"A Viag of Ambassad undertaken by the Right Honnorabl S^r 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, Woluensky, 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 {393} 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 a 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 dr[=u]ke 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.