Remarkable People: Nicolas Culpeper

"The Robin Hood Herbalist"

Nicholas Culpeper, born in 1616 in Ockley, Surrey, was not your average 17th-century physician. By all accounts, he was a rebel with a mortar and pestle, and a radical who defied the medical establishment with a flair that would make any modern maverick proud. His life, though tragically short, was packed with eccentricity, defiance, and a deep love for the healing power of nature.

Culpeper’s early years were shaped by loss and learning. His father, a clergyman, died just weeks before Nicholas was born, and he was raised in the home of his grandfather, the Reverend William Attersoll—a strict Puritan who taught him Latin, Greek, and theology. But young Nicholas was not a churchman. He was fascinated by the stars, clocks, and the curious world of herbs. His grandmother introduced him to medicinal plants, and he soon began cataloguing them with the zeal of a botanist.

At 16, Culpeper was sent to Cambridge to study theology, but his heart wasn’t in it. He abandoned his clerical studies and was apprenticed to an apothecary. That didn’t go smoothly either, as his master ran off with the money paid for his training. Fortunately, Culpeper married Alice Field, a wealthy heiress, and used her dowry to set up a pharmacy in Spitalfields, London. This location was just outside the jurisdiction of the City of London, allowing him to practice medicine without interference from the elite College of Physicians.

Well, he interfered instead.  Always the free thinker, Culpeper taxed the patience of both physicians and clergymen alike.  He prescribed simple remedies and took little payment. From the very poor, he took no money at all.  Culpeper tried to make medical treatments understandable, and he taught the poorest citizens to take care of themselves by providing them with the understanding they needed to improve their health.  In fact, Culpeper described the use of foxglove for heart conditions long before modern medicine recognized its value. His personal, witty style made his work easy to read. 

His most famous work, The English Physitian (later known as Culpeper’s Complete Herbal), was a game-changer. It translated Latin medical texts into English, and that made herbal remedies available to the common folk. Culpeper didn’t just list herbs—he added wit and personality to his writing. He once wrote, “I consulted with my two brothers, Dr. Reason and Dr. Experience, and took a voyage to visit my Mother Nature.”  This might be a poetic jab at the pompous physicians of his day.

During the English Civil War, Culpeper joined the London militia and served as a battlefield surgeon at the Battle of Newbury. He sustained a chest wound that may have contributed to his early death from tuberculosis at age 37.

Despite his short life, Culpeper’s legacy has endured. His herbal guide remained in print for centuries and influenced both European and American herbal medicine. In fact, you can still find copies (both free and for a modest price) on the internet. Nicholas Culpeper was a remarkable person: a Puritan-raised astrologer, a theologian-turned-herbalist, and a physician who preferred wildflowers to money. His life was a blend of science, superstition, and social justice—served with a generous dose of rebellion.