The Digital Ark: Early Modern Collections of Curiosities in England and Scotland, 1580-1700
Thomas Best (1570 - 1639)
Sea captain and master of Trinity House Dictionary of National Biography entry: http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/2293 Relevant locations: Residence at Whitehouse StreetRelationships: Job Best (-) was a son of Thomas Best
Linked print sources: as Subject of/in a document - Memorials of Stepney Parish: that is to say, The Vestry Minutes from 1579 to 1662.
References in Documents:
Peter Mundy's description of the Tradescants' Ark in his travel diary (1634) [7] I can find no trace of any Job Best at this date, nor does the name Job
occur among the various references to the Best family in the 17th
century. At the period when Mundy was in London ,
Thomas Best of Whitehouse Street and his son
Josias were both well
known inhabitants of Ratcliffe .
It is possible (as Mr William Foster suggests) that Josias was familiarly called Jo,
and if Mundy heard of him as
Mr Jo Best , the mistake is
easily explained. It is also extremely probable that the Bests of
Whitehouse Street had a
collection of "rarieties," since Thomas Best , who served the East India Company from 1613 to 1617 , made several voyages to the East. In his will he
bequeathed his "est India
sword or Seimtary" to his grandson Thomas. See the article in the
Dict. Nat. Biog . on
Thomas Best , where however
the date of his death (August
1639 ) has not been traced. See also Wills Proved in the P. C. C. (148 Harvey),
and
Memorials of Stepney Parish(Hill and Frere), addenda to p. 31.