The Digital Ark: Early Modern Collections of Curiosities in England and Scotland, 1580-1700
Richard Ligon (c.1585 - 1662)
Business agent and natural science writer. Went to Barbados in 1647 with Thomas Modyford, where he worked for a few years before returning to London in 1650, publishing his True and Exact Historie of the Island of Barbadoes in 1657. On the way to Barbadoes, the expeditionmet a ship coming from 'Ginny' with a cargo of gold and elephants' teeth and the Captain, Blague by name, presented 'every gentleman of our company' with a present of rarities. ... He was familiar with The Ark, describing flies with 'great homes, which we keep in boxes, and are shewed by John Tradescan'" (176).He is probably the Mr. Liggon named as a benefactor in Musaeum Tradescantianum.
Dictionary of National Biography entry: http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/74579 Other biography: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Ligon Relevant locations: Lived at or near London, England
Workplace or place of business Barbados, West Indies
Relationships: Richard Ligon was a source of object(s) for Tradescanti (-)
Richard Ligon was a visitor to the collection of Tradescanti (-)
References in Documents:
a semiannular
Figure.
The wild Boar breeds in
a)
a)
of
there one so big, that when his head was off,
and his en
trails taken out, weighed 400 l. It was well observed by
was horned and
tusked too: (b)b)
Animal. lib.
2.
c. 1
the blood
proper for their production, not being sufficient
to feed them
both.
teen inches
long, and two and ½ round about. In substance
like a
Bulls. There are three more about the same bigness.
a) a) of
p.
118
curing him of two Fits of the Stone.
a)
Hist. of
Hist. of
bad
a)
Bar
Hist. of
Hist. of
bad. p. 61
b)
Barb
g)
as a thing known to himself, and many f)
of Barb
curious and credible men
with him in
are there a sort both of Caterpillars and of Butterflys, which g)
lib. 5
are transform'd into this Bird:
and that in the time of
Transformation, there is plainly to be
seen half a Caterpillar or
half a Butterfly, and half a Bird, both
together.
Nest of Cotton-Wooll, and layeth Eggs. That a Caterpiller should produce a
Bird; and a Butterfly too, the like;
and yet this Bird lay Eggs to produce its own kind, are
three
greater wonders than any thing that hath been said
of the Barnacle. But we will rather suppose these
men
were themselves deceived, than that they designed to de
ceive others.
Albitrosse. Supposed by some to be the Head
of a Dodo.
But it seems doubtful. That
there is a Bird called The Man of War,
is commonly known to our Sea-men; and
several of them who have
seen the Head here preserved,
do affirm it to be the Head of
that Bird; which they de
scribe to be a very great
one, the Wings whereof are eight
feet over. And b) b) Hist. of
Barbad
he will
commonly fly out to Sea, to see what Ships are
coming to Land,
and so return. Whereas the Dodo is
hardly a Volatile Bird, having little or no Wings, except
such
as those of the Cassoary and the Ostrich. Besides, al
though
the upper Beak of this Bill, doth much resemble
that of the
Dodo; yet the nether is of a quite
different
shape. So that either this is not the Head of a Dodo, or
else we have no where a true
figure of it. I shall describe
it as follows.
Xiphias.
By
the
Brasilians, Araguagua. He is pretty well
described by
yards. The Sword, which grows level from the Snout
of the Fish, is here about a yard long, at the Basis four
inches over, two edged, and pointed
exactly like a Rapier.
He preys on Fishes, having first stab'd
them with this
Sword. (a)
a)
Onom.
ZoicWhale, saith
Fish and Theshall,
his two mortal enemies, leaps sometimes
more than his own
length above water. (b) b) Hist. of
Barb
frequently in the German
Ocean
and sometimes in the
Canis Carcharias
mas. See the Description hereof in
mas
about two yards long, and near ¼ of a yard over, where
thickest. But they are found sometimes seven or eight
yards in length, and more. One hath been taken, saith
cially, and the widness of his Mouth, are remarkable. They
will often bite off the Legs or Arms of those that ven
ture into the Sea in a Calm; and sometimes swallow them
up whole. (
a)
a)
Hist. of
Hist. of
p. 5
Echeneis. Remora.
tolerable Description any where.
'Tis about ¼ of a yard long. His Body before, three
inches and ½ over; thence tapering to the Tail-end. His
Mouth two inches and ½ over. His Chaps ending some
what angularly. The nether a little broader, and
produced
forward near an inch more than the upper. His Lips
rough
with a great number of little prickles. His Eyes round,
¼ of an inch over, an inch behind his Mouth.
His Head squat, adorned with a kind of Oval Coronet,
somewhat Concave, five inches and ½
long, above two broad,
cut traversly with three and twenty
Incisions or long
Apertures, making so many distinct
Membranes, with
rough edges, joyned altogether with a Ligament
running
through the middle of the Coronet, and perforated on each
side the Ligament.
