| AdminHistory | Spencer Savage (1886-1966) was appointed Clerk at the Linnean Society in 1911 until his retirement in 1951. He took time off to serve as a gunner on the Western Front in the first World War and returned to the Society in March 1919. Savage became Librarian and Assistant Secretary in 1929 and during his tenure he became a distinguished Linnean scholar and compiled for the Society A Catalogue of the Linnean Herbarium (1945). |
| Description | Letters from Robert Haynes Jeffers to Spencer Savage, dated 1953 to 1965.
1. 1953 Nov 25. Encloses copy of his paper on Edward Morgan and his Physic Garden; the Bobart Herbarium and classification by Bobart between 1670 and 1692.
2. 1954 Jul 20. The library of Borlase was sold in 1773 by White who published a catalogue; is now concerned with Richard Pulteney, the biographer of Linnaeus.
3. 1954 Jul 24. Edward Morgan and finding his will; discussion about list of subscribers in Borlase's Natural History of Cornwall, 1758; biography of Ellis in Literary Anecdotes of the 18th Century; da Costa.
4. 1954 Aug 4. Pulteney's papers.
5. 1954 Aug 12. Ellis and the introduction of the bread-fruit tree.
6. 1954 Aug 14. Ellis and Fivey; chatter about Pulteney.
7. 1954 Aug 23. Ellis and Parnell; grateful for Savage's notes on Pulteney and Borlase.
8. 1954 Sep 3. Ellis and the Ellis Calendar; partial tree of the Ellis family.
9. 1954 Sep 8. Ellis; Ellis and Fivey; Parnell; Fabricius.
10. 1954 Sep 21. Illustrated biography of Peter Kalm, pupil of Linnaeus, by Skottsberg; Ellis; Pulteney.
11. 1954 Sep 28. William and John Ellis.
12. 1954 Oct 25. Item in Gentleman's Magazine refers to John Ellis and Fivey.
13. 1954 Oct 30. Glad to hear Ellis was not responsible for the bankruptcy of Ellis and Fivey.
14. 1954 Nov 1. Has found many references to Henry Ellis; Stephen Hales; John Ellis was associated with Theophilus Desaguliers; Francis Garden.
15. 1954 Nov 12. Henry Seymer used to correspond with Pulteney about shells and fossils; Richard Peers; Henri de Ponthieu.
16. 1954 Nov 16. Henry Ellis; George Whatley; John, Richard and Thomas Peers - all in Dictionary of American Biography VI, 104/105.
17. 1954 Nov 25. General bibliographical chatter about names mentioned in previous letters.
18. 1954 Dec 9. Describes a paper by John Ellis rejected by the Royal Society and published in Gentleman's Magazine.
19. 1954 Dec 10. About the family lives of John Ellis and Richard Peers.
20. 1954 Dec 15. Describes Nevill memorials in St. Mary the Virgin, Walthamstow; the Ellis family tree; the Peers family; the Ford family; Thomas Haviland; the Ellis family.
21. 1954 Dec 28. Ellis's early life in London; the Ellis arms; the Peers family tree.
22. 1955 Jan 11. Grateful for suggestion that he publishes a paper on Ellis but thinks it would be premature; John Ford.
23. 1955 Jan 19. John Ford; not uncommon in the 18th century for men who were studying medicine to practise before they qualified.
23a. 1955 Feb 2. Encloses copy of John Ford's obituary notice; appreciates note on Samuel Ellis.
24. 1955 Jan 18. John Ford and his Fellowship of the LS; about the John Ford and John Ellis families.
25. 1955 Jan 26. More about the identity of John Ford.
26. 1955 Feb 15. Encloses a partial family tree of Ellis, of Kiddal, Yorks; about Alexander Garden; bibliographical chatter.
27. 1955 Feb 22. Causes for migration of people to Ireland; birth of Ellis's father; newly found Dionaea muscipla; John Ellis died 5 October 1776; John Bradley Blake.
28. 1955 Mar 1. Francis Garden, who died in South Carolina in 1771; Samuel Ellis died in Barnet in 1770; chatter about Ellis and Blake.
