JOHN TRADESCANT PROBABLY AN ENGLISHMAN, AND HIS VOYAGE TO RUSSIA IN 1618.
(Vol. iii., pp. 119. 286. 353.)
Dr. Rimbault justly observes that "the history of the Tradescants is involved in considerable obscurity." He does not, however, seem to have been aware that some light has been thrown on that of the elder John Tradescant by the researches of Dr. Hamel, in his interesting Memoir published in the Transactions of the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg in 1847, with the following title:—"Tradescant der Æltere 1618 in Russland. Der
Handelsverkehr zwischen England und Russland in seiner Entstehung," &c.
Dr. Rimbault's note contains a good epitome of the most obvious English notices respecting the Tradescants; but while correcting the errors of others, he has himself fallen into one important mistake, in stating that "Old John Tradescant died in 1652;" for that is the date of the death of his grandson, John, who died young. Old John died in 1638, leaving a son, also named John, who was born in 1608, and died in 1662, having survived his only son ten years; and, having no heir to his treasures, he had previously conveyed them, by deed of gift, to Elias Ashmole, who seems to have contrived to make himself agreeable to him by his pursuits as a virtuoso, and by his alchemical and astrological fancies. When Dr. Hamel was in England, I had the pleasure of indicating to him the site of "Tradescant's Ark" in South Lambeth. It was situate on the east side of the road leading from Vauxhall to Stockwell, nearly opposite to what was formerly called Spring Lane. Ashmole built a large brick house near that which had been Tradescant's, out of the back of part of which he made offices. The front part of it became the habitation of the well-known antiquary, Dr. Ducarel. It still remains as two dwellings; the one, known as "Turret House," is occupied by John Miles Thorn, Esq., and the other, called "Stamford House," is the dwelling of J. A. Fulton, Esq.
In his indefatigable researches to elucidate the early intercourse between England and Russia, Dr. Hamel's attention was accidentally called to the Tradescants and their Museum; and the following passage in Parkinson's Paradisus Terrestris, p. 345. (Art. "Neesewort," then called Elleborus albus), led to the discovery of a relation of Old John's voyage to Russia:—
"This (says Parkinson) grows in many places in Germany, and likewise in certain places in Russia, in such abundance, that, according to the relation of that worthy, curious, and diligent searcher and preserver of all nature's rarities and varieties, my very good friend John Tradescante, of whom I have many times before spoken, a moderately large ship (as he says) might be laden with the roots thereof, which he there saw on a certain island."
The same notice, in other words, also occurs in Parkinson's Theatrum, p. 218.
In searching among the MSS. in the Ashmolean Museum, Dr. Hamel bore this passage in memory, and one MS., thus described in Mr. Black's excellent catalogue, No. 824., xvi., contained confirmatory matter:
"A Voiag of Ambassad undertaken by the Right Honnorabl Sr Dudlie Diggs, in the year 1618."
"This curious narrative of the voyage round the North Cape to Archangel, begins with a list of the chief persons employed in the embassy, and contains observations of the weather, and on the commercial, agricultural, and domestic state of Russia at that time. It is written in a rude hand, and by a person unskilled in composition. The last half page contains some chronological notes and other stuff, perhaps written by the same hand."
Thus far Mr. Black. The full title of the MS. is,—
"A Viag of Ambassad undertaken by the Right Honnorabl Sr Dudlie Diggs in the year 1618, being atended on withe 6 Gentillmen, whiche beare the nam of the king's Gentillmen, whose names be heere notted. On M. Nowell, brother to the Lord Nowell, M. Thomas Finche, M. Woodward, M. Cooke, M. Fante, and M. Henry Wyeld, withe every on of them ther man. Other folloers, on Brigges, Interpreter, M. Jams, an Oxford man, his Chaplin, on M. Leake his Secretary, withe 3 Scots; on Captain Gilbert and his Son, withe on Car, also M. Mathew De Quester's Son, of Filpot Lane, in London, the rest his own retenant, some 13 whearof (Note on Jonne an Coplie wustersher men) M. Swanli of Limhouse, master of the good Ship called the Dianna of Newcastell, M. Nelson, part owner of Newe Castell."
Dr. Hamel says:
"What the words in Italics may signify is not quite clear, but that 'on Jonne' must relate to Tradescante himself. Perhaps this passage may lead to the discovery that Tradescant did not, as it has been conjectured, come from Holland, but that he was a native of Worcestershire. The name Tradescant might be an assumed one (it was also written Tradeskin, which might be interpreted Fellmonger)."
From documents in the archives at Moscow, Dr. Hamel recovered the Christian names, and a list of Sir Dudley Digges' attendants in this voyage, which corresponds with that in the MS., thus:—Arthur Nowell, Thomas Woodward, Adam Cooke, Joseph Fante, Thomas Leake, Richard James, George Brigges, Jessy De Quester, Adam Jones, Thomas Wakefield, John Adams, Thomas Crisp, Leonard Hugh, and John Coplie. This last must therefore have designated John Tradescant himself, who was certainly there.
