Above left: John Tradescant the Elder (c.1570-1638); Right: John Tradescant the Younger (1608-1662) Courtesy Ashmolean Museum
The John Tradescants
Both the Tradescants became famous in their own time. They were gardeners to royalty, collectors of curiosities, travellers and importers of exotic plants. The John Tradescants are buried in the church yard of St Mary-at-Lambeth which is now the Museum of Garden History, along with the other family members. The knot garden at the museum is in the style of the Tradescants' time.
To be 'curious' was a compliment in Elizabethan/Jacobean times and both Tradescants became famous for gardening, design, travel and their collection of curiosities. The epitaph on their tombstone describes very well why they became well known, and the interest there is today in their activities. This can be read today on their tomb at the museum.
The John Tradescant the Elder first travelled after 1609 when he entered the service of Robert Cecil who became the first Earl of Salisbury. He visited Europe to bring back plants and trees including roses, fritillaries and mulberries to the gardens at Hatfield. Later, in the service of Sir Edward Wotton, Tradescant accompanied a diplomatic mission to Russia, and he also visited Algiers, always taking botanical notes and gathering plants. By the 1620's Tradescant had achieved a prominent position as a director of gardens whose advice was sought by the highest in the land.
In 1626 Tradescant leased a house in Lambeth where he developed his own garden and a cabinet of curiosities where he displayed 'all things strange and rare' that he brought back from his travels. The original is in the Ashmolean, and a copy is on display in the museum. Tradescant's home came to be called 'The Ark' and was an essential site to see in London at the time as more was being learnt about the world and different cultures. It was the first museum of its kind in Britain open to the public, charging 6d admission.
Left to right: Tradescant's house in South Lambeth; Tradescantia virginiana (Spiderwort) named in honour of the Tradescants; The Tradescant tomb, St Mary's graveyard in 1790.
John Tradescant the Younger travelled even further afield than his father, visiting Virginia three times. He introduced the tulip tree and a yucca plant, and also increased the collection at The Ark with artifacts from America - these included the mantle of Powhattan, the father of Pocahontas. The younger John Tradescant also succeeded his father as royal gardener.
Above: Plants introduced into Britain from North America by Tradescant the Younger; left to right: Swamp cypress (Taxodium distichum); Pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea); Tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera).
At the suggestion of Elias Ashmole, he began to catalogue the collection at the Ark, and the Musaeum Tradescantianum of 1656 was the first museum catalogue published. Tradescant willed that the collection was to go to his widow on his death, but Elias Ashmole obtained the collection by deed of gift and established the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford with the collection. Some of these original items can still be seen in that museum and Ashmole is also buried at the Museum of Garden History. The tomb of the Tradescants stands beside the knot garden near that of Captain Bligh of the Bounty, and is covered in carvings representing their interests in life which marked them out as curious men.
Above left: Catalogue of the Tradescant collection, Musaeum Tradescantianum 1656; right : Ole Worm's museum in Copenhagen, 1655 - the interior of Tradescant's Ark would have looked much the same.