The Oxford Botanic Garden was founded in 1621-23, by Henry Danvers, later the 1st Earl of Danby (1573–1643), but was not planted until at least a decade later. The first major step in the establishment of a botanical garden network in the British Isles was the creation of the University of Oxford Botanic Garden in 1621. Funded by Sir Henry Danvers, Earl of Danby, who dedicated his fortune to the effort, the garden was “primarily founded flora Nursery of Simples, (so) that a professor of Botanicey (sic) should read there and shew (sic) the use and virtue of them to his auditors” (Anthony Wood, Antiquities of the University of Oxford (1796)).
The initial work on the garden consisted of raising the ground to prevent flooding and erecting stone walls and the Danby Gate at the terminus of the north–south axis. The garden beds were laid out in aqua-dripartite design, similar to the early physic gardens on the continent. But the construction exhausted Sir Henry’s £5,000 bequest, and no professor of botany was designated until 1669, when Dr. Robert Morrison was appointed by the faculty of medicine. Morrison was responsible both for lecturing on simples in the physic garden and for writing his great catalog of the garden’s plants, Historia Plantarum Oxoniensium.
The 1st curator of plants under Morrison’s tenure was Jacob Bobart, the Elder (1599–1680) senior, a dedicated gardener who, due to the garden’s poor finances, received no salary for the first seven years. Instead, he supported himself and his family by selling fruit grown within the garden’s walls. His son, Jacob junior, succeeded him as curator and Morrison as professor of botany. It was the younger Bobart who compiled the first complete list of garden seeds for exchanges with other gardens, which serves as a progenitor of the modern Index Seminum.
One of the most fortuitous developments in the history of the Oxford Botanic Garden was the largesse of William Sherard, a distinguished patron of botanical science. After studying with many of the most notable botanists of his age and traveling extensively in search of novel species,
Sherard in 1726 donated to the garden a unique collection of plants, a herbarium of dried specimens, a library of botanical works, and £5,000 for the construction of a conservatory. He also included an additional £3,000 in his will for the salary of a professor of botany (a position still designated as the Sherardian professorship) and a maintenance endowment for the garden.
1648.
A rumor that has survived for centuries is that Bobart had a pet goat rather than a dog which could be a dangerous companion for a gardener & botanist given the proverbial vegetarian appetite preferences of goats. Bobart compiled a herbarium of more than 1400 plants then growing in the Physic Garden, published anonymously in 1648, but attributed to him by the first Oxford Sherardian Professorof Botany, Johann Jacob Dillenius (1687-1747).
John Tradescant the Elder was originally destined to be the first supervisor of the Oxford Physic Garden, also the 1st "Physick Garden" on British soil. Henry Danvers (15731644, from 1626 the Earl of Danby) founded the garden and appointed Tradescant, gardener of Charles I, in 1637, but as Tradescant died within a year of his appointment he probably had no great impact on the first stages of the garden. Hiring Bobart, an eccentric German veteran, as a replacement stands in stark contrast to the initial plan to entrust the garden to the respected royal gardener.
The Oxford Physic Garden was founded in1631 According to Oxford antiquary AnthonyWood (1632-95), the garden's purpose was "a Nursery of Simples, and that a Professor of Botanicey should read there, and shew the use and virtue of them to his Auditors."
The site for the garden was on 5 acres of land opposite Magdalen College, leased for the purpose by Danvers, already a benefactor of Oxford University. Located beside the River Cherwell, the land had to be raised with 4000 loads of earth and dung to prevent flooding of the area. Around 1631 the enclosing wall was raised and Wood gave the date of 1633 when 'all the wall being finisht, and soon after the floor raised, which cost the Earl 5000 pounds, and more, he caused to be planted therein divers simples for the advancement of the Faculty of Medicine'. He continued: "All [simples] which and several hundreds more have from that time so happily prospered that this Garden may now compare to any in this kingdom or elsewhere."
In 1641, Danvers granted Bobart a 99-year lease of the site, with the "benefit of trees and fruits,"in which he is named "the Citie of Oxon Gardner," One can only speculate asto why so many years passed before the official appointment of a head gardener.. In its early years the development of the Physic Garden was largely dependent on private initiative and money. After Danvers's death in 1644, Bobart made ample use of the agreement in the contract to make a profit from the plants in the Physic Garden, as he was paid no salary and the income from the Rectory of Kirkdale in Yorkshire, which the earl had dedicated for the upkeep of the garden, was not sufficient. In 1648, Bobart published his catalog, which, given the turbulent political times and scarcity of official money, has to be seen as quite an achievement. He remained in post until his death in 1680.
Bobart the Elder was born in Brunswick, Germany. He was appointed superintendent of the physic garden at the university in about 1640. He is credited with the 1648 publication Catalogus plantarum horti medici Oxoniensis, and in 1658 issued an improved edition with his son, Jacob Bobart the younger, and two others.
He was married twice, to Mary (d. 1655) and Ann (d. 1696). Two of his 3 sons also became gardeners, with the eldest, Bobart the Younger, succeeding him at the Oxford gardens. He also had 6 daughters, and apparently owned quite a lot of property in Oxfordshire, bequeathing an inn and several houses to his children. Linnaeus named Bobartia L. jointly for Bobart the Elder and Younger. Bobart the Elder usually spelt his name Bobert, but his son used the spelling Bobart.
He was married twice, to Mary (d. 1655) and Ann (d. 1696). Two of his 3 sons also became gardeners, with the eldest, Bobart the Younger, succeeding him at the Oxford gardens. He also had 6 daughters, and apparently owned quite a lot of property in Oxfordshire, bequeathing an inn and several houses to his children. Linnaeus named Bobartia L. jointly for Bobart the Elder and Younger. Bobart the Elder usually spelt his name Bobert, but his son used the spelling Bobart.
