Roger Crab
Roger Crab | |
---|---|
Roger Crab, as pictured in an 1813 edition of James Caulfield's Portraits, memoirs, and characters of remarkable persons, from the reign of King Edward the Third, to the Revolution, etc. | |
Born | 1621 Buckinghamshire, England |
Died | 11 September 1680 (aged 59) Bethnal Green, Middlesex, England |
Occupation(s) | Soldier, haberdasher, herbal doctor and writer |
Roger Crab (1621 – 11 September 1680)[1] was an English soldier, haberdasher, herbal doctor and writer who is best known for his ascetic lifestyle which included Christian vegetarianism. Crab fought in the Parliamentary Army in the English Civil War before becoming a haberdasher in Chesham. He later became a hermit and worked as a herbal doctor. He then joined the Philadelphians and began promoting asceticism through his writings.
Early life
Crab was born in Buckinghamshire in 1621. At the time of his birth his mother had an annual income of £20.[2] As a young man, he began trying to find a way to live a perfect life. In 1641 he ceased eating meat, dairy and eggs. He also chose to be celibate.[3]
At the outbreak of the English Civil War in 1642, he joined the Parliamentary Army under Oliver Cromwell. During one battle he received a serious head wound from a sword. During his time as a soldier, he was at one point sentenced to death by Cromwell. He was later sentenced to two years in prison by Parliament. It has been suggested that Crab was involved with the Levellers in the late 1640s and that he was imprisoned as a result.[3]
Career
After leaving the military, Crab moved to Chesham. There he began working as a haberdasher. He continued this work between 1649 and 1652. In 1652 he moved to Ickenham and lived as a hermit. Believing that profit was sinful, he gave away almost all of his possessions before moving. He built up a practice as a herbal doctor, advising his patients to avoid meat and alcohol. He was a popular doctor among the village women. However, he was accused of witchcraft by a clergyman, possibly due to prophecies he issued. He attempted to live modestly, wearing homemade sackcloth clothes.[3] He moved to Bethnal Green in 1657. There he joined the Philadelphians; a group founded by John Pordage.[4]
Views
Crab was an anti-sabbatarian. He did not observe Sunday as a non-working day, and was put in the stocks for it.[5] He was a pacifist, and had radical views on the evils of property, the Church, and universities.[6]
Crab held the unorthodox view that meat-eating was the cause, rather than a consequence of, the Biblical fall of man.[7] By the age of 20, Crab was living on a diet of vegetables and water "avoiding butter, cheese, eggs, and milk." Crab argued that "eating of flesh is an absolute enemy to pure nature" and believed there was a connection between meat-eating and aggression.[7]
Crab ate a vegan diet from 1641 until his death in 1680. He initially included potatoes and carrots in his diet, but later gave them up in favour of a diet of mostly bran and turnips. Later in his life he ate only Rumex and grass, claiming to spend 3/4 d. per week on food. Late in his life he added parsnips to his diet.[3]
Works
Crab wrote his autobiography while living in Ickenham.[1]
- The English hermite, or, Wonder of this age.: Being a relation of the life of Roger Crab, living neer Uxbridg, taken from his own mouth, shewing his strange reserved and unparallel'd kind of life, who counteth it a sin against his body and soule to eate any sort of flesh, fish, or living creature, or to drinke any wine, ale, or beere. He can live with three farthings a week. His constant food is roots and hearbs, as cabbage, turneps, carrets, dock-leaves, and grasse; also bread and bran, without butter or cheese: his cloathing is sack-cloath. He left the Army, and kept a shop at Chesham, and hath now left off that, and sold a considerable estate to give to the poore, shewing his reasons from the Scripture, Mark. 10. 21. Jer. 35. (London: Printed, and are to be sold in Popes-head Alley, and at the Exchange 1655).[8]
- Dagons-Downfall; or, the Great idol digged up root and branch (London 1657). ( – in which he declared that the Sabbath had been turned into an idol).[9]
- Gentle correction for the high flown backslider, or, A soft answer to turn away strife : being a general answer (in few words) to some queries, and defamations thrown out by the furious spirit in some of the people called Quakers against the rationalls (London: Printed by J.B 1659).