29. 1955 Mar 9. The correspondents and relatives of Ellis.
30. 1955 Mar 17. William Logan; the Patrick Logan family tree.
31. 1955 Mar 19. About the contents of Flora of Dominica, B.W., by W.H. Hodge.
32. 1955 Mar 22. The Logans; Alexander Garden; Ellis family; John Hyde; Alexander Anderson.
33. 1955 Mar 29. Additional notes about Ellis and his correspondents; the names in General Biographical Dictionary, 1851; entries in Musgrave's Obituaries; Francis Garden; John Grey; biographies of William Aiton, Alexander Garden and John Hope in The Scottish Nation, I, 1865, by William Anderson.
34. 1955 Apr 2. Extracts from the Calendar: the names of Ellis correspondents mentioned in Polteney's correspondence.
35. 1955 Apr 6. From Ellis and Pulteney searches he found Samuel Ellis, Thomas Fludyer, John Hyde, Herbert Hyde, Izrael Jalabert, Henry Boyd, William Fitzhugh, Richard Warner; he did not find Grey entered as London merchant or A. Russell.
36. 1955 Apr 9. About A. Russell.
37. 1955 Apr 13. Apologizes for Alexander Russell errors and for wrongfully recording Webb's death as 1793; thanks Savage for notes on Solander; gives names from the Record of the Royal Society.
38. 1955 Apr 26. More information on William Russell, Edward Donovan, George Whatley, Thomas Fitzhugh, Gustava Brandes, the de Ponthieu's firm, Abraham Spalding, Samuel Ellis, John Ford, M.D., John Ford, Surgeon.
39. 1955 Apr 30. John Andrew's letter indicates he met Linnaeus in Holland; Ellis's herbarium.
40. 1955 May 4. Transcripts from the Annual Register.
41. 1955 May 14. Further notes relating to individuals mentioned in the Ellis MSS and Pulteney correspondence.
42. 1955 Jun 23. Information about the correspondents of Ellis; William Logan and his brother George; Mrs Ann Neville; has not yet determined the origin of John Ellis.
43. 1955 Jun 25. John Andrew, M.D.
44. 1955 Jul 1. About the origin of Ellis.
45. 1955 Jul 19. More about the Ellis family and the family tree.
46. 1955 Dec 16. Has made no progress in resolving the Ford problem, there were four of them all M.D.'s.; de Ponthieu; Dr. Andrew.
47. 1956 May 16. Sad about the death of Savage's sister-in-law; more details about de Ponthieu, G. Whatley and John Ford; still baffled by Edward Morgan.
48. 1956 May 27. Is at present occupied with the letters of Harriot Lister; the next task will be to complete the Catalogue of the Smithian Herbarium.
49. 1956 Jun 25. Arms of Ellis of Kiddal Hall, Barwick-in-Elmet, Yorkshire.
50. 1956 Jul 21. Background - the manner in which Pulteney impinges on Ellis; de Ponthieu; family tree, Ellis of Gray's Inn.
51. 1956 Sep 16. More about the Ellises, beginning with John Ellis of Jamaica who in 1782 was lost at sea with his niece, Anna Maria Ellis.
52. 1956 Sep 2. Supplements previous letter; family tree for Rev. John Ellis.
53. 1956 Oct 15. Ellis of the Corallines and his friends.
54. 1956 Nov 12. Ellis of Kiddall and Ellis of Jamaica were two separate branches of the family of Ellis; the same is true of Ellis of Monaghan branch which sprang from Ellis of Wylam, Lines.; table for Sir Thomas Ellis, of Wyklam, Lincs.
55. 1956 Dec 16. Calendar of Pulteney's letters are completed; origin of the Linnean Garden.
56. 1957 Aug 18. Congratulates Savage for his paper on Borlase; chat about the paper.
57. 1957 Sep 16. Morgan and his N. Wales associates; Wm. Hiddesford; the Ellis family.
58. 1957 Dec 15. The Ellis family.
59. 1958 Mar 23. Pulteney and Ellis had "people" in common; more about the Ellis family.
