Frederick Clod

Frederick Clod (or Clodius) (1625 – after 1661), was a physician and ‘mystical chemist’ of German extraction. He lived in a sizeable house (taxed on eight hearths) in Axe Yard, London, next door to the Hartlibs, whose daughter Mary he married in 1660. He was also a neighbour to the diarist Samuel Pepys, who mentions him several times.[1] He was a minor figure in scientific circles and a friend of Robert Boyle, to which he supplied some very varied recipes.[2]

He came to England in 1652, having been recommended to Samuel Hartlib by Johann Moriaen. He had been in the service of Frederick III of Denmark, collecting "Rarities", and himself was a native of Holstein.[3]

He presided at the wedding of his sister-in-law Nan Hartlib to Johannes Rothe in 1660. Pepys, a guest at the wedding, describes it as a social event of great magnificence: this suggests that Clod was a man of some wealth, since the Hartlibs were then living in poverty, and Nan's father could not possibly have paid for the wedding.