THE TREDESCANTS AND ELIAS ASHMOLE.
Dr. Hamel, of whose memoir of the elder Tredescant and his voyage to Russia I gave some account in Vol. iii., p. 391., being again in England last year, pursued with unremitting zeal his researches into the history of the Tredescants, and has given the results in a short Memoir read before the Imperial Academy of Sciences at Petersburg on the 5th of December last. Having been favoured with a copy of the memoir, and a flattering letter from the writer, I think it incumbent upon me to add to my former communication a brief abstract of this interesting paper.
Dr. Hamel first directed his researches toward an endeavour to develope the means by which Elias Ashmole became the possessor of the Tredescant collection; and naturally expected that he should be able to trace the document of 1659, upon which Ashmole rested his claim to the ownership; but he could not find any such deed.
He was, however, fortunate enough to trace out the original Will of John Tredescant the younger, bearing his seal and signature, made at a subsequent date, and formally proved, after his death in 1662, by his widow Hester. This important document throws much light upon the transaction respecting the Museum, and its destination. Dr. Hamel was naturally much pleased with this discovery, and rejoiced to see for the first time the autograph of a man about whom he had so much interested himself, but was somewhat surprised to find that the name which has been usually written Tradescant was uniformly spelt Tredescant in the body of the Will, as well as in the signature; the seal, bearing the same coat of arms given on a plate in the Catalogue of the Museum, being placed between the syllable Tre and descant. This document runs thus:
"THE LAST WILL AND TESTMANENT OF ME JOHN TREDESCANT.
"In the name of God, Amen.
"The fourth day of April in the yeare of our Lord God one thousand six hundred sixtie-one, I, John Tredescant of South Lambeth in the Countie of Surrey, Gardiner, being at this present of perfect health, minde, and memorie, thanks be therefore given to Almightie God, and calling to minde the uncertaintie of death, and being desirous whilst I am in a Capacity to settle and dispose of such things as God of his goodnesse hath bestowed upon me, doe make and declare this my last Will and Testament as followeth. First and principally I commend and yield my soule into the hands of Almighty God my Creator, and my bodie to the Earth to be decently (according to the quality wherein I have liued) interred as neere as can be to my late deceased Father John Tredescant, and my sonne who lye buried in the parish Churchyard of Lambeth aforesaid, at the discretion of my Executrix hereafter named; hopeing by and through the merits, death, and passion of my onely Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ to have full remission of all my Sinnes, and to see my God in the Land of the Living; and for my temporall Estate I doe will, bequeath, and dispose thereof as followeth. That is to saie, I will that all such debts as shall be by me justly due and owing to anie person or persons whatsoever at the time of my decease (if anie such be) shall be truly paid and satisfied, and after my Funeral charges shall be defrayed, for the doeing whereof I appoint the summe of twenty pounds or thereabouts shall be expended by my Executrix but not more. Item, I giue and bequeath upon the condition hereafter mentioned to my daughter Frances Norman the summe of ten pounds of Lawfull money of England, which I will shall be paid unto her within six moneths after my decease, and likewise I doe forgive her the summe of fourscore pounds or thereabouts, Principall Money, besides the Interest thereof which I long since lent her late deceased husband Alexander Norman. Provided that shee and her husband, if she shall be then againe married, give my Executrix a generall release for the same. Item, I give and bequeath to my two namesakes Robert Tredescant and Thomas Tredescant, of Walberswick in the Countie of Suffolk, to eache of them the summe of five shillings apiece in remembrance of my loue, and to every childe or children of them the [said] Robert and Thomas that shall be liuing at the time of my decease the summe of two shillings and sixpence apiece. Item, I giue to Mris. Marie Edmonds, the daughter of my louing Friend Edward Harper, the summe of one hundred pounds, to be paid unto her after my wife's decease; and in case she die before my said wife, my will is and I doe hereby giue and bequeath the said summe of one hundred pounds, after my wife's decease, to my Foure God-children, vizt. Hester, John, Leonard, and Elizabeth Edmonds, sonnes and daughters of the said Mris. Mary Edmonds Equally to be diuided amongst them, share and share alike; and if either of them die before he, her, or they receiue their share or portion so to be diuided, then the said share or portion of him, her, or them so dying to goe and be giuen to the survivor and survivors of them, share and share alike. Item, I doe hereby giue, will, devise and bequeath to my Cosin Katharine King, widdow, after the decease of my wife, the Little House commonly called the Welshmans house situate in South Lambeth aforesaid, together with that Little Piece of Ground now enclosed thereunto adjoyning; and to her heirs and assignes for euer. Item, I giue, devize, and bequeath my Closet of Rarities to my dearly beloued wife Hester Tredescant during her naturall Life, and after her decease I giue and bequeath the same to the Universities of Oxford or Cambridge, to which of them shee shall think fitt at her decease. As for such other of my friends and kindred as I should nominate for Rings and small tokens of my Loue, I leaue that to the Care of my said wife to bestow how manie and to whome shee shall think deseruing. The rest and Residue of all my Estate Reall and personall whatsoeuer, I wholly giue, devize, and bequeath to my deare and louing wife Hester Tredescant, and to her heires and assignes for euer. And I doe hereby nominate, ordaine, constitute, and appoint my said Louing Wife Hester Tredescant full and sole Executrix of this my last will and Testament; and I doe desire Dr. Nurse and Mr. Mark Cottle to be Ouerseers of this my last Will and Testament, and I giue to each of them fortie shillings apiece. Lastly, I doe hereby revoke all Wills by me formerly made, and will that this onely shall stand and be my last will and Testament, and no other. In Wittnesse whereof I the said John Tredescant to this my present last will and testament haue set my hand and seale the daie and yeare aboue written.