- A tender salutation, or, The substance of a letter given forth by the Rationals, to the despised remnant and seed of God, in the people called Quakers (London: Printed by J.B 1659).
A Reply to the Gentle Correction was made by George Salter (London: printed for Thomas Simmons at the Bull and mouth neer Aldersgate 1659):
An answer to Roger Crabs printed paper to the Quakers. And likewise to his principles and doctrines, whose spirit is tried and found in the dark. Which is to be directed again to Roger Crab and his followers, who cryed up his paper; that they may learn wisdom to preserve them in innocency, in the power of God, in which there is no confusion.
Death
In 1680, Crab died at the age of 59 in Bethnal Green, and was buried at Stepney Churchyard.[10] His tombstone has the following epitaph:[11]
Tread gently, reader, near the dust
Committed to this tomb-stone's trust:
For while 'twas flesh, it held a guest
With universal love possest:
A soul that stemmed opinion's tide,
Did over sects in triumph ride;
Yet separate from the giddy crowd,
And paths tradition had allowed.
Through good and ill reports he past,
Oft censured, yet approved at last.
Wouldst thou his religion know?
In brief 'twas this: to all to do
Just as he would be done unto.
So in kind Nature's law he stood,
A temple, undefiled with blood,
A friend to everything that 's good.
The rest angels alone can fitly tell;
Haste then to them and him; and so farewell!'
Legacy
Christopher Hill suggested that Crab may have been the inspiration for Lewis Carroll's character the Mad Hatter.[2]
Selected publications
- The English Hermite, Or, Wonder of this Age (1655)
References
Footnotes
- ^ a b Bowlt 2007, pp. 101–102
- ^ a b Hill 1958, p. 282
- ^ a b c d Hill 1958, p. 283
- ^ Hill 1958, p. 305
- ^ Stuart 2006, p. 26
- ^ Hill 1958, p. 307
- ^ a b Rudrum, Alan (2003). "Ethical Vegetarianism in Seventeenth-Century Britain: Its Roots in Sixteenth-Century European Theological Debate". The Seventeenth Century. 18 (1): 76–92. doi:10.1080/0268117X.2003.10555520. S2CID 171292167.
- ^ For the full text, see Harleian Miscellany, Vol. 6 (Robert Dutton, London 1810), pp. 390–405.
- ^ Hill 1992, p. 262
- ^ "Roger Crab, Seventeenth-century English hermit". Hermitary. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
- ^ Hill 1958, p. 310
Bibliography
- Bowlt, Eileen. M. (2007). Around Ruislip, Eastcote, Northwood, Ickenham & Harefield. Stroud: Sutton Publishing.
- Hill, Christopher (1958). Puritanism and revolution: studies in interpretation of the English Revolution of the seventeenth century. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-312-17434-7.
- Hill, Christopher (1992). The English Bible and the seventeenth-century revolution. Allen Lane. ISBN 978-0-7139-9078-2.
- Stuart, Tristram (2006). The Bloodless Revolution: A Cultural History of Vegetarianism from 1600 to Modern Times. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-05220-6.
External links
- A Vegan Booklet of 1655 – ……don’t think about ‘almost five o’clock’!
