[14]