Note - it is not claimed that everyone one this page was a strict vegetarian! But they often had interesting views that are relevant to the wider issues.

Previous Vegetarian Timeline - The Ancient World

• 1398 - Kabir's Call to Compassion (1398/1440 to 1448/1518 - opinons vary....) (World Congress 1957)
  
  
• 1452 - Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
  
  
• 1465 - Luigi Cornaro (1465-1566)
  
  
• 1478 - Sir Thomas More (1478-1535)
  
  
• ???? - Philip Stubbes (pub. 1583) - from The Ethics of Diet, by Howard Williams 1883
• 1533 - Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533-1592)
  
  
• 1551 - Francis Bacon 1561-1626 - from The Ethics of Diet, by Howard Williams 1883
  
  
• 1553 - Thomas Moffet M.D. 1553-1604 - from The Ethics of Diet, by Howard Williams 1883
• 1554 - Leonardo Lessio (1554-1623) - from The Ethics of Diet, by Howard Williams 1883
  
  
• 1592 - Francis Quarles (1592-1644)
  - Pierre Gassendi (l592-1655)
  
  
• 1596 - Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
  
  
• 1608 - John Milton (1608-1674)
  
  
• 1618 - Abraham Cowley (1618-1667) - from The Ethics of Diet, by Howard Williams 1883
  
  
• 1620 - John Evelyn (1620-1706) - from The Ethics of Diet, by Howard Williams 1883
• 1621 - Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)
  
  
• 1627 - Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet (1627-1704) - from The Ethics of Diet, by Howard Williams 1883
• 1628 - John Ray (1628-1704)
  - Español - John Ray
  
  
• 1634 - Thomas Tryon 1634-1703
  
  
• 1642 - Sir Isaac Newton 1642-1727
  - Español Sir Isaac Newton
  - Français Sir Isaac Newton
  
  
• 1661 -Philippe Hecquet M.D. 1661-1737 - from The Ethics of Diet, by Howard Williams 1883
  
  
• 1667 - George Granville (Lord Lansdowne) 1667-1735
  
  
• 1670 - Bernard de Mandeville 1670-1733
  
• 1671 - George Cheyne 1671-1743
  
  
• 1688 - Alexander Pope 1688-1744
• 1688 - Emanuel Swedenborg 1688-1772
• 1688 - John Gay (1688-1732) - from The Ethics of Diet, by Howard Williams 1883
  
  
• 1694 - Philip Dormer, Lord Chesterfield 1694-1773 - from The Ethics of Diet, by Howard Williams 1883
• 1694 - Voltaire (1694-1778)
• 1695 - Antonio Cocchi 1695-1758 - from The Ethics of Diet, by Howard Williams 1883
  
  
• 1700 - James Thomson 1700-1748 - from The Ethics of Diet, by Howard Williams 1883
  
  
• 1703 - John Wesley 1703-1791
• 1704 - Soame Jenyns 1704-1787 - from The Ethics of Diet, by Howard Williams 1883
  
• 1705 - David Hartley (1705-1757)
• 1706 - Benjamin Franklin 1706-1790
• 1707 - George Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon 1707-1788
• 1707 - Karl von Linné 1707-1778 - from The Ethics of Diet, by Howard Williams 1883
• 1708 - Albrecht von Haller 1708-1777 - from The Ethics of Diet, by Howard Williams 1883
  
  
• 1712 - Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1712 - 1778
  
  
• 1715 - John Hawkesworth 1715-1773
  
  
• 1721 - The Ephrata community 120 years ago (PDF 3mb) The Ephrata 'vegan' community was founded by German settlers in Pennsylvania in 1721, this account pub.1905.
  - Souvenir book of the Ephrata cloister (PDF 6mb) complete history, pub.1921
  
  
• 1723 - Adam Smith 1723-1790 - from The Ethics of Diet by Howard Williams, 1883
  
  
• 1726 - John Howard 1726-1790
  
  
• 1728 - Oliver Goldsmith 1728-1774
  
  
• 1730 - John Oswald 1730-1793 - from The Ethics of Diet by Howard Williams, 1883
• 1731 - William Cowper 1731-1800 - from The Ethics of Diet by Howard Williams, 1883
  