- v
- t
- e
Veganism | |
---|---|
Vegetarianism | |
Lists |
Secular | |
---|---|
Religious |
and drink
- Agave syrup
- Chicken fillet roll
- Coconut burger
- Coconut milk
- Fruits
- Grains
- Gelatin substitutes
- Jambon
- Meat alternative
- Miso
- Mochi
- Mock duck
- Nutritional yeast
- Plant cream
- Plant milk
- Quinoa
- Quorn
- Seitan
- Soy yogurt
- Tempeh
- Tofu
- Tofurkey
- Cheese
- Vegetables
- Vegetarian bacon
- Hot dog
- Vegetarian mark
- Sausage
- Sausage roll
- Beer
- Wine
- Veggie burger
and events
reports,
journals
- On Abstinence from Eating Animals (3rd century)
- An Essay on Abstinence from Animal Food, as a Moral Duty (1802)
- Vegetable Cookery (1812)
- A Vindication of Natural Diet (1813)
- Reasons for not Eating Animal Food (1814)
- Moral Inquiries on the Situation of Man and of Brutes (1824)
- Nature's Own Book (1835)
- Fruits and Farinacea (1845)
- The Pleasure Boat (1845)
- The Ethics of Diet (1883)
- What is Vegetarianism? (1886)
- Shelley's Vegetarianism (1891)
- Behind the Scenes in Slaughter-Houses (1892)
- Why I Am a Vegetarian (1895)
- Figs or Pigs? (1896)
- Fifty Years of Food Reform (1898)
- Thirty-nine Reasons Why I Am a Vegetarian (1903)
- The Meat Fetish (1904)
- The New Ethics (1907)
- A Fleshless Diet (1910)
- The Benefits of Vegetarianism (1927)
- Living the Good Life (1954)
- Ten Talents (1968)
- Diet for a Small Planet (1971)
- The Vegetarian Epicure (1972)
- Moosewood Collective Cookbooks (1973)
- The Farm Vegetarian Cookbook (1975)
- Laurel's Kitchen (1976)
- Moosewood Cookbook (1977)
- Fit for Life (1985)
- Diet for a New America (1987)
- The Sexual Politics of Meat (1990)
- Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone (1997)
- The China Study (2005)
- Skinny Bitch (2005)
- Livestock's Long Shadow (2006)
- The Bloodless Revolution (2006)
- Eating Animals (2009)
- Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows (2009)
- The Vegan Studies Project (2015)
- Animal (De)liberation (2016)
- The End of Animal Farming (2018)
- Vegetable Kingdom (2020)
- Making a Stand for Animals (2022)
- Meat Atlas (annual)
- The Animals Film (1981)
- Diet for a New America (film) (1991)
- A Cow at My Table (1998)
- Meet Your Meat (2002)
- Post Punk Kitchen (2003–2005)
- Peaceable Kingdom (2004)
- Earthlings (2005)
- A Sacred Duty (2007)
- Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead (2010)
- Planeat (2010)
- Forks Over Knives (2011)
- Vegucated (2011)
- Live and Let Live (2013)
- Cowspiracy (2014)
- PlantPure Nation (2015)
- What the Health (2017)
- Carnage (2017)
- Dominion (2018)
- Eating You Alive (2018)
- The Game Changers (2018)
- Maa Ka Doodh (2023)
- You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment (2024)
activists,
authors,
physicians
cookbook authors
- Nava Atlas
- Mayim Bialik
- Carleigh Bodrug
- Gypsy Boots
- BOSH!
- Martha Brotherton
- Edward Espe Brown
- Tabitha Brown (actress)
- Suzy Amis Cameron
- Hannah Che
- Pinky Cole
- Chloe Coscarelli
- Yamuna Devi
- Sue Donaldson
- Crescent Dragonwagon
- Rose Elliot
- Rip Esselstyn
- Toni Fiore
- Carol Lee Flinders
- Alexis Gauthier
- Dick Gregory
- Richa Hingle
- Madhur Jaffrey
- Mollie Katzen
- Frances Moore Lappé
- Deborah Madison
- Linda McCartney
- Mary McCartney
- Hetty Lui McKinnon
- Tracye McQuirter
- Joanne Lee Molinaro
- Moosewood Collective
- Charity Morgan
- Isa Chandra Moskowitz
- Bawa Muhaiyaddeen
- Gaz Oakley
- Colleen Patrick-Goudreau
- Mathew Pritchard
- Satchidananda Saraswati
- Derek Sarno
- Miyoko Schinner
- Alicia Silverstone
- Hannah Sunderani
- Bryant Terry
- Anna Thomas
- Haile Thomas
- Lauren Toyota
- Jeeca Uy
- Umberto Veronesi
- Nisha Vora
- Alan Wakeman
- Cranks (restaurant)
- Food for Thought (restaurant)
- InSpiral Lounge
- Lentil as Anything
- Minerva Café
- New Riverside Cafe
- Nix (restaurant)
- Penny Cafeteria
- Pink Peacock
- The Hollow Reed
- The Pitman Vegetarian Hotel