Notes on Books, &c. [406]
Books and Odd Volumes wanted [406]
Notices to Correspondents [406]
Advertisements [407]
[List of Notes and Queries volumes and pages]
Notes.
THE TREDESCANTS AND ELIAS ASHMOLE.
(Continued from p. 368.)
Whether it was Ashmole's influence, or that the equity of the case was on his side, is uncertain; but the Court of Chancery decided in his favour, and he was declared the proprietor of the Tredescantian Museum. He obtained, without being able to produce any written document which declared his right to the possession, all that the two Tredescants, father and son, had with inexpressible trouble, and by means of many voyages, brought together in their Museum and Botanic Garden.
The judgement of the Lord Chancellor[1] (Clarendon) was:
"He, Ashmole, shall have and enjoy all and singular the bookes, coynes, medalls, stones, pictures, mechanicks, and antiquities, and all and every other the raryties and curiosities, of what sort or kind soever, whether naturall or artificiall, which were in John Tredescant's Closett, or in or about his house at South Lambeth the 16th December, 1659, and which were commonly deemed, taken, and reputed as belonging or appertaining to the said Closett, or Collection of Rarities, an abstract whereof was heretofore printed under the tytle of 'Museum Tredescantianum.'"