Sowing the Seeds of Exchange: The Duchess of Beaufort’s Botanical Networks

Our theme for the autumn and winter terms is ‘An Open Book: Gardens in Literature and Letters’.

Mary Somerset, the first Duchess of Beaufort (1630-1715), was part of several significant epistolary botanical networks. The gardens of her homes at Badminton House, Gloucestershire, and Beaufort House in Chelsea, were central sites of activity and exchange with distinguished institutions (including Oxford Botanic Garden, the Royal Society, and Chelsea Physic Garden) and notable individuals (including Bobart the Younger, James Petiver, William Sherard, and Hans Sloane) with whom she exchanged letters, plants, and seeds. While she did not go on explorations herself, I will show that she was a patron of explorers (who were sent on expeditions in places as varied as Wales and Jamaica) and she was an active agent in networks of exchange (both of knowledge and specimens) in her own right. Furthermore, her botanical and horticultural advice was sought from the leading natural historians of the day – including regular requests from members of the Royal Society to grow unidentified seeds for them. Although she never published her work and her gender excluded her from membership of institutions like the Royal Society, I will show how epistolary networks enabled Somerset to participate and actively contribute to the emerging field of botany.

India Cole is an AHRC-CDP PhD-researcher based between Queen Mary University of London and Oxford Botanic Garden. Her research focuses on the botanist Mary Somerset, the first Duchess of Beaufort (1630-1715), and more broadly she is interested in the history of botany, horticulture, and natural history in the early-modern period.