BACKHOUSE, WILLIAM Kenning's Cyclopaedia states that Backhouse reported to be an alchemist and astrologer and that Ashmole called him father. He published a Rosicrucian work, The Wise Man's Croton, or Rosicrucian Physic, by Eugenius Theodidactus, in 1651at London. John Heydon published a book entitled William Backhouse's Way to Bliss, but Ashmole claims it in his diary to be his own.