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Difference between revisions of "Elizabeth Pitts Lamboll and Thomas Lamboll"

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During the autumn of 1740 the English evangelist George Whitefield (1714-1770) preached several fiery sermons in Boston, Massachusetts, on one occasion commanding children, “If your parents will not come to Christ, you [should] come and go to heaven without them.”<ref> Thomas S. Kidd, ''George Whitefield: America’s Spiritual Founding Father'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/BGQW367X view on Zotero].</ref> Two months later, on December 13, 1740, fifteen-year-old Elizabeth Pitts left Boston and enrolled at Whitefield’s Bethesda Home for orphans near Savannah, Georgia, where she was among a handful of girls categorized as "poor," with one or more parent still living.<ref>George White, ''Historical Collections of Georgia: Containing the Most Interesting Facts, Traditions, Biographical Sketches, Anecdotes, Etc.'' (New York: Pudney & Russell, 1854), 335 [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/P8GER2ZN view on Zotero].</ref> Her education at Bethesda included religion, Latin, arithmetic, writing, and reading, in addition to which she picked cotton and practiced skills intended to make her “serviceable" (sewing, spinning, knitting, washing, house cleaning, and “housewifery”).<ref> George Whitefield, “An Account of the Money Received and Disbursed for the Orphan House in Georgia” (December 23, 1741), quoted in Eric McCoy North, ''Early Methodist Philanthropy'' (New York: The Author, 1914), 157, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/X6DK3MWE view on Zotero]; Lilla Mills Hawes, "A Description of Whitefield’s Bethesda: Samuel Fayrweather to Thomas Prince and Thomas Foxcroft," ''The Georgia Historical Quarterly'', 45 (December 1961), 366, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/X57X7QZ2 view on Zotero]; George Whitefield, ''The Works of the Reverend George Whitefield, M.A., ... to Which Is Prefixed, an Account of His Life, Compiled from His Original Papers and Letters'', 6 vols. (London: Edward and Charles Dilly, 1771), 3:  466, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/4R3DI39I view on Zotero].</ref> She may also have developed an interest in gardening at Bethesda. In addition to erecting a new brick “great house” &mdash; with "a [[piazza]] of ten feet wide...all around it, which will be wonderfully convenient in the heat of summer" &mdash; Whitefield was in the process of clearing and planting twenty acres of land. A visitor in 1748 described "[[Yard]]s about 120 feet long, planted with orange Trees" and "a beautiful Garden and a fine [[Orchard]] containing allmost all sorts of fruits, Trees, and Herbs which the country will afford."<ref>Samuel Fayrweather to Thomas Prince, May 25, 1748, quoted in Hawes, December 1961, 364, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/X57X7QZ2 view on Zotero]; George Whitefield, “An Account of the Money Received and Disbursed for the Orphan House in Georgia” (December 23, 1741), quoted in North, 1914, 158, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/X6DK3MWE view on Zotero]; Whitefield, 1771, 3: 465-67, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/4R3DI39I view on Zotero].</ref>  
 
During the autumn of 1740 the English evangelist George Whitefield (1714-1770) preached several fiery sermons in Boston, Massachusetts, on one occasion commanding children, “If your parents will not come to Christ, you [should] come and go to heaven without them.”<ref> Thomas S. Kidd, ''George Whitefield: America’s Spiritual Founding Father'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014), [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/BGQW367X view on Zotero].</ref> Two months later, on December 13, 1740, fifteen-year-old Elizabeth Pitts left Boston and enrolled at Whitefield’s Bethesda Home for orphans near Savannah, Georgia, where she was among a handful of girls categorized as "poor," with one or more parent still living.<ref>George White, ''Historical Collections of Georgia: Containing the Most Interesting Facts, Traditions, Biographical Sketches, Anecdotes, Etc.'' (New York: Pudney & Russell, 1854), 335 [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/P8GER2ZN view on Zotero].</ref> Her education at Bethesda included religion, Latin, arithmetic, writing, and reading, in addition to which she picked cotton and practiced skills intended to make her “serviceable" (sewing, spinning, knitting, washing, house cleaning, and “housewifery”).<ref> George Whitefield, “An Account of the Money Received and Disbursed for the Orphan House in Georgia” (December 23, 1741), quoted in Eric McCoy North, ''Early Methodist Philanthropy'' (New York: The Author, 1914), 157, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/X6DK3MWE view on Zotero]; Lilla Mills Hawes, "A Description of Whitefield’s Bethesda: Samuel Fayrweather to Thomas Prince and Thomas Foxcroft," ''The Georgia Historical Quarterly'', 45 (December 1961), 366, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/X57X7QZ2 view on Zotero]; George Whitefield, ''The Works of the Reverend George Whitefield, M.A., ... to Which Is Prefixed, an Account of His Life, Compiled from His Original Papers and Letters'', 6 vols. (London: Edward and Charles Dilly, 1771), 3:  466, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/4R3DI39I view on Zotero].