Robert Herrick was the fourth son of Nicholas Herrick, a London goldsmith; he was baptized on 24th August 1591. On the 9th of November of the following year his father died in a fall from the fourth floor window of the family home in Goldsmith’s Row in Cheapside. Suicide was suspected, but Nicholas Herrick’s estate went, in fulfilment of the terms of his will, to his wife Juliana (sometimes referred to as Julian or Julia) and his children. Juliana Herrick did not remarry. The young Herrick presumably received his schooling in London, though no record of it is known. In 1607 he was apprenticed, for the normal period of ten years, to his uncle Sir William Herrick, a well-to-do goldsmith. The apprenticeship was terminated, however, after j

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First published 26 October 2000

Citation: Pursglove, Glyn. "Robert Herrick". The Literary Encyclopedia. 26 October 2000.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2110, accessed 20 November 2009.]