Posted on August 2, 2016 by -
Thomas Smith to Hans Sloane – December 10, 1706
Item info
Date: December 10, 1706
Author: Thomas Smith
Recipient: Hans Sloane
Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4040
Folio: ff. 268-269
Original Page
Transcription
Smith presents a book to the Royal Society. ‘It containes a collection of lives of severall learned men of whom four were eminent Mathematicians.’ He has left it at Sloane’s residence.
Thomas Smith (1638-1710) studied at Queens College, Oxford in 1657, obtained BA in 1661 and MA in 1663, and was appointed Master of Magdalen College. He was an Orientalist, ecclesiastical and intellectual historian, antiquary and librarian. From 1668-1671 Smith was the chaplain to the English ambassador in Constantinople and upon his return to London he published several works on his findings there. He returned to the East in 1676 to collect Greek manuscripts. In 1682, Smith went to Oxford with the hopes of becoming president of Magdalen College, however this was disrupted by James II’s religious policies. Smith went to London instead and became the unofficial librarian of the Cotton Library where he published the library’s first catalogue and worked without salary until 1702 the library passed into state control after the death of Cotton, leaving Smith without a job. He turned to publishing biographies of friends (Theodor Harmsen, Smith, Thomas (16381710), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/25912, accessed 9 July 2013]).
Posted on August 2, 2016 by -
John Morton to Hans Sloane – November 27, 1706
Item info
Date: November 27, 1706
Author: John Morton
Recipient: Hans Sloane
Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4040
Folio: ff. 262-263
Original Page
Transcription
Morton thanks Sloane for publishing his letter in the Philosophical Transactions. He is concerned by the amount of errors found therein, some of which cause confusion, and lists the correction that need to be made.
John Morton was a naturalist who was in correspondence with Sloane from roughly 1703 to 1716. Morton contributed nearly one thousand specimens (fossils, shells, bones, teeth, minerals, rocks, man-made artifacts, etc.) to Sloane’s collection (Yolanda Foote, Morton, John (16711726), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2010 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/19364, accessed 2 July 2013]).
Posted on August 2, 2016 by -
Samuel Dale to Hans Sloane – November 26, 1706
Item info
Date: November 26, 1706
Author: Samuel Dale
Recipient: Hans Sloane
Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4040
Folio: f. 259
Original Page
Transcription
Dale writes that there has been a misunderstanding. He received the plants, but he wanted to wait until Sloane had named them before viewing them. As such, he sends them back. Dale hopes Sloane got Willoughby’s papers. He has sent Mr Thorp an addition to Ray’s ‘Historia Insectorum’. Mr Doody’s death has dashed his hopes of seeing his finished work.
Samuel Dale was an apothecary, botanist, and physician who contributed several articles to the Philosophical Transactions. He was John Ray’s executor and good friend, and from Dale’s letters to Sloane we learn many details of Ray’s final moments (G. S. Boulger, Dale, Samuel (bap. 1659, d. 1739), rev. Juanita Burnby, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/7016, accessed 5 July 2013]).
Posted on August 2, 2016 by -
James Keill to Hans Sloane – November 24, 1706
Item info
Date: November 24, 1706
Author: James Keill
Recipient: Hans Sloane
Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4040
Folio: ff. 257-258
Original Page
Transcription
Keill did not formally attend medical school, but through the patronage of Sloane he obtained the degree of MD from Cambridge. Sloane helped Keill enter into medical practice in Northampton (Anita Guerrini, Keill, James (16731719), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/15255, accessed 2 June 2011]).
Posted on August 2, 2016 by -
Samuel Dale to Hans Sloane – November 10, 1706
Item info
Date: November 10, 1706
Author: Samuel Dale
Recipient: Hans Sloane
Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4040
Folio: ff. 251-252
Original Page
Transcription
Dale read Sloane’s letter to Mrs Ray. She will answer and send Willougby’s entomological papers. Dale discusses John Ray’s monument and will try to copy Ray’s manuscripts for the Philosophical Transactions. He asks Sloane to deliver the book he requested.
Samuel Dale was an apothecary, botanist, and physician who contributed several articles to the Philosophical Transactions. He was John Ray’s executor and good friend, and from Dale’s letters to Sloane we learn many details of Ray’s final moments (G. S. Boulger, Dale, Samuel (bap. 1659, d. 1739), rev. Juanita Burnby, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/7016, accessed 5 July 2013]).