</ref> She may also have developed an interest in gardening at Bethesda. In addition to erecting a new brick “great house” &mdash; with "a [[piazza]] of ten feet wide...all around it, which will be wonderfully convenient in the heat of summer" &mdash; Whitefield was in the process of clearing and planting twenty acres of land. A visitor in 1748 described "[[Yard]]s about 120 feet long, planted with orange Trees" and "a beautiful Garden and a fine [[Orchard]] containing allmost all sorts of fruits, Trees, and Herbs which the country will afford."<ref>Samuel Fayrweather to Thomas Prince, May 25, 1748, quoted in Hawes, December 1961, 364, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/X57X7QZ2 view on Zotero]; George Whitefield, “An Account of the Money Received and Disbursed for the Orphan House in Georgia” (December 23, 1741), quoted in North, 1914, 158, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/X6DK3MWE view on Zotero]; Whitefield, 1771, 3: 465-67, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/4R3DI39I view on Zotero].</ref>  
  
After leaving Bethesda in June 1742, Elizabeth most likely went into service in Charleston.<ref>Elizabeth Pitts left Bethesda prior to the evacuation of the orphan home on July 10, 1742, when the children took refuge in the Charleston plantations of Jonathan Bryan (1708-1788), his brother Hugh (1699-1753), and their brother-in-law Stephen Bull (d.1770). See Whitefield, 1771, 3: 455-59, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/4R3DI39I view on Zotero];  Alan Gallay, ''The Formation of a Planter Elite: Jonathan Bryan and the Southern Colonial Frontier'' (Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press, 2007), 41, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/JTTIJZSK view on Zotero].</ref> There, on November 19, 1743, she married Thomas Lamboll, a wealthy, well-educated merchant whose second wife had died two months earlier. In addition to serving as justice of the peace and clerk of the Congregational Church, Lamboll owned extensive property in and around Charleston, including a rice [[plantation]] across the Ashley River on James Island that his father had acquired in 1696.<ref>John Bartram and Francis Harper, "Diary of a Journey through the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida from July 1, 1765, to April 10, 1766," ''Transactions of the American Philosophical Society'', 33 (December 1942): 57, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/NZ6AE93V view on Zotero]; Elise Pinckney, ''Thomas and Elizabeth Lamboll: Early Charleston Gardeners'', Charleston Museum Leaflet, No. 28 (Charleston, S.C.: Charleston Museum, 1969), 4-9, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/DU97BPKV view on Zotero]; Preservation Constultants, Inc., ''James Island and Johns Island Historical Survey'' (Charleston, S.C.: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Summer 1989), 8, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/9PKNXN2J view on Zotero].</ref> A French map of 1776 represents a two-story house on the property, framed by long [[avenues]] of trees. [Fig. 1] Around the time of Lamboll's first marriage in 1737 to Margaret Edgar (1711-1742), he had commissioned the architect Thomas Lee (1710-1769) to build a house in Charleston on property Lamboll had purchased in 1722, that extended all the way to White Point, the southernmost tip of the city, where the Cooper and Ashley rivers converged.<ref> Pinckney, 1969, 6-7, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/DU97BPKV view on Zotero].</ref> He may have laid out a garden at this time and begun importing plants. He is credited with being the first to import and cultivate the Pride of India ''melia azedarach'').<ref>David Ramsay, ''The History of South-Carolina: From Its First Settlement in 1670, to the Year 1808'', 2 vols. (Charleston: David Longworth, 1809), 2: 346, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/D9NEJJM8 view on Zotero].</ref> By the early 1740s he was corresponding with the English merchant and plant and seed dealer [[Peter Collinson]], sending local Carolina plants in exchange for exotic specimens imported from Europe.<ref>See Collinson's letter of May 1762 to John Bartram in which he notes "It may be 20 years agon since I gave the White Broom to our Frd Lamboll which was sent me from Portugal," and Collinson's letter of July 25, 1762 describing a plant Lamboll sent to him "many years agon" (Bartram, 1992, 561, 566, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/NZGMIACI view on Zotero].</ref> Reflecting on the many additions to his garden that came through Lamboll, [[Peter Collinson|Collinson]] observed in a letter of 1764 to [[Cadwallader Colden]] of New York, “How Fragrant that Allspice, how Charming the Red flowered Acacia, Great Laurel Leafed Magnolia & Umbrella Magnolia & Loblolly Bay &mdash; these Charming Trees are the Glory of my Garden & the Trofies of that Friendship that subsists between Mee & my very obligeing Friend T. Lambol Esq of South Carolina."<ref>Peter Collinson to Cadwallader Colden, February 25, 1767, in ''"Forget Not Mee & My Garden": Selected Letters 1725-1768 of Peter Collinson, F.R.S.'', ed. Alan W. Armstrong (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 2002), 257, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/Q49SCPA4 view on Zotero].</ref>