"JOHN TRE (L.S.) DESCANT.
"Signed, sealed, published, and declared by the said John Tredescant the Testator, as and for his last Will and Testament, in the presence of John Seatewell, Foulk Bignall, Robert Thompson, Junris, Ric. Newcourt, Junr, Richard Hoare, Notary Publique.
"Probatum apud London coram venerabili viro Dño Williamo Mericke milite Legum Doctore Commissario, etc., quinto die mensis May Anno Domini 1662, iuramento Hestore Tredescant, Relicte dicti defuncti et Executricis, etc."
It will be recollected that Ashmole, in his Diary, says—
"Decem. 12, 1659. Mr. Tredescant and his wife told me they had been long considering upon whom to bestow their close of curiosities when they died, and at last resolved to give it unto me."
Two days afterwards (on the 14th) they had given their scrivener instructions to prepare a deed of gift to that effect, which was executed by Tredescant, his wife being a subscribing witness on the 16th, as Ashmole records with astrological minuteness, "5 hor. 30 minutes post meridian." On May 30th, 1662, little more than a month after John Tredescant's death, he records—
"This Easter term, I preferred a bill in Chancery against Mrs. Tredescant, for the rarities her husband had settled on me."
Dr. Hamel succeeded in finding the protocols in this suit among the records of the Court of Chancery, in which Ashmole sets forth, that in December, 1659, he visited the Tredescants in South Lambeth, and that he was entertained by Tredescant and his wife with great professions of kindness. That Mrs. Tredescant told him that her husband had come to the determination to bequeath to him "the rarities and antiquities, bookes, coynes, medalls, stones, pictures, and mechanicks contained in his Closett of Raryties, knowing the great esteeme and value he put upon it." That Tredescant himself had afterwards said to him, that in acknowledgment of his (Ashmole's) previous trouble concerning the preparation of the catalogue of his museum and gardens,[2] he purposed to do so, and that in effect Ashmole and Mrs. Tredescant, as long as she lived, should enjoy it together. Ashmole also says, Tredescant had made it a condition that he should, after Mrs. Tredescant's decease, pay a certain Mary Edmonds, or her children, one hundred pounds sterling. That he did then actually let a deed be prepared, by which he made over to him his collection of every kind of curiosities of nature and art within or near the house (Ashmole here cunningly includes the botanic garden); Mrs. Tredescant was to have the joint proprietorship, and nothing was to be abstracted from the collection.
[2] In the preface to the catalogue the assistance of two friends is mentioned; it appears that the other was Dr. Thomas Warton.
This deed Tredescant had, on the 16th of December (1659), confirmed under his hand and seal. Mrs. Tredescant fetched a Queen Elizabeth's milled shilling, which Tredescant handed over to him, together with the conveyance, and thereby he came into possession of the collection.[3]
[3] Ashmole says, "It was not thought fit to clogge the deed with the payment of the said hundred pounds to Mrs. Edmonds or her children, to the end that the same might better appear to be a free and generous gift, and therefore the consideracion of the deed was expressed to be for the entire affeccion and singular esteeme the said John Tredescant had to him (Ashmole), who he did not doubt would preserve and augment the said rarities for posterity." He declares that he will pay the money; and in his Diary we find that after Mrs. Tredescant's death, in 1678, he pays to a Mrs. Lea, probably one of the daughters of Mrs. Edmonds, one hundred pounds.
Mrs. Tredescant had signed the deed as witness; but, when Ashmole was about to leave the house, she had requested him to leave it with her, as she wished to ask some of her friends whether, by having signed it as witness, her right as joint proprietress of the collection might not be diminished. He left the document with her, in expectation that it would soon be restored to him, but this was never done. Now, after the death of Tredescant, she maintains that her husband never made such a conveyance; but the truth is she has burnt or destroyed it in some other manner.
Against this Mrs. Tredescant refers to her husband's last will and testament of the 4th of May, 1661, by which all previous dispositions of his property, of whatever kind, were declared invalid, and strongly urges that the museum was expressly bequeathed to her and her alone, with the stipulation that she should leave it either to the University of Oxford or to that of Cambridge. And she adds, that she had determined to leave it to the University of Oxford.
I must not now further trespass upon your space; you shall have the sequel for your next Number.
S. W. SINGER.
Manor Place, So. Lambeth.