60. 1958 Apr 4. Spells out in detail his perception of the Ellisiana.
61. 1958 Apr 13. Regrets his errors in preparing Ellisiana and Borlaseana; has found more Ram material; records Ram pedigree.
62. 1958 Apr 20. About American investigations into botany and horticulture in England; Ellis; diagram of London street map where Ellis and his friends lived.
63. 1958 May 9. Thanks Savage for copy of The Sloane herbarium.
64. 1958 May 15. Acknowledges that he had received the parcel.
65. 1958 May 26. Death of his father; more about Ellis.
66. 1958 Aug 10. His trip to Cornwall.
67. 1958 Aug 16. His visit to Penzance; Andrew; Courtenay family; had sent to Uggla list of Linneaus correspondents but this had been inadequate; Borlase.
68. 1959 Apr 25. Death of his mother; has resumed research into Ellis and associates; details.
68a. 1959 May 3. Sorry to have heard from Miss Coulie about the death of Savage's mother; the reason why Ramsbottom's paper on Linneaus binomials was published in Edinburgh.
69. 1959 Dec 19. Has re-examined the diaries of Pepys and Evelyn; Henry de Ponthieu.
70. 1960 Jan 9. Had examined with O'Grady an herbarium at the LS; no indication of its original owner; gives list of contents.
71. 1960 May 8. Thanks Savage for hospitality; chatter.
72. 1960 May 21. Finds the idea of a West Country Miscellany very intriguing; he would like to prepare MS on Pulteney's correspondence on the lines of Gavin de Beer's book. Pulteney chatter.
73. 1960 Dec 4. Encloses card by artist to whom Miss Harriot Lister refers in her letter to Mrs. Poulteney; about Miss Lister and her artistry.
74. 1961 Dec 20. Encloses Christmas card, a reproduction of a Canaletto painting; chatter.
75. 1962 Jan 10. The King's garden in the time of Pepys and Evelyn; chatter.
76. 1962 Dec 17. About Jacques Le Moyne, one of the few who survived an Indian massacre of French colonists in Florida; Edward Morgan; Thomas Johnson; John Gerard.
77. 1962 Dec 30. Thanks Savage for passing on the birthplace of Le Moyne; chatter.
78. 1963 Mar 12. Has found further references to Le Moyne; he was mentioned by Hind, of the B.M., who had written two volumes on engravers from the continent; Le Moyne died before 1588.
79. 1963 Mar 19. Has received his MS on Le Chef des Champs and is grateful for Savage's notes and opinion.
80. 1964 Apr 19. About the Ellis family.
81. 1964 Apr 22. Ellis family and coat-of-arms.
82. 1964 Aug 23. Miss Allen and the will of John Tradescant; will was drawn up in 1637 and the chief witness was Edward Morgan.
83. 1964 Aug 30. The will of John Tradescant; could not find Johnson's name in printed records of wills of the seventeenth century; list of pewterers surnamed Ellis.
84. 1964 Sep 6. Thanks Savage for the tribute to Uggla; the Lyte family; Ellis, Pulteney and Borlase; G. Brander.
85. 1964 Dec 20. Visit to Norwich; saw shield of arms and crest of Sir James Edward Smith; chatter.
86. 1965 Jan 11. James Edward Smith and Pulteney; Smith family tree.
87. 1965 Jan 14. Smith; agrees with Savage that Stukeley and Borlese were wrong about Stonehenge.
88. 1965 Feb 10. Has set down in outline what is known of the life of John Ellis.
89. 1965 Feb 23. About the Ellis family.
90. 1965 Jul 11. Describes what he thinks is a reasonably accurate pedigree of the Ellis family.
91. 1965 Jul 20. The Ellis and Watt families.
MISCELLANEOUS
92. Copy of letter from John Andrew to Cromwell Mortimer dated 1736 Feb 5.
93. Pencilled draft of letter from Savage to Jeffries dated 1955 Jan 6.
94. No date. Family tree of Ellis alias Elys, by Jeffries.
95. Reprint from LS Proceedings: Edward Morgan and the Westminster Physic Garden, by R.H. Jeffries. |