The Digital Ark: Early Modern Collections of Curiosities in England and Scotland, 1580-1700

[ Previous ][ Next ]

Edward Morgan (c. 1619 - 1689)

Keeper of the botanical gardens at Westminster. In 1639, Morgan toured North and Central Wales with Paul Sone and Thomas Johnson (apothecary), in search of plants (Jeffers, 102). He is cited as a source in William Howe's Phytologia Britannica (1650). A major source of botanical specimens for the Ashmolean Museum, he "effectively founded the collection of plants with his donation in 1689 of some 2,000 specimens (almost all grown by himself) preserved in a three-volume hortus siccus" (MacGregor, 2). Relevant locations: Lived at or near Glamorgan, Wales
Workplace or place of business Westminster Physic Garden, Westminster
 Relationships: Edward Morgan was a donor to Ashmolean Museum (1683-)
Edward Morgan was a associate or acquaintance (general) of William Howe (1620-1656)
Edward Morgan was a correspondent of Edward Lhwyd (1660-1709)

 Linked print sources: as Mentions or references - Ashmolean Museum Oxford: Manuscript Catalogues of the Early Museum Collections, 1683-1886 (Part I).
as Mentions or references - Dictionary Of British And Irish Botanists And Horticulturists Including Plant Collectors, Flower Painters and Garden Designers.
as Subject of/in a document - Edward Morgan and the Westminster Physic Garden.
 References in Documents:
MS Book of Benefactors (MacGregor, ed.)

Edward Morgan from Glamorgan, the celebrated former keeper of the botanical gardens at Westminster, and a man extremely knowledgeable about plants. When he heard from Edward Lhwyd (under-keeper of this Museum) that the collection lacked a hortus siccus or a collection of [dried] plants, he bequeathed to the Museum three large folio volumes containing some 2,000 specimens of plants (almost all of which he had grown himself in the aforementioned garden).