Abraham Hartwell

Abraham Hartwell, the younger (1553/4–1606), was an English translator and antiquary, and Member of Parliament. Another Abraham Hartwell of the period was also an author, publishing Regina Literata in 1564, and the two have in the past been confused.

Life A student of Trinity College, Cambridge, he graduated BA in 1571 and M.A. in 1575, and was incorporated M.A. at Oxford in 1588. At Trinity College, Hartwell apparently attracted the notice of John Whitgift, who made him his secretary, reported in this capacity in 1584. A notary public, he was MP for East Looe in 1586 and Hindon in 1593.

Hartwell is recorded in 1587 as one of the proctors of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Court of Audience.

Hartwell met Richard Hakluyt, who urged him successfully to translate Odoardo Lopez's account of Africa. Hartwell later wrote that he did so "...to help our English Nation, that they might knowe and understand many things, which are common in other languages, but utterly concealed from this poore Island".

He was buried at Lambeth on 17 December 1606. Two short papers which he wrote for the society are printed in Thomas Hearne's 'Curious Discourses,’ London, 1771; they are entitled 'Of Epitaphs' (ii. 375), and 'Of the Antiquity, Variety, and Reason of Motts with Arms of Noblemen and Gentlemen in England' (i. 278), and were both read before the society in 1600.

Two of Hartwell's letters to Whitgift written in Latin survive in the Cambridge University Library.