Posted on August 2, 2016 by -
James Yonge to Hans Sloane – November 3, 1706
Item info
Date: November 3, 1706
Author: James Yonge
Recipient: Hans Sloane
Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4040
Folio: ff. 249-250
Original Page
Transcription
Yonge asks for the ‘History of the lake’, which he will add to his text. He is confused, as he was admitted into the Royal Society, but his name has disappeared from its list.
James Yonge was a surgeon and physician of Plymouth with experience as a ship’s surgeon. He was a prominent citizen in his native Plymouth and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and member of the Royal College of Physicians in 1702 (Ian Lyle, Yonge, James (16471721), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/30225, accessed 20 May 2011]).
Posted on August 2, 2016 by -
Samuel Dale to Hans Sloane – October 23, 1706
Item info
Date: October 23, 1706
Author: Samuel Dale
Recipient: Hans Sloane
Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4040
Folio: ff. 241-242
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Language
English
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Library
British Library, London
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Categories
Collections, Library, Scholarship, Social, Trade or Commodities
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Subjects
Books, Entomology, Insects, Jamaica, Monuments, Plants, Publishing, Specimens
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Date (as written)
October 23, 1706
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Standardised date
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Origin (as written)
Braintree
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Others mentioned
Mr Bateman Margaret Ray Sir Thomas James Petiver John Ray
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Patients mentioned
Original Page
Transcription
Mrs Ray sends her thanks, but she still thinks Mr Bateman’s offer is too low. Dale asks Sloane and his friends to give their opinion so as to convince her to sell her late husband’s collection. He inquires after Mr Willougby and asks whether it is time to publishes Ray’s ‘History of Insects’. Dale hopes that Sloane ‘put names to those Jamaican Plants I left with Mr Petiver’. He wonders what ‘progress you have made in the Monuments for Mr Ray’.
Samuel Dale was an apothecary, botanist, and physician who contributed several articles to the Philosophical Transactions. He was John Ray’s executor and good friend, and from Dale’s letters to Sloane we learn many details of Ray’s final moments (G. S. Boulger, Dale, Samuel (bap. 1659, d. 1739), rev. Juanita Burnby, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/7016, accessed 5 July 2013]).
Posted on August 2, 2016 by -
John Hudson to Hans Sloane – October 22, 1706
Item info
Date: October 22, 1706
Author: John Hudson
Recipient: Hans Sloane
Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4040
Folio: ff. 239-240
Original Page
Transcription
Hudson recommends the bearer, a physician from Leipzig. The Philosophical Transactions Sloane sent to the library contain an error ‘viz page 1877, 1878’.
John Hudson (1662-1719) was elected librarian of the Bodleian Library in 1701. He corresponded with numerous scholars and librarians, both in England and abroad (Theodor Harmsen, Hudson, John (16621719), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2013 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/14034, accessed 27 June 2013]).
Posted on August 2, 2016 by -
Robert Sibbald to Hans Sloane – October, 1706
Item info
Date: October, 1706
Author: Robert Sibbald
Recipient: Hans Sloane
Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4040
Folio: ff. 233-234
Original Page
Transcription
Sibbald discusses his work on aquatic animals and includes an illustration of one its plates, which depicts a shell. He describes the shell and offers an account of a whale.
Sibbald was a physician and a geographer. He was physician to James VII (Charles W. J. Withers, Sibbald, Sir Robert (16411722), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, May 2006 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/25496, accessed 19 June 2013]).
Posted on August 2, 2016 by -
Patrick Blair to Hans Sloane – May 17, 1707
Item info
Date: May 17, 1707
Author: Patrick Blair
Recipient: Hans Sloane
Library: British Library, London
Manuscript: Sloane MS 4040
Folio: ff. 359-360
Original Page
Transcription
Blair thanks Sloane for reading his observations to the Royal Society. He would like to call on Sloane in person. He will bring a treatise he has been working on apropos embalming. Blair recommends the bearer to Sloane.
Patrick Blair was a botanist and surgeon whose papers were published in the Transactions. In 1715 Blair joined the Jacobite rebellion as a battle surgeon but was captured and condemned to death. He was visited by Sloane in prison in the hopes the latter might secure a pardon. Sloane was successful and the pardon arrived shortly before Blair’s scheduled execution (Anita Guerrini, Blair, Patrick (c.16801728), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/2568, accessed 31 May 2011]).