The Gills wind from an inch and ½ behind the Eyes down
to the Throat. The Fins seven. The Gill-Fins above
four inches
long; The Breast-Fins as long. About a ¼ of
a yard
behind the Coronet a fifth extended on the
Back
above ¼ of a yard. A sixth like it on the Belly.
The
Tail-end, like a Spear, a little compressed. The Tail-Fin
three inches and ½ long. The Anus open about the middle
of the Fish. His Skin is
(now) brown, smooth, and tough,
or like tan'd Leather.
Perhaps the same Fish, which a)
a) Hist. of
Barbadoes
swims along with the Shark, and frequently sticks to some
part about his
Head. At least, it is very probable, that
this Fish is able to
fasten himself to any great Fish, Boat, or
Ship, with the help
of the Coronet or Sucker on his Head;
which seems to be most fitly
contrived for that purpose.
In some sort answerable to the
Tail of a Leech, whereby
she sticks her
self fast to the smoothest Glass. Or to those
round Leathers,
wherewith Boys are us'd to play, called
Suckers, one of which, not above an inch and
½ diametre,
being well soaked in water, will stick so
fast to a Stone, as
to pluck one of twelve or fourteen pounds
up from the
ground.
Of the stupendious power which this Fish is supposed to
have,
there are many concur in the story; as that he is able
to stop
a Ship in its career under full Sail: and what not?
That
though the Moon be made of a Green Cheese, yet is
not the only Nest
of Maggots.
alone, in
ascribing it to his easily altering the
position of the Helm,
and so the motion of the Ship, coming
near to good
sense: especially if he had proved, That the Name
of the
Fish, and the Story, were not Things much older than
the
Helm of a Ship.
'Tis plain, that the Tradition had a very early beginning,
when
little light Boats were the Ships which people us'd.
To the
side whereof, this Fish fastening her self, might easily
make
it swag, as the least preponderance on either side will
do,
and so retard its Course. And the Story once begot
upon a
Boat, might still, like the Fish it self, stick to
it, though
turn'd to a Ship. Assigning as great a power to
this
God of Life in the
Heavens; who yet appears by the best
accounts of him put
together, to have been at first no better
than a Crafty Mountebank.
grown, they are
then hardly bigger than a good big
Flea. In Ants,
that build their Nests, with
Clay and Lome, against a
Wall or a Tree, as big as Bee-Hives, and divided into a) Hist.
of
several
Cells. (a) Of the Ingenuity of this Insect, see divers
Relations in the same Author. (b)
b)
merous throughout all
the feet of their Cupboards and Chests in Cisterns of
Water
to preserve their Cloaths and Victuals (c) c)
p.
80
described by a) a) Hist. of
Barb
the several
Tussucks or Bunches of Thorns wherewith it
is armed all round
about: each Bunch consisting of about
six or eight Thorns;
some of which stand erected, the rest
couched down a little
and crooked outward; of several
lengths, from one inch, to
above two; altogether, if pull'd
off, somewhat resembling a
Jack a long-legs.
a foot; above a foot and ½ in compass. Its Figure
answerable to that of a Hens-Egg, one end,
sc. the top,
being somewhat smaller
than the other. 'Tis now of a
kind of tawny colour, or like
that of an old Pomgranate- Pill. About
as hard as a Wallnut, and the shell somewhat
thicker. Originally fill'd (as may be seen by some of them)
with a Pulp and a great number of Seeds, as is a Melon or
Gourd. Yet a Calibash
is the Fruit of a Tree. In some sort
described by a)a) Hist. of
Barb
of Plum-Tree. (b) b) Hist. of
it here. Described in
Name of
Medicorum vulgc)
c)
Wormian.
ness of a Filbert. The shell blackish, thin, and brittle, and
somewhat angular. Within, there is a white soft Body,
commonly, but Kernel. For this
Body is not divided, as are all Kernels, into two distinct
Lobes, but is one entire part. Yet so as to
have some little
hollowness in the middle, capable to lodge a
very thin
Filme. This Filme, is
the true Kernel, consisting not only
of
two large and perfect Leaves (answerable to the two
Kernels) but of those parts
also, which in
time become the Trunk and Root of the Tree.
These Nuts work strongly both by Vomit and
Stool; a)
Tom. 1
(a)
four or five of them a great
Dose. Being eaten tosted,
or injected in Clysters, (b) b)
des
them, they are a present Remedy in the
Cholick. One
thing, very
observable, is mention'd by Mr. c) c) In his
Book of the
Origine of
Forms
since, also by Mr. d) and that is, That the Cathartick Power of the Nut, although so great, yet lies only
or chiefly in
that very thin Filme above-said, by me
affirmed
to be the Kernel: for this
being taken out, the rest may be
eaten, as any other Nut.d) Hist. of
Barb
of
Plum-Tree. (
b)
b)
Hist.
of
of
it here. Described in
Name of
Medicorum vulg
c)
c)
Wormian.
ness of a
Filbert. The shell blackish, thin, and brittle, and
somewhat angular. Within, there is a white soft Body,
commonly, but
Kernel. For this
Body is not divided, as are all
Kernels, into two distinct
Lobes, but is one entire part. Yet so as to have some little
hollowness in the middle, capable to lodge a very thin
Filme. This
Filme, is the true
Kernel, consisting not only
of two large and perfect Leaves (answerable to the two
Kernels) but of those parts also, which in
time become the Trunk and Root of the Tree.
Virginia. Arbor. Lanif. Species.
Described by (a) a) Hist.
of
Barb
and brittle. In length, ½ a foot; sharp
at both ends, in
the middle an inch and ½ over, Convex
on the back, the
Belly plain. Fill'd with white Down, not like Cotton,
but
that of the Pappous kind of Plants,
appendent origi
nally to the end of the Seed: but the
Seeds are here
wanting.
Arundo Saccharina. In
called b) b)
c. 1
planted from the Reed about
seven or eight feet high,
with many Joynts, one at about
every ½ foot, and a
large close Pith; out of which, the
greatest part of the Juyce, whereof the Sugar is made, is c)
c. 1
expressed. See the Description hereof at large in c)
and d)
d) Hist. of
Barb
&c
ing and pressing the same; and of ordering
the expressed
Juyce, for the making of several sorts of Sugar, and
Brandy: as also the Engines, and contrivance
of Vessels for
the same purposes.
- Principall Benefactors
{King Charles.}{Queen Mary.}GeorgeDuke ofBuckingham.Lady KatharineDutchess ofBuck:William LaudArchbishop ofCant:RobertEarle ofSalisbury.WilliamEarle ofSalisbury.Earle of Carlisle.Lord Viscount Dorchester.Lord Viscount Faulkland.Lord Strange.Lord Goring.Lord Cambden.Countesse of Arundell.Lady Matrevers.Lady Denbeigh.Lady Wootton.Lady Mary Villers.Lady Goring.Lady Killegray.Lady Christian Leviston.Sir Thomas Roe.Sir Christopher Hatton.Sir Henry.VVooton Wooton Sir Kenelme Digby.Sir Nathanael Bacon.Sir Butts Bacon.Sir Dudly Diggs.Sir Henry Vane.Sir Henry Palmer.Sir Robert Heath.Sir Peter Manwood.Sir John Trever.Sir William Boswell.Sir Clipsby Crew.Sir Alexander Gourdon.Sir James Bagg.Sir David Kirke.Sir Richard Wiseman.Sir John Smith.Sir John Wieldes.Sir Henry Meldree.Sir John Aemoote.Lady Roe.Lady Graimes.Doctor Owin.Doctor John Hill.Doctor Thomas Wharton.Doctor William Broad.Doctor Bugg.William MurrayEsq.William CurteeneEsq.Elias AshmoleEsq.Captain Weddell.Captain Plumbey.Captain Ireland.Captain Cleborne.Captain Prim.Captain Wood.Captain West.Captain Swanley.Captain Adam Denton.Captain Trenchfield.Captain David Atchinson.Mr. Nicolas, Secretary to the Navy.Mr. John SlanyMerchant.Mr. CharletonMerchant.Mr. James BoovyMerchant.Mr. John Millen.Mr. Thomas Howard.Mr. WhiteofBurntwood.Mr. Ofield.Mr. Ofley.Mr. Greene.Mr. Munke.Mr. Sadler.Mr. Bushell.Mr. Liggon.Mr. George Tomasin.In EEBO copy: Scratched out in original document and has "Thomason" written beside it in ink. Mr. Dells.Mr. Gage.Mr. Pergins.Mr. Robert Martyn.Mr. Trion.Mr. Woolfe.Mr. Browne.Mr. Martin Masters.Mr. Butler.Mr. Phillips.Mr. Harison.Mr. Pette.Mr. Short.Mr. Bound.Mr. Stone.Mr. Bartholomew Hagatt.Mr. Reeve.Mr. Francis Cline.Mr. Thomas Herbert.Mr. Rowland Bucket.Mr. Snelling.Mr. Rowe.Mr. Smith.Mr. Butterworth.Mr. le Goulz.Mr. William Martyn.Mr. Lanyon.Mr. Gasper Calthoofe.Mr. William Lambert.Mr. John Benson.
to the precedent
Collection.