Sir Dudley Digges, to whom Tradescant seems to have attached himself in order to obtain knowledge of the plants and other natural curiosities of Russia, was sent by King James I. to the Czar Michael Fedorowitsch, who had in the previous year despatched an embassy to the king, principally to negotiate for a loan. This ambassador, Wolünsky, returned at the same time, in another vessel accompanying that of Sir Dudley.
Dr. Hamel in his memoir has given considerable extracts from the MS. narrative of the voyage, which show that Tradescant was an accurate observer not only of objects connected with his studies of phytology and natural history, but of other matters. Parkinson has justly styled him "a painful industrious searcher and lover of all natural varieties;" and elsewhere says: "My very
good friend, John Tradescantes, has wonderfully laboured to obtain all the rarest fruits hee can heare of in any place of Christendome, Turky, yea, or the whole world." The passages in the journal of his voyage, which prove it to be indubitably his, are numerous, but the one which first struck Dr. Hamel was sufficient; for in following the narrator on the Dwina, and the islands there, and, among others, to Rose Island, he found this note, "Helebros albus, enoug to load a ship." There are, however, others confirmatory beyond a doubt. Parkinson, in his Paradisus Terrestris, p. 528., has the following passage:—
"There is another (strawberry) very like unto this (the Virginia strawberry, which carrieth the greatest leafe of any other except the Bohemian), that John Tradescante brought with him from Brussels (l. Russia) long ago, and in seven years could never see one berry ripe on all sides, but still the better part rotten, although it would flower abundantly every yeare, and beare very large leaves."
Tradescant mentions that he also saw strawberries to be sold in Russia, but could never get of the plants, though he saw the berries three times at Sir D. Digges's table; but as they were in nothing differing from ours, but only less, he did not much seek after them. It is most probable that he brought seed, as he did of another berry, of which he sent part, he tells us, to his correspondent Vespasian Robin at Paris.
Of a man to whom the merit is due of having founded the earliest Museum of Natural History and Rarities of Art in England, and who possessed one of the first, and at the same the best, Botanic Garden, every little particular must be interesting, and it would be pleasing to find that he was an Englishman, and not a foreigner. The only ground for the latter supposition is, I believe, the assertion of Anthony à Wood, that he was a Fleming or a Dutchman. The name Tradescant is, however, neither Flemish nor Dutch, and seems to me much more like an assumed English pseudonyme. That he was neither a Dutchman nor a Fleming will, I think, be obvious from the following passage in the narration of his travels:
"Also, I haue been tould that theare growethe in the land bothe tulipes and narsisus. By a Brabander I was tould it, thoug by his name I should rather think him a Holander. His name is Jonson, and hathe a house at Archangell. He may be eyther, for he [is] always drūke once in a day."
Now, had Tradescant himself been a Fleming or a Dutchman, he would at least have been able to speak decisively on this occasion; to say nothing of the vice of intemperance which he attributes to the natives of those countries. Again, it is quite clear that this journal of travels was written by Tradescant; yet that name does not appear either in the MS. or in the Russian archives: but we have John Coplie in both, with the indication in the MS. that he was a Worcestershire man. Let us therefore, on these grounds, place him in the list of English worthies to whom we owe a debt of gratitude. But supposing Tradescant to have been his real name, it is quite evident that he travelled under the name of John Coplie; and it is perhaps vain to speculate upon the reasons for the assumption of a pseudonyme either way.
Dr. Richard James, who accompanied Sir Dudley Digges as chaplain, appears, from Turner's account of his MSS., which are deposited in the Bodleian, to have left behind him a MS. account of his travels in Russia, in five sheets; but his MS. seems to have been lost or mislaid in that vast emporium, or we might have some confirmation from it respecting Tradescant.
South Lambeth was in former times one of the most agreeable and salubrious spots in the vicinity of London, and at the time when Tradescant first planted his garden he must have had another worthy and distinguished man for a neighbour, Sir Noel Caron, who was resident ambassador here from the States of Holland for twenty-eight years. His estate contained 122 acres; he was a benefactor to the poor of his vicinity by charitable actions, some of which remain as permanent monuments of his benevolence, in the shape of almshouses, situate in the Wandsworth Road. The site of Caron House is now possessed by Henry Beaufoy, Esq., who has worthily emulated the deeds of his predecessor by acts of munificent benevolence, which must be fraught with incalculable good for ages yet to come. Mr. Beaufoy has, among his literary treasures, a very interesting collection of letters in MS., written in French, by Sir Noel Caron to Constantine Huyghens, I think, which contain many curious illustrations of the events of that period.
Let us hope that time may bring to light further and more complete materials for the biography of these Lambethan worthies, who have deserved to live in our memories as benefactors to mankind.
S. W. Singer.
Manor Place, So. Lambeth, May 5. 1851.