Edward Rudge (27 June 1763 – 3 September 1846) was an English botanist and antiquary.

Life

He was the son of Edward Rudge, a merchant and alderman of

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of Wil ...

, who possessed a large portion of the abbey estate at

Evesham Evesham () is a market town and parish in the Wychavon district of Worcestershire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is located roughly equidistant between Worcester, Cheltenham and Stratford-upon-Avon. It lies within the Vale of Evesha ...

. He matriculated from

Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassical architecture, ...

, on 11 October 1781, but took no degree. His attention was early turned to botany, through the influence of his uncle, Samuel Rudge (died 1817), a retired barrister, who formed an

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (called ...

, which passed to his nephew. His uncle's encouragement and the purchase of a fine series of plants from

The Guianas The Guianas, sometimes called by the Spanish loan-word ''Guayanas'' (''Las Guayanas''), is a region in north-eastern South America which includes the following three territories: * French Guiana, an overseas department and region of France * ...

, collected by Joseph Martin, led Rudge to study the flora of that country, and to publish between 1805 and 1807 ''Plantarum Guianæ rariorum icones et descriptiones hactenus ineditæ,'' fol. London. Between 1811 and 1834 he conducted a series of excavations in those portions of the

Evesham Abbey Evesham Abbey was founded by Saint Egwin at Evesham in Worcestershire, England between 700 and 710 following an alleged vision of the Virgin Mary by a swineherd by the name of Eof. According to the monastic history, Evesham came through the No ...

estate under his control, and communicated the results to the

Society of Antiquaries of London A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societ ...

, who figured the ruins and relics discovered in their ''

Vetusta Monumenta ''Vetusta Monumenta'' is the title of a published series of illustrated antiquarian papers on ancient buildings, sites and artefacts, mostly those of Britain, published at irregular intervals between 1718 and 1906 by the Society of Antiquaries o ...

,'' accompanied by a memoir from Rudge's son. In 1842 he erected an octagon tower on the battlefield of Evesham, commemorative of

Simon de Montfort Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester ( – 4 August 1265), later sometimes referred to as Simon V de Montfort to distinguish him from his namesake relatives, was a nobleman of French origin and a member of the English peerage, who led the ...

, earl of Leicester. Rudge was at an early period elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, to the

Linnean Society The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...

in 1802, and to the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in 1805. In 1829 he was appointed

High Sheriff of Worcestershire This is a list of sheriffs and since 1998 high sheriffs of Worcestershire. The Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of th ...

. He died at the Abbey Manor House, Evesham, on 3 September 1846. He married twice, including to the botanist

Anne Rudge Anne Rudge (29 October 1761 – 1 September 1836) was a British botanical illustrator who illustrated the works of her husband, the botanist Edward Rudge and her son, the barrister and antiquary Edward John Rudge, among others.

(1761–1836). A genus of the family

Rubiaceae The Rubiaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the coffee, madder, or bedstraw family. It consists of terrestrial trees, shrubs, lianas, or herbs that are recognizable by simple, opposite leaves with interpetiolar stipules ...

was named '' Rudgea'' in his honour by

Richard Anthony Salisbury Richard Anthony Salisbury, FRS (born Richard Anthony Markham; 2 May 1761 – 23 March 1829) was a British botanist. While he carried out valuable work in horticultural and botanical sciences, several bitter disputes caused him to be ostracised ...

in 1806 (Trans. of Linn. Soc. viii. 326). His library of botanical and travel books, some inherited from his uncle Samuel Rudge, was sold by his descendant John Edward Rudge in 1930. Besides the work above named, Rudge was author of some seven botanical papers in the Royal and Linnean societies' publications, and of several papers in '' Archæologia.'' One of these was a 'Description of Seven New Species of Plants from New Holland'.Edward Rudge, 'Description of Seven New Species of Plants from New Holland' ''Transactions of The Linnean Society of London'' 8: 291-299 (1807) His son, Edward John Rudge, M.A. (1792–1861), of Caius College, Cambridge, and barrister-at-law, was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and author of ''Some Account of the History and Antiquities of Evesham,'' 1820, and ''Illustrated and Historical Account of Buckden Palace,'' 1839.

Work

References

Bibliography

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rudge, Edward 18th-century British botanists British pteridologists 1763 births 1846 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Alumni of The Queen's College, Oxford High Sheriffs of Worcestershire 19th-century British botanists