[1] "The means of exhibiting Lord Clarendon as an equity judge," says Mr. Lister, "and of estimating his efficiency, are very scanty. The political functions of the Lord Chancellor then preponderated over the judicial functions much more than at present." He had for twenty years ceased to practise at the bar, and the very different avocations of that long period may have tended to unfit him. It is said that he never made a decree without the assistance of two of the judges: this implies a consciousness of want of knowledge, but, as his biographer says, "does not prove that the precaution was required."
Mrs. Tredescant was adjudged to have merely during her life a kind of custody of, or guardianship over the collection, "subject to the Trust for the Defendant during her life."
The Lord Chancellor further decreed that a commission should be named to inquire whether everything was forthcoming which was named in the Catalogue; in order that if anything was missing she should be constrained to replace it, and give security that nothing should be lost in future. The commissioners appointed to carry into effect the Chancellor's decree were however two persons with whom Ashmole must have been on terms of intimate friendship, namely, Sir Edward Bysh and Sir William Dugdale, both Heralds like himself; and with the latter he at length became most intimately connected by marrying his daughter. To them was also added, in his official capacity, Sir William Glascock, a Master in Chancery. Tredescant's widow, as may be imagined, did not very quietly submit to this, as it seemed to her, unjust decree; but all her endeavours at opposition were fruitless; she was constrained to yield; and it seems probable that the depressing influence of this struggle affected her so much as to cause her death. She was found drowned in the pond in the garden cultivated by her husband and his father at South Lambeth, on the 3rd of April, 1678.
Whatever may have been the legal or equitable right of Ashmole, upon which the decree in Chancery was founded, it is impossible for a generous mind to come to any other conclusion than that the course he pursued was unworthy of him as a man of education, and of his wealth and station; for it must be obvious from the will of Tredescant, that even supposing he had willingly and wittingly made a deed of gift of his treasures to Ashmole, and given him formal possession by handing over the Queen Elizabeth's shilling, it is next to impossible to believe that Ashmole did not know that he repented that act, and wished to connect his own name with the bequest to the University. Dr. Hamel[2] is induced to think that many of Tredescant's curiosities were never sent to Oxford; that there had been a careful suppression of every written document which might serve to connect the name of the Tredescants with the collection; and that the relation of the voyage to Russia only escaped because it bore no mark by which it could be recognised as Tradescant's.
[2] Dr. Hamel sought in vain at the Ashmolean Museum for some of the articles which the elder Tredescant brought home from Russia; among others, for an article occurring at p. 46. of the Tredescant Catalogue, described as "The Duke of Muscovy's vest, wrought with gold upon the breast and arms," which he thinks may have belonged to the Wojewode of Archangel, Wassiljewitch Chilkow. He however found nothing but the head of a Sea-diver, the remains of a whole bird described by Tredescant as a "Gorara or Colymbus from Muscovy:" the body seems to have shared the same fate as that of the Dodo. Another remarkable article occurring in the Catalogue is pointed out by Dr. Hamel, viz. "Blood that rained in the Isle of Wight, attested by Sir Jo. Oglander." This article, had it been preserved, he thinks might have proved of great scientific importance, as it is possible that it may have been some of that meteoric red dust which is recorded in the Chronicle of Bromton as having fallen in the Isle of Wight in the year 1177. The words of the Chronicle are: "Anno 1177 die Dominica post Pentecostes sanguineus imber cecidit in insula de Whit, fere per duas hores integras, ita quod panni linei per sepes ad siccandum suspensi, rore illo sanguineo sic aspersi fuerant acsi in vaso aliquo pleno sanguine mersi essent." Sir John Oglander, whose attestation is mentioned, was the immediate descendant of Richard de Okelander, who came over with William the Conqueror. Tredescant most probably became known to him when gardener to the Duke of Buckingham, with whom Sir John was joint commissioner for levies in Hampshire.
"The more we examine the Catalogue of the Museum Tredescantianum," says Dr. Hamel, "the more we are astonished that it was possible for these Gardeners (for such, we see, is the modest denomination the younger Tredescant assumes in his will) to get together so many and such various objects of curiosity, and to become the founders of the first collection of curiosities of Nature and Art in England."
Such men, and their endeavours to promote a love for, and to advance natural science, deserved at least to have had their names perpetuated with their collection; and whatever may be the merits of Ashmole as an antiquary, notwithstanding I am one of the fraternity, I must confess that although he has some claim to consideration for having augmented the collection, the Tredescants rank far above him as benefactors of mankind.
The mention, in the will of Robert and Thomas Tredescant, of Walberswick, in the county of Suffolk, is, I think, decisive that the elder Tredescant was an Englishman. In the relation of his voyage to Russia he shows that he was familiar with the aspect of the two adjoining counties of Essex and Norfolk. Dr. Hamel has directed his inquiries toward the registry of the church at Walberswick, in which he was aided by Mr. Ellis of Southwold; but unfortunately the existing register commences a century too late, the first entry being of the year 1756. In Gardner's Historical Account of Dunwich, Blithburg, and Southwold, 1754, there are notices of Walberswick, but the name of Tredescant does not occur.
I have just learned that the late MR. TRADESCANT LAY claimed descent from the Tredescants; and it seems probable that it was through the MRS. LEA, to whom Ashmole paid the 100l. on account of Tredescant's bequest. Ashmole may have written Lea for Lay, or the name, as often happens, may have assumed the latter form in the lapse of time.
It is remarkable that Mr. Tradescant Lay was the Naturalist attached to Beechey's expedition, and published The Voyage of the Himmaleh. He went subsequently to China, on account of the missions, but afterwards received an appointment under the government (probably that of interpreter). In the year 1841 he put forth an interesting little work, entitled The Chinese as they are; and he was at least worthy of the descent he claimed.