Thomasine Tunstall and an annotated copy of Gerard's 'Herball'

摘要

Our knowledge of the flora of northern England in the 16th and early 17th centuries is based almost entirely on books written by John Gerard and John Parkinson. Both these men were born in the north of England but moved to London to establish themselves as a surgeon and an apothecary respectively. With busy professional lives their botanising was mainly restricted to south-east England. They relied on friends and relatives to supply them with specimens from the north. For example, Thomas Hesketh of Clitheroe supplied both with material for their books. Another local plant collector was Thomasine Tunstall, who sent plants to John Parkinson. It may be claimed that she is the first recorded woman botanist in England. Whilst very little is known about these local collectors I concluded a previous article (Pearson, 2011) by suggesting that they may have owned one or more of these early botanical books and perhaps annotated copies exist in private or public collections.