Jacob Bobart (or Bobert), the Elder (1599–1680) was a German botanist who moved to England to be the first head gardener of

Oxford Botanic Garden The University of Oxford Botanic Garden is the oldest botanic garden in Great Britain and one of the oldest scientific gardens in the world. The garden was founded in 1621 as a physic garden growing plants for medicinal research. Today it conta ...

Life

He was born at Brunswick, and was appointed superintendent of the Oxford Physic Garden (as it then was) after its foundation in 1632 as the first such garden in England by

Henry Danvers, 1st Earl of Danby Henry Danvers, 1st Earl of Danby, KG (28 June 1573 – 20 January 1643/4) was an English soldier. Outlawed after a killing, he regained favour and became a Knight of the Garter. Life He was the second son of Sir John Danvers, Knt., of Daunts ...

John Tradescant the Elder John Tradescant the Elder (; c. 1570s – 15–16 April 1638), father of John Tradescant the Younger, was an English naturalist, gardener, collector and traveller. On 18 June 1607 he married Elizabeth Day of Meopham in Kent, England. She had bee ...

having turned down the position. Bobart arrived by 1641. He had the right to sell fruit and vegetables from the garden, which proved a necessity in the circumstances that Danvers died and the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

meant that his estates were sequestrated. He planted many

yew Yew is a common name given to various species of trees. It is most prominently given to any of various coniferous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Taxus'': * European yew or common yew (''Taxus baccata'') * Pacific yew or western yew (''Taxus br ...

trees in pairs.Oxford Botanic Garden
Infobritain.co.uk. Retrieved on 2012-04-05. In 1648 he published an anonymous catalogue, in alphabetical order, of sixteen hundred plants then under his care ('Catalogus plantarum horti medici Oxoniensis, scil. Latino-Anglicus et Anglico-Latinus'); this was revised in 1658 in conjunction with his son,

Jacob Bobart the Younger Jacob Bobart, the younger, (2 August 1641 – 28 December 1719), was an English botanist. Background Bobart was the younger son of Jacob Bobart. He was born at Oxford, and succeeded his father as superintendent of the Physic Garden, and on the ...

, Dr. Philip Stephens, and William Brown. Little seems to be known of his life; there is Granger's statement that 'on rejoicing days he used to have his beard tagged with silver,' and a goat followed him instead of a dog. He died on 4 February 1680 at the garden house, and was buried in the churchyard of

St Peter-in-the-East St Peter-in-the-East is a 12th-century church on Queen's Lane, north of the High Street in central Oxford, England. It is now deconsecrated and houses the college library of St Edmund Hall. The churchyard to the north is laid out as a garden an ...

, where there is a tablet to his memory. He was married twice, leaving houses to his sons Jacob and Tilleman (or Tillemant), and legacies also to six daughters.

References

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Bobart, Jacob 17th-century German botanists German gardeners Scientists from Braunschweig People from Brunswick-Lüneburg 1599 births 1680 deaths