Thomas Harriot (* 1560; † 12 July 1621) entered the service of Walter Raleigh after studying at Oxford and became a pioneer in the fields of navigation, mathematics and astronomy, though he published only a fraction of his writings during his lifetime, which is why many of his achievements were attributed to other scientists. It is assumed that he deliberately refrained from publishing during his lifetime because he did not want to expose himself to possible suspicion and hostility. Together with Walter Warner and Robert Hues, he was one of Henry Percy’s so-called "tre magi". When the latter was suspected of being involved in the Gunpowder Conspiracy, Harriot was also questioned and briefly imprisoned.
In 1585 he took part in the first attempt to colonise Roanoke organised by Raleigh. For this, he had learned the language of the locals in advance. He was probably the first English tobacco smoker. He corresponded with Johannes Kepler about optics, among other things. Even before Galileo Galilei, he used a telescope to observe the sky. Harriot produced the first map of the moon and was the first to observe sunspots.
Thomas Kyd wrote in a second letter after his arrest that Marlowe had been hanging out with bad company, which included Harriot.
