John Conyers (c. 1633–1694) was an English

apothecary ''Apothecary'' () is a mostly archaic term for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses '' materia medica'' (medicine) to physicians, surgeons, and patients. The modern chemist (British English) or pharmacist (British and North Ameri ...

and pioneering

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

. He was known "to collect such Antiquities as were daily found in and about London."

Artefacts and antiquities

Conyers had a shop in

Fleet Street Fleet Street is a major street mostly in the City of London. It runs west to east from Temple Bar at the boundary with the City of Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the London Wall and the River Fleet from which the street was na ...

, near

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grad ...

during the period of construction of Sir

Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches ...

's new cathedral to replace

Old St Paul's Cathedral Old St Paul's Cathedral was the cathedral of the City of London that, until the Great Fire of London, Great Fire of 1666, stood on the site of the present St Paul's Cathedral. Built from 1087 to 1314 and dedicated to Paul of Tarsus, Saint Paul, ...

after the

Great Fire of London The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past the ...

, and collected the medieval and

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

artefacts unearthed, recording the finds in notebooks. They included a Roman kiln found 26 feet (8 metres) below surface level in the 1670s. According to his younger friend

John Bagford John Bagford (1650/51, Fetter Lane, London – 5 May 1716, Islington) was an English antiquarian, writer, bibliographer, ballad-collector, bookseller, and biblioclast. Life Originally a shoemaker by trade, his premises were in the Great Turnsti ...

, Conyers "made it his chief Business to make curious Observations and to collect such Antiquities as were daily found in and about London." His antiquarian collection won praise from the '' Athenian Mercury'' and there was talk of opening it to the public, although this does not seem to have happened. Conyers was present at the excavation in 1679 of the remains of a supposed

elephant Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantidae an ...

from a gravel bed at Battlebridge (King's Cross).Levine, p. 141. The site was near

Gray's Inn Lane Gray's Inn Road (or Grays Inn Road) is an important road in the Bloomsbury district of Central London, in the London Borough of Camden. The road begins at the City of London boundary, where it bisects High Holborn, and ends at King's Cross and ...

, opposite "Black Mary's". The remaining tooth was later thought to be of a

mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks and, ...

straight-tusked elephant The straight-tusked elephant (''Palaeoloxodon antiquus'') is an extinct species of elephant that inhabited Europe and Western Asia during the Middle and Late Pleistocene (781,000–30,000 years before present). Recovered individuals have reac ...

.''British History Online''
/ref> A flint

handaxe A hand axe (or handaxe or Acheulean hand axe) is a prehistoric stone tool with two faces that is the longest-used tool in human history, yet there is no academic consensus on what they were used for. It is made from stone, usually flint or cher ...

was found nearby, now famous as the Gray's Inn Lane handaxe and on display in the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

's Enlightenment Gallery. Conyers was the first to argue that it was a human artefact. John Bagford then somewhat later argued for an origin of the assemblage in the Roman presence under the

Emperor Claudius Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54) was the fourth Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Drusus and Antonia Minor a ...

; this was in a letter of 1715, in which Bagford accepted the human origin of the handaxe. The handaxe came into the antiquarian museum of

John Kemp John Kemp ( – 22 March 1454, surname also spelled Kempe) was a medieval English cardinal, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Lord Chancellor of England. Biography Kemp was the son of Thomas Kempe, a gentleman of Ollantigh, in the parish ...

. With other items from Conyers' collection, it passed to

Sir Hans Sloane Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet (16 April 1660 – 11 January 1753), was an Irish physician, naturalist, and collector, with a collection of 71,000 items which he bequeathed to the British nation, thus providing the foundation of the British Mu ...

, whose personal objects became one of the founding collections of the

. Conyers's notes on his discoveries are now in the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

Sloane manuscripts Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet (16 April 1660 – 11 January 1753), was an Irish physician, naturalist, and collector, with a collection of 71,000 items which he bequeathed to the British nation, thus providing the foundation of the British Mu ...

Ms 959 and Harley manuscripts Ms 5953. Conyers married a niece of

Francis Glisson Francis Glisson (1597 – 14 October 1677Guido Giglioni'Glisson, Francis (1599?–1677)' ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2006, accessed 31 December 2008) was a British physicia ...

. A celebrated

shield A shield is a piece of personal armour held in the hand, which may or may not be strapped to the wrist or forearm. Shields are used to intercept specific attacks, whether from close-ranged weaponry or projectiles such as arrows, by means of a ...

, bought by Conyers from a London ironmonger, was sold after his death by one of his daughters to

John Woodward John Woodward or ''variant'', may refer to: Sports * John Woodward (English footballer) (born 1947), former footballer * John Woodward (Scottish footballer) (born 1949), former footballer * Johnny Woodward (1924–2002), English footballer * Jo ...

. Dr Woodward's Shield, also now in the British Museum, is now recognised as a classicising

French Renaissance The French Renaissance was the cultural and artistic movement in France between the 15th and early 17th centuries. The period is associated with the pan-European Renaissance, a word first used by the French historian Jules Michelet to define th ...

buckler A buckler (French ''bouclier'' 'shield', from Old French ''bocle, boucle'' 'boss') is a small shield, up to 45 cm (up to 18 in) in diameter, gripped in the fist with a central handle behind the boss. While being used in Europe since an ...

of the mid-16th century, perhaps sold from the

Royal Armouries The Royal Armouries is the United Kingdom's national collection of arms and armour. Originally an important part of England's military organization, it became the United Kingdom's oldest museum, originally housed in the Tower of London from ...

of Charles II, but was thought by Woodward and others to be an original Roman work.The Woodward Shield / Dr Woodward's Shield
British Museum]

Notes

References

*Joseph M. Levine (1977), ''Dr Woodward's Shield: History, Science and Satire in Augustan England'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Conyers, John 1633 births 1694 deaths English apothecaries English archaeologists