John Marten Cripps (1780–1853) was an English traveller and antiquarian, a significant collector on a Grand Tour he made during the

French Revolutionary Wars The French Revolutionary Wars (french: Guerres de la Révolution française) were a series of sweeping military conflicts lasting from 1792 until 1802 and resulting from the French Revolution. They pitted French First Republic, France against Ki ...

Life

The son of John Cripps of

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the Englis ...

, he entered

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes f ...

as a fellow-commoner, on 27 April 1798, and came under the tuition of

Edward Daniel Clarke Edward Daniel Clarke (5 June 17699 March 1822) was an English clergyman, naturalist, mineralogist, and traveller. Life Edward Daniel Clarke was born at Willingdon, Sussex, and educated first at Uckfield School"Anthony Saunders, D.D." in Mark ...

. After a period at Cambridge, he set out on a tour with his tutor. Clarke's lengthy work ''Travels'' relates this journey. Cripps had become a landowner of independent wealth under the 1797 will of his uncle John Marten. The tour, intended to be for a few months, lasted three and a half years. On the initial part of their journey, to Norway and Sweden, they were accompanied by

William Otter William Otter (23 October 1768 – 20 August 1840) was the first Principal of King's College, London, who later served as Bishop of Chichester. Early life William Otter was born at Cuckney, Nottinghamshire on 23 October 1768, the son of Do ...

and

Thomas Robert Malthus Thomas Robert Malthus (; 13/14 February 1766 – 29 December 1834) was an English cleric, scholar and influential economist in the fields of political economy and demography. In his 1798 book '' An Essay on the Principle of Population'', Ma ...

, both members of Jesus College. From Scandinavia they travelled south through Russia. They then visited Jerusalem, Egypt, and Greece. They made their way back to England during the

Peace of Amiens The Treaty of Amiens (french: la paix d'Amiens, ) temporarily ended hostilities between France and the United Kingdom at the end of the War of the Second Coalition. It marked the end of the French Revolutionary Wars; after a short peace it s ...

. Cripps brought back large collections of statues, antiques, and flora: some of which he presented over time to the University of Cambridge and other institutions. In 1803 Cripps was created M.A. per literas regias, and also became a Fellow of 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 coll ...

. He became a Fellow of 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 ...

, in 1805.

Landowner and horticulturist

By will dated 1 Octocter 1797, Cripps inherited the property of his maternal uncle, John Marten, which included possessions in the parish of Chiltington, with the manor of Stantons, Sussex. Having built Novington Lodge on the Stantons estate, Cripps resided there, and devoted time to horticulture, particularly varieties of apples and other fruits. From Russia he introduced the

kohlrabi Kohlrabi (pronounced ; scientific name ''Brassica oleracea'' Gongylodes Group), also called German turnip or turnip cabbage, is a biennial vegetable, a low, stout cultivar of wild cabbage. It is a cultivar of the same species as cabbage, broc ...

Death and legacy

Cripps died at Novington on 3 January 1853, in his seventy-third year. Cripps had bought the herbarium of

Peter Simon Pallas Peter Simon Pallas FRS FRSE (22 September 1741 – 8 September 1811) was a Prussian zoologist and botanist who worked in Russia between 1767 and 1810. Life and work Peter Simon Pallas was born in Berlin, the son of Professor of Surgery Si ...

on his journey, when he and Clarke had stayed with Pallas in the

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a po ...

, Clarke being ill. He sold it at auction in 1808, where it went to

Aylmer Bourke Lambert Aylmer Bourke Lambert (2 February 1761 – 10 January 1842) was a British botanist, one of the first fellows of the Linnean Society. Early life Aylmer Bourke Lambert was born at Bath, England on 2 February 1761, the son of Edmund Lambert o ...

. The bramble species ''Rubus crippsii'', named by Edward Daniel Clarke in his honour and illustrated in his ''Travels'', is now known as '' Rubus sanctus''. The ''Codex Crippsianus'', from the 14th century, is 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 Britis ...

. Cripps had acquired it from Vatopedi on

Mount Athos Mount Athos (; el, Ἄθως, ) is a mountain in the distal part of the eponymous Athos peninsula and site of an important centre of Eastern Orthodox monasticism in northeastern Greece. The mountain along with the respective part of the penin ...

. It has been described by

Nigel Guy Wilson Nigel Guy Wilson (born 23 July 1935) is a British scholar, emeritus fellow and tutor in Classics, Lincoln College, Oxford. His field of research is ancient Greek history, language and literature, and culture, art and archaeology of the Byzantine ...

as "the most important source for the text of several Attic orators".N. Wilson, ''Some Palaeographical Notes'', The Classical Quarterly Vol. 10, No. 2 (Nov., 1960), pp. 199–204, at p. 202. Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association

Family

Cripps married on 1 January 1806 Charlotte Rush, third daughter of Sir William Beaumaris Rush of Wimbledon, and left children. The following year Clarke married the fifth daughter, Angelica.

Notes

External links

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Cripps, John Marten 1780 births 1853 deaths English collectors Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Fellows of the Linnean Society of London People from Lewes District