  
• 1734 - Jean Baptiste Pressavin b.1734 - from The Ethics of Diet by Howard Williams, 1883
  
  
• 1737 - Thomas Paine 1737-1809
  1737 - Bernardin de St. Pierre 1737-1814 - from The Ethics of Diet by Howard Williams, 1883
  1737 - Edward Gibbon 1737-1794 - from The Ethics of Diet by Howard Williams, 1883
  
  
• 1743 - Thomas Jefferson 1743-1826
  1743 - William Paley 1743-1805 - from The Ethics of Diet by Howard Williams, 1883
  
  
• 1748 - Jeremy Bentham 1748-1832
  - Español - Jeremy Bentham
  - Italiano - Jeremy Bentham
  
  
• 1750 - Lord (Thomas) Erskine 1750-1823
  
  
• 1754 - Sir John Sinclair 1754-1835 - from The Ethics of Diet, by Howard Williams 1883
  
  
• 1756 - William Godwin 1756-1836
  
  
• 1759 - Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller 1759-1805 - from The Ethics of Diet, by Howard Williams 1883
  1759 - Mary Wollstonecraft 1759-1797
• 1760 - George Nicholson 1760-1825
  
• 1761 - Joseph Ritson 1761-1803
• 1762 - Christian Wilhelm Hufeland 1762-1836
  
• 1763 - John Abernethy 1763-1831 - from The Ethics of Diet, by Howard Williams 1883
  1763 - Rev. William Cowherd 1763-1816 - founded the Bible Christian Church in 1809
  
  
• 1765 - Dr. William Lambe 1765-1847
  
  
• 1767 - Sir Richard Phillips 1767-1840
  
  
• 1770 - John Frank Newton 1770-?1827
  
  
• 1773 - Jean Antoine Gleïzès 1773-1843 - from The Ethics of Diet, by Howard Williams 1883
• 1774 - Robert Southey 1774-1843
  1774 - Johnny Appleseed 1774-1845
  
  
• 1777 - James Pierrepont Greaves 1777-1842
  
  
• 1779 - Lewis Gompertz 1779-1865
  
  
• 1783 - Joseph Brotherton - 1783-1857, became a Bible Christian, Salford's first M.P. (1832), and chaired the first meeting of the first Vegetarian Society (1847)
  
  
• 1788 - William Metcalfe 1788-1862 - founded the Bible Christian Church in America in 1817
• 1788 - Lord (George Gordon) Byron 1788-1824
• 1788 - Arthur Schopenhauer 1788-1860 Germany
• 1789 - William Harvey (1789-1870) - became the second President of the Vegetarian Society in 1859
• 1789 - Thomas Forster M.D. 1789-1860 - from The Ethics of Diet, by Howard Williams 1883
• 1790 - Alphonse de Lamartine 1790-1869
  1790 - William Oldham b.1790 - Business Manager of The Concordium and 1st treasurer of the Vegetarian Society
  - The Dorrellites (PDF 30mb) 'vegan' community in 1790s New England. See pp.82-89 of this extremely hostile volume of 'History and proceedings of the Pocumtuck Valley memorial association' pub.1898.
  
  
• 1792 - Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792-1822 - his writings had a significant influence on later vegetarian organisers
  - Georgiana Fletcher Welch (nee Ford) b.1792 - patron of The Concordium
  
  
• 1795 - Sophia Chichester (nee Ford) 1795-1847 Patron of The Concordium
• 1795 - Sylvester Graham 1795-1851 - co-founder of the American Vegetarian Society (1850)
  - Español - Sylvester Graham
  
  
• 1797 - Jules Michelet 1797-1874 - from The Ethics of Diet, by Howard Williams 1883
• 1797 - Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley 1797-1851
• 1798 - William Andrus Alcott 1798-1859 - co-founder of the American Vegetarian Society in 1850
  
• 1799 - Thomas Hood 1799-1845
• 1799 - Bronson Alcott 1799-1888
  
  
• The next Vegetarian Timeline : The Nineteenth Century to 1888