Nicholas Ferrar was an English scholar, courtier, businessman and cleric. Ordained deacon in the Church of England, and having lost much of the family fortune in the Virginia Company, he retreated with his extended family in 1626 to the manor of Little Gidding in Huntingdonshire. There he lived for his remaining years in an informal spiritual community, following High Anglican practice. His friend, the poet and minister George Herbert on his deathbed sent Ferrar the manuscript of The Temple, telling him to publish the poems if he thought they might "turn to the advantage of any dejected poor soul." "If not, let him burn it; for I and it are less than the least of God's mercies." Ferrar published them in 1633 and Herbert's poems have remained in print ever since.
Some final, unfinished thoughts a few weeks before his death aged forty-six, in 1637, Essay on Nicholas Ferrar, Jane Falloon, Heart of Pilgrimage-A Study of George Hertbert, Author House,Milton Keynes 2007 ISBN 978-1-4259-7755-9
