The lives of the Tradescants, father and son, were the subject of this talk by Dr Jane McLauchlin, President of the Croydon Natural History and Scientific Society. The Tradescants spearheaded the hunt during the 17th century for new species of plant and tree suitable for introduction into England, and by propagating and disseminating their finds became the founders of English gardening as we know it.
John Tradescant the elder travelled extensively in Europe, and his son John in America, and they brought back a vast array of material which changed our notion of a garden. In earlier times, gardens were the province of monks, who cultivated herbs for medicinal use. When the monasteries were dissolved in the 16th century, the growing of herbs fell to a new breed called herbalists, with their dedicated gardens. Beyond this, gardening consisted of tight, formal arrangements of low hedges behind the great houses, with their deer parks beyond.
Katharine of Aragon first introduced fruits and salad vegetables to the country, from her native Spain, and Henry VIII was prompted to create an orangery, but an interest in flowers for decoration gradually arose, with daffodils, roses, pinks, and anything scented being found a place to grow. By 1600 there was the beginning of a demand for attractive new plants, and Parkinson wrote the first real book on the art of gardening. John Tradescant senior befriended him, absorbed his ideas, and set about providing the new plants which are now so familiar to us. In 1610 he travelled around Europe, and brought back numerous small fruits, 800 tulip bulbs, several climbers, and the first horse chestnut. In 1618 he made a daring trip as far as North Russia, returning with more soft fruits, angelica, and the larch tree. He had by this time been appointed Gardener at Hatfield House, where his portrait remains to this day.
In 1620, for his skill as a handler of sensitive material at sea, he was sent as baggage master on a pirate-hunting expedition in the Mediterranean. Fortunately he survived, and brought back the apricot, pomegranate and pistachio. By 1623 he had moved to Chelmsford to work for the Duke of Buckingham: there he planted 2000 walnut trees and a lime avenue. In 1623 he was sent on an even stranger `baggage handling' job - fetching the King's new bride from France! But a worse job followed in 1627. He went with Buckingham on a raid on La Rochelle, which went horribly wrong with great loss of life. He survived, but the following year his employer was killed.
Charles I quickly appointed Tradescant as gardener at Oatlands Palace, to supervise James I's cherished scheme of producing silk in England. A quantity of black mulberry trees were planted, and Inigo Jones built a `silkworm house', but the caterpillars did not thrive on the black mulberry, and white mulberry (the true silkworm larval host) does not thrive here. The last of Tradescant's mulberry trees was cut down in 1949, as a `safety measure'. Tradescant moved to Lambeth, where he bought 23 acres of land, two of which were planted as an orchard. His son, John Junior, had now joined him in the business, and by 1633 they had brought in sumach, 15 types of cherry, and 150 kinds of tulip, and the Lambeth estate became a tourist attraction, with people paying sixpence (then!) to see the 750 plants on view.
The Oxford Physic Garden opened in 1637, and any interest in it on John Senior's part was curtailed by his death, soon after. He was buried at St Mary's, Lambeth. John Junior was in Virginia at the time of his father's death; he returned with another 200 new plants, and took over the business. During the civil war he was obliged to return to Virginia for safety's sake. On his return he brought Michaelmas daisy, runner bean (but not as a food!), lupins, evening primrose and pitcher plant, as well as three great trees, the tulip tree, swamp cypress, and American plane.
Tragedy struck in 1652 when John Junior's son died, leaving him no heir. John himself died in 1662, leaving his widow Hester to continue the business. In 1674 Ashmole, of the Oxford Physick Garden, set up a venture next door to Hester: there was bad feeling between them, which only ceased when she was found drowned in her garden in 1678. But all of the Tradescant records were acquired by Ashmole, and they are preserved in the museum named after him.
Ashmole himself died in 1692, and the Lambeth gardens went to ruin. Little was left in 1759 apart from a swamp cypress. Now the ground lies under a mass of housing, but St Mary's Church is now the Museum of Garden History, and Tradescant Road commemorates the family.
Dick Alder