The Tradescant Collection (The Ark)

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

The Tradescant Collection (The Ark)

Because of their botanical collections, the Tradescants are remembered today, but it is their museum (The Ark) at Lambeth that gave the Ashmolean a valuable, curious collection of 'rarities'. In 1656 a catalogue was printed, which included the contents of both The Ark and its adjacent garden. The earliest surviving account of the Tradescant Collections collection was recorded by Peter Mundy, who went to view 'some rarities at John Tradescans' while on home from leave from the East India Company in 1634. Some of these curios were acquired on their own travels, or by travellers upon request, others curios were given, and the catalogue contains a list of donors. Some purchases were made, including what was reputedly 'the thigh bone of the Hertfordshire giant Jack o' Legs'. The practical function performed by The Ark was the provision of a remarkable collection of exotic flora and fauna which proved of real value to scholars of the day. John Ray studied stuffed birds, including the Dodo which became one of the casualties of over-handling. Unlike other private collections, the The Ark was open to anyone for a fee of 6d. Decorative detail on the Scottish sword blade, probably made for James V - AN1685.B105   The John Tradescants The elder John Tradescant (c. 1570-1638) entered the historical record on his wedding day, 18 June, 1607. Two years later, in 1609, he was appointed gardener to Robert Cecil, first Earl of Salisbury. Working originally at Hatfield House, the Salisbury estate in Hertfordshire, he later found employment under William Cecil, the second Earl, at Salisbury House in the Strand. In 1615, he moved from London to St. Augustine's Palace at Canterbury; a former residence of the Cecil family acquired three years earlier by Edward, Lord Wotton. Tradescant remained under Wotton's patronage until 1623, at which time he entered the service of George Villiers, first Duke of Buckingham. Under Buckingham's patronage, he began work at the Villiers residence at New Hall in Essex. He later transferred his efforts to the grounds of the family's estate at Burley-on-the-Hill. Following Buckingham's assassination in 1628, Tradescant's services again became available, and in 1630, he was summoned to the court of Charles I, who dually appointed him Keeper of his Majesty's Gardens, Vines, and Silkworms at Oatlands Palace in Surrey. It was this position at Oatlands, the home of Henrietta Maria, the King's consort, that forever linked Tradescant's name with that of the ‘Rose and Lilly Queen'. Through his various contacts, the elder Tradescant was granted a number of opportunities for travel abroad, often in pursuit of botanical specimens with which to enhance the gardens of his patrons. In 1610 and 1611, he made two consecutive trips to the Continent, with destinations in France and the Low Countries. In 1618, he sailed with Sir Dudley Digges on a diplomatic mission to Archangel, then known as Muscovy. An account of this expedition survives in Tradescant's handwriting, and can be found today in Oxford's Bodleian Library. Two years later, in 1620, Tradescant sailed again, this time as a volunteer seaman on the Mercury, captained by Phineas Pett, master shipwright to the British Navy. The destination of this particular voyage was Algiers, and the mission was to ‘Quell the Barbary Pirates' harboured there. In 1624, he returned to the Low Countries on behalf of the Duke of Buckingham, with whom he would later travel to Paris and the Ile de Rhé; the latter as part of the ill-fated siege of La Rochelle. The younger John Tradescant (1608-1662) followed in his father's footsteps, both in name and in occupation. At the age of eleven, he enrolled as a scholar at the King's School in Canterbury, where he reaped the benefits of a classical education. In 1634, after a period of apprenticeship, he was admitted a freeman of the Worshipful Company of Gardeners. Three years later, in 1637, he made the first of three voyages to Virginia, ‘to gather up all raritye of flowers, plants, shells, &c.', almost certainly at the king's request. Upon his return, in 1638, he was appointed Keeper of his Majesty's Gardens, Vines, and Silkworms at Oatlands Palace, ‘in place of John Tradescant, his father, deceased'. • Introduction • The Cabinet of Curiosities • The John Tradescants • The Tradescant Collection • Musaeum Tradescantianum • The Tradescant Room • Further Reading • The Catalogue • About this Resource To Faculty of Modern History: Court Culture

The front cover of the Tradescant 'Rarities'