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Concept
John Ogilby
Summary
John Ogilby (also Ogelby, Oglivie; 17 November 1600 - 4 September 1676) was a Scottish translator, impresario and cartographer. Best known for publishing the first detailed British road atlas, he was also a successful translator, noted for publishing his work in handsome illustrated editions. He also established Ireland's first theatre on Dublin's Werburgh Street.
Most older biographies of Ogilby rely on the notes of his assistant, John Aubrey, made for Brief Lives, an unpublished biography of Ogilby and others. The accuracy of Aubrey's account is questionable: Aubrey himself noted that Ogilby was being evasive about his origins, saying only that he was born "near Edinburgh" in 1600 "of a gentleman's family". Later scholarship has discovered that in 1653, Ogilby consulted Elias Ashmole, the noted astrologer. Subsequently, Ashmole included Ogilby's horoscope in a book of collected horoscopes of notable people. This required precise data and it is Ashmole who gives the exact location as "Killemeure" (Kirriemuir near Dundee) and the exact date and time as 17 November 1600 at 04:00. Kirriemuir was a seat of the lairds of Airlie.
Ogilby believed himself, with good reason, to be the third son of the 6th Lord Ogilvie and brother to James Ogilvy, 1st Earl of Airlie - and given away to foster parents at birth. He was most probably educated at the Merchant Taylors' grammar school in London. Ogilby began his working life when eleven years old, as an apprentice to John Draper, one of only three licensed dance masters in London. At the time, a dancing master had expertise in "grammar (elocution), rhetoric, logic, philosophy, history, music, mathematics and in other arts": ability to dance in "Old Measures" was considered an essential skill for the upper classes. In 1617, Draper became a barrister at Grey's Inn and released Ogilby - who by then was highly accomplished as a dancer and a teacher - from the apprenticeship, allowing him to set up as a master in his own right and to take part in theatrical performances.
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