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 The
elder John Tradescant (c. 1570-1638) entered the historical record on
his wedding day, 18 June, 1607. Two years later, in 1609, he was appointed
gardener to Robert Cecil, first Earl of Salisbury. Working originally
at Hatfield House, the Salisbury estate in Hertfordshire, he later found
employment under William Cecil, the second Earl, at Salisbury House in
the Strand. In 1615, he moved from London to St. Augustine's Palace at
Canterbury; a former residence of the Cecil family acquired three years
earlier by Edward, Lord Wotton. Tradescant remained under Wotton's patronage
until 1623, at which time he entered the service of George Villiers, first
Duke of Buckingham. Under Buckingham's patronage, he began work at the
Villiers residence at New Hall in Essex. He later transferred his efforts
to the grounds of the family's estate at Burley-on-the-Hill. Following
Buckingham's assassination in 1628, Tradescant's services again became
available, and in 1630, he was summoned to the court of Charles I, who
dually appointed him Keeper of his Majesty's Gardens, Vines, and Silkworms
at Oatlands Palace in Surrey. It was this position at Oatlands, the home
of Henrietta Maria, the King's consort, that forever linked Tradescant's
name with that of the ‘Rose and Lilly Queen'.
Through his various contacts, the elder Tradescant was granted a number
of opportunities for travel abroad, often in pursuit of botanical specimens
with which to enhance the gardens of his patrons. In 1610 and 1611,
he made two consecutive trips to the Continent, with destinations in
France and the Low Countries. In 1618, he sailed with Sir Dudley Digges
on a diplomatic mission to Archangel, then known as Muscovy. An account
of this expedition survives in Tradescant's handwriting, and can be
found today in Oxford's Bodleian Library. Two years later, in 1620,
Tradescant sailed again, this time as a volunteer seaman on the Mercury,
captained by Phineas Pett, master shipwright to the British Navy. The
destination of this particular voyage was Algiers, and the mission was
to ‘Quell the Barbary Pirates' harboured there. In 1624, he returned
to the Low Countries on behalf of the Duke of Buckingham, with whom
he would later travel to Paris and the Ile de Rhé; the latter as part
of the ill-fated siege of La Rochelle.
 The
younger John Tradescant (1608-1662) followed in his father's footsteps,
both in name and in occupation. At the age of eleven, he enrolled as
a scholar at the King's School in Canterbury, where he reaped the benefits
of a classical education. In 1634, after a period of apprenticeship,
he was admitted a freeman of the Worshipful Company of Gardeners. Three
years later, in 1637, he made the first of three voyages to Virginia,
‘to gather up all raritye of flowers, plants, shells, &c.', almost certainly
at the king's request. Upon his return, in 1638, he was appointed Keeper
of his Majesty's Gardens, Vines, and Silkworms at Oatlands Palace, ‘in
place of John Tradescant, his father, deceased'.
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