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

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Mr. Doyly ( - )

The "Mr. Doiley in Drury Lane" named by Courten as a source of naturalia is probably the same Mr. Doyly who was an active participant in Royal Society activities, though evidently not himself a member. On 29 April 1696, Doyly (identified as "in the Strand") showed to the Royal Society "[o]ne of the very large Horns of a beast of the goat kind" that he possessed (Kusukawa, 32, n.154). In Sir Hans Sloane’s secretarial minute books of Royal Society meetings, the entry for 22 October 1701 records Mr. Doyly's presentation of "some boots from Turkey China [sic]" along with "a kind of substance like tobacco used to make people Sneese in China" for deposit in the repository" (p. 128). He is also referenced in a later article by Sloane in the Philosophical Transactions: "An account of a pair of extraordinary large horns found in Wapping some years since, with a probable account, whence they came, and to what animal they belonged" (31 Dec 1727, 34: 397). Here he calls Doyly "a great searcher after Curiosities" who "gave Name to a sort of Stuffs worn in Summer" (222-29). Despite all this activity, no first name is attached to this Mr. Doyly in the Royal Society records. His name might also have been spelled "D'Oyly" like the Baronet D'Oyly's, though no apparent relation.

 Other Links: ttp.royalsociety.org/accessible/SpreadDetails.aspx?OrgID=19&LangID=1&o=1&BookID=dff3463f-0894-43ba-bfe4-f994ce7989a4¶ms=69&Dcmi=True - Transcription of Sir Hans Sloane’s secretarial minute books of Royal Society meetings Relevant locations: Lived at or near Drury Lane, London
Lived at or near The Strand, Westminster
 Linked print sources: as Mentions or references - Appendix I to 'William Courten's list of 'Things Bought' from the Late Seventeenth Century.
as Subject of/in a document - An account of a pair of extraordinary large horns found in Wapping some years since, with a probable account, whence they came, and to what animal they belonged.
 References in Documents: