The John Bargrave Collection
George Ruthven (1546 - 1638)
Physician, surgeon, and apothecary, Ruthven "was a scion of the Gowrie family, and is supposed to have been a son of Patrick, third Lord Ruthven, who fought the Battle of the Bridge of Tay" (Fittis, 298). In 1600, he might also have been suspected of involvement in the Gowrie plot (Scott, 84). In 1624, Ruthven was living in the neighbourhood of St John’s Church and was a well-known figure in the community (ibid). Much of what is known about Ruthven is inferred from his friend Henry Adamson's publication The Muses Threnodie. In Adamson's depiction, Ruthven was an authority on local history and antiquities, an avid sportsman, a witty versifier, and a royalist. Adamson (the presumed author of the "Introduction" to his Threnodie) indicates that at that time of publication, in 1638, Ruthven was almost 100 years of age, although John Kerr falls well short of that mark in giving Ruthven's life dates as 1546-1638. The introduction also describes him as "a good man" who "hath been occasion of mirth to many," and a marginal note in the "Third Muse" describes him as "a bonnie little man" (26).What we know of Ruthven's collection derives from Henry Adamson's obscure poem "The Inventarie of the Gabions, in M. George his Cabinet," prefatory to The Muses Threnody. According to the introduction to the poem, Ruthven referred to his cabinet the "Catechrestick name" of "
a peaceable inoffensive man, and addicted to study. He had great knowledge of history, and had the character of being a virtuoso. In his cabinet or museum, he had a large collection of natural curiosities, particularly the preserved bodies and bones of animals of various kinds (84).Scott's source of information is undisclosed, but it must be other than “The Inventarie of the Gabions,” since there is very little clear indication here of the naturalia in his collection, and certainly no preponderance of preserved bodies and bones.
Collector (minor)
Relevant locations: Lived at or near near St. John's Kirk
People linked to person: Henry Adamson (1581-1637) was a friend of George Ruthven
James Gall (-c. 1620) was a friend of George Ruthven