[fol. 105] Honrd Sir I gladly take this Opportunity to thank you for ye many Instances of your Favour & Kindness to me. The Disproportion there is between your station in Life & mine, renders all Returns impossible but such as are the result of a gratefull Heart & a warm Acknowledgment. The Gentleman who has the Honr to deliver this to you, has been very conversant with ye Practice of Physick upon ye Coast of Guinea, & is by much the most qualify’d of any Person I have ever met with to satisfie such Enquiries as you may think proper to make in Relation to that Country. I know Sir cannot do a more acceptable Action than by affording you an Occasion of informing yourself (if there be any thing yet remaining you are uniform’d of) in Matters regarding natural knowledge. I am now preparing a second Edition of my Treatise on the the [sic] Diseases in these Parts. It has cost me a good deal of Pains & Observation & as it will be much larger & more compleat than ye former. I hope it will the better merit your Acceptance. I have had the misfortune to loose ye first Vol. of your Natural History of Jamaica, & know not how to repair a Loss I so much lament, unless it be Sir from your self. for they write me from England that it is not to be procur’d upon any terms among ye Booksellers. your Goodness, I know, will pardon this Freedom from one who highly honours you & who is proud of nothing so much as ye Liberty of declaring Himself Sir yr. most obedient humble servt. Richd Towne Barbados Apl. 30. 1732
[fol. 131] A Paris le 16. Juin. 1732 Pour repondre, Monsieur, à la lettre que vous m’avés fait l’honneur de m’écrire le 21 Avril dernier V.S. j’ay été obligé d’attendre que les livres que vous aviés la bonté de m’y annoncer, me fussent parvenus. je ne les ay reçus que depuis quelques jours par les soins de M. Chammorel, je ne puis à cet égard que vous repeter ce que j’ay deja eu l’honneur de vous temoigner tant de fois, que je vous sensible au dela de toute expression à vos bontés et à votre politesse. je suis seulement faché qu’il ne se present ici aucune occasion de vous donner des marques plus reelles de ma reconnoissance, et que de tous les livres qui s’impriment icy, je ne puisse scavoir de vous ceux qui pourraient étre le plus de vôtre goût. daignés, je vous supplie, vous expliquer la dessus, et soyés persuadé que rien ne me fera plus de plaisir que de vous les procurer. j’attendrai sans impatience les Memoires de M. de Beaumont, mais je n’ay pas eu encore le tems de verifier s’il ne nous manque rien dans la suite des Monthly Chronicle ce que je scay c’est qu’il s’est trouvé une imperfection considerable dans les Philosophical Transactions janv. feb. March. 1711 où il manque une demifeuille entiere scavoir les pages 219, 220, M. Le Chevalier Hans Sloane a Londres [fol. 132] 221 et 222. si vous aviés la bonté de la faire chercher chez le Libraire qui a vendu notre Exemplaire, je vous serai obligé de me l’envoyer par la poste. Je suis avec une estime et une reconnoissance qui ne finera jamais, Monsieur, Votre tres humble et tres obeissant serviteur L’abbé Bignon
Abbé Bignon thanks Sloane for writing him. He is waiting for the books, journals, and Philosophical Transactions Sloane sent to arrive. Bignon discusses the purchases made for the library.
Jean-Paul Bignon (1662-1743) was a clergyman, librarian to Louis XIV, member of the Academie francaise, and mentor of Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Paul_Bignon).
Andreas von Gundelsheimer is was a German doctor , born in 1668 in Feuchtwangen and died onIn Stettin .
The son of a pastor, he studied at Ansbach then at Altdorf where he graduated in medicine in 1688. He accompanied a rich trader in Italy.He then practiced in Paris where he became friends with Joseph Pitton de Tournefort (1656-1708) and accompanied him on his journey from Greece to Iran.They parted at Constantinople and returned to Germany.
Gundelsheimer served as a military doctor before retiring to Berlin.Prince Elector Frederic I (1657-1713) took him as councillor and ennobled him.He created the anatomical museum in Berlin.He accompanied Frederick William I (1688-1740) during the campaign of Pomerania and during which he died.
Peter Hardisway was a student at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. He was admitted an Extra-Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians in 1719 and practised medicine in Dover.
John Moore (1646–1714) was Bishop of Norwich (1691–1707) and Bishop of Ely (1707–1714) and was a famous bibliophile whose vast collection of books forms the surviving “Royal Library” within Cambridge University Library.
James Drake (bap. 1666, d. 1707) was a political and medical writer. He studied first at Wivelingham and at Eton College before being admitted to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, in March 1685 and receiving BA before the 1688 revolution. He obtained MB and MD in London in 1690 and 1694. Drake was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1701 and Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1706.
Reference:
Bridget Hill, Drake, James (bap. 1666, d. 1707), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
Dates: to
Occupation: Unknown
Relationship to Sloane:Virtual International Authority File:
Robert Taylor was the apothecary. In 1693 he married Sarah Beck of Stepney. He published his work in the Philosophical Transactions on ‘The Osteology of an Elephant’
Reference:
“A Guide to Hertfordshire, by an Old Inhabitant” Hertford: Simson and Co., Marketplace, 1880; “Allegations for Marriage Licences issued by the Vicar-General of the Archbishop of Canterbury July1649-June1687” ed. George J. Armytage F.S.A., London, 1890.
Dates: to
Occupation: Unknown
Relationship to Sloane:Virtual International Authority File:
Albert Henri de Salengre (1694-1723) was elected by Sir Hans Sloane as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1719. Salengre was Counsellor to the Prince of Orange from 1716 and Auditor Surveyor to the Bank of Holland from 1717. He was also one of the founders of the Journal litteraire de La Haye.
