imprisoned for nearly the whole of July 1584, and in the summer of 1585 he was robbed, assaulted, and sent to prison. The assault was perhaps due to his personal immoralities, of which he left an elaborate record in his diaries. Women figured largely among his patients, and his treatment of them was very unprofessional. In 1588 he began to publicly practise necromancy, and to 'call angels and spirits.' In 1589 he was impressed for the Portugal voyage, but he seems to have been released from service within a month. On 26 July 1590 he was threatened with process in the Star-chamber. His fortunes suffered eclipse, and he was near starvation. With a view to improving his position he began writing a treatise on mathematics and medicine. In 1592 the tide turned in his favour. He worked assiduously and with great success among the poor in plague-stricken districts of London, where few doctors ventured. He himself caught the infection. The College of Physicians summoned him in May 1593 for practising without a license. He confessed that he had practised in England for sixteen years, but in London for two only; claimed to have effected many cures: acknowledged that the only medical authors he studied were 'Cockes and Wainefleet' (the first is probably a reference to Francis Coxe [q. v.]), and boasted that he used no other help to know diseases than the 'Ephemerides.' He declared that celestial signs and aspects gave him all the information about diseases that he required. The physicians reported that he was laughably ignorant of medicine and astronomy. He was interdicted from the practice of medicine, and was fined 5l., which he promised to pay.
Forman had no intention of relinquishing his work. In 1594 he began experiments with the philosopher's stone and wrote a book on magic. Persons moving in high society, especially ladies, began to employ him. In 1595 he went aboard 'my Earl of Cumberland's ship' to attend Lady Hawkins, and in September 1601 he wrote that he had made the acquaintance of Lord Hertford. To his poor patients he always remained accessible. But the physicians still refused to tolerate him. On 7 Nov. 1595 he was re-examined by them and was sent to prison and fined 10l. On 22 Dec. the lord keeper Egerton ordered his release and demanded from the physicians an explanation of their conduct. In September 1596 he was charged by the college with administering a water of his own manufacture, in the success of which he thoroughly believed, to a patient who died after drinking it. The physicians again sent him to prison, but he was set free in November. In September 1597 he was charged before the lord mayor with assaulting a woman, and was in the Counter for a fortnight. In 1597 he took a house at Lambeth so as to be within the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury and free from the attacks of the physicians. But he seems to have suffered again at their hands in 1598, and on 25 June 1601 the College of Physicians petitioned Archbishop Whitgift to allow them to proceed against him once more.
Forman had now acquired many powerful friends. On 26 June 1603 the university of Cambridge gave him a license to practise medicine (Ashmole MS. 1301, now 1763, f. 44), and on 27 June he proceeded M.D. from Jesus College. On 30 March 1607 a number of patients complained to the College of Physicians of Forman's prophetic methods of cure, and of the high charges which he demanded for his drugs. But until the end of his life Forman's connection among ladies of the court increased. At the trial of those charged with the murder of Sir Thomas Overbury in 1615, four years after Forman's death, it was shown that one of the defendants, Mrs. Turner, had constantly consulted Forman in order not only to forward an intrigue of her own with Sir Arthur Mainwaring, but also to assist her friend the Countess of Essex, who was seeking a divorce from the Earl of Essex (D'Ewes, Autob. i. 87). A very familiar letter was produced in court, written by the countess to Forman, in which she asked him to alienate by his magical philtres the love of her husband Essex, and to draw towards her the love of the Earl of Somerset. Indecent images in wax of the persons concerned in these scandals were brought into court by Forman's widow. A book in his handwriting was also produced containing the names of his female clients and accounts of their intrigues with gentlemen about the court of which they had given the doctor secret knowledge. It is stated that Lord-chief-justice Coke was about to read out these notes when his attention was attracted to the name of his own wife (State Trials, ii. 931-2: Weldon, Court of James I, ed. Sir W. Scott, i. 418; cf. Ashmole MS. 411, f. 179). Forman was likewise reported to be especially skilful in tracking thieves and stolen treasure poem entitled 'Overbury's Vision' (1616), Overbury is made to say that he often crossed the river to Lambeth, where
Forman was, that fiend in human shape,
That by his art did act the devil's ape.
Forman died 12 Sept. 1611, and was buried