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After leaving Bethesda in June 1742, Elizabeth most likely went into service in Charleston.<ref>Elizabeth Pitts left Bethesda prior to the evacuation of the orphan home on July 10, 1742, when the children took refuge in the Charleston plantations of Jonathan Bryan (1708-1788), his brother Hugh (1699-1753), and their brother-in-law Stephen Bull (d.1770). See Whitefield, 1771, 3: 455-59, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/4R3DI39I view on Zotero];  Alan Gallay, ''The Formation of a Planter Elite: Jonathan Bryan and the Southern Colonial Frontier'' (Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press, 2007), 41, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/JTTIJZSK view on Zotero].</ref> There, on November 19, 1743, she married Thomas Lamboll, a wealthy, well-educated merchant whose second wife had died two months earlier. In addition to serving as justice of the peace and clerk of the Congregational Church, Lamboll owned extensive property in and around Charleston, including a rice [[plantation]] across the Ashley River on James Island that his father had acquired in 1696.<ref>John Bartram and Francis Harper, "Diary of a Journey through the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida from July 1, 1765, to April 10, 1766," ''Transactions of the American Philosophical Society'', 33 (December 1942): 57, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/NZ6AE93V view on Zotero]; Elise Pinckney, ''Thomas and Elizabeth Lamboll: Early Charleston Gardeners'', Charleston Museum Leaflet, No. 28 (Charleston, S.C.: Charleston Museum, 1969), 4-9, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/DU97BPKV view on Zotero]; Preservation Constultants, Inc., ''James Island and Johns Island Historical Survey'' (Charleston, S.C.: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Summer 1989), 8, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/9PKNXN2J view on Zotero].</ref> A French map of 1776 represents a two-story house on the property, framed by long [[avenues]] of trees. [Fig. 1] Around the time of Lamboll's first marriage in 1737 to Margaret Edgar (1711-1742), he had commissioned the architect Thomas Lee (1710-1769) to build a house in Charleston on property Lamboll had purchased in 1722, that extended all the way to White Point, the southernmost tip of the city, where the Cooper and Ashley rivers converged.<ref> Pinckney, 1969, 6-7, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/DU97BPKV view on Zotero].</ref> He evidently laid out a garden at his town house or country seat, for he began importing plants, such as the Pride of India (''melia azedarach''), which he is credited with introducing to North America.<ref>David Ramsay, ''The History of South-Carolina: From Its First Settlement in 1670, to the Year 1808'', 2 vols. (Charleston: David Longworth, 1809), 2: 346, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/D9NEJJM8 view on Zotero].</ref> By the early 1740s he was corresponding with the English merchant and plant and seed dealer [[Peter Collinson]], sending local Carolina plants in exchange for exotic specimens imported from Europe.<ref>See Collinson's letter of May 1762 to John Bartram in which he notes "It may be 20 years agon since I gave the White Broom to our Frd Lamboll which was sent me from Portugal," and Collinson's letter of July 25, 1762 describing a plant Lamboll sent to him "many years agon" (Bartram, 1992, 561, 566, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/NZGMIACI view on Zotero].</ref> Reflecting on the many additions to his garden that came through Lamboll, [[Peter Collinson|Collinson]] observed in a letter of 1764 to [[Cadwallader Colden]] of New York, “How Fragrant that Allspice, how Charming the Red flowered Acacia, Great Laurel Leafed Magnolia & Umbrella Magnolia & Loblolly Bay &mdash; these Charming Trees are the Glory of my Garden & the Trofies of that Friendship that subsists between Mee & my very obligeing Friend T. Lambol Esq of South Carolina."<ref>Peter Collinson to Cadwallader Colden, February 25, 1767, in ''"Forget Not Mee & My Garden": Selected Letters 1725-1768 of Peter Collinson, F.R.S.'', ed. Alan W. Armstrong (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 2002), 257, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/Q49SCPA4 view on Zotero].</ref>
  
  
Elizabeth Lamboll's interest in horticulture revealed itself soon after her marriage. Among those "persons who cultivated gardens on a large scale both for use and pleasure," the early nineteenth-century Charleston historian David Ramsay singled her out as "the first that can be recollected," adding "before the middle of the 18th century, [she] improved the south west extremity of King-street, in a garden which was richly stored with flowers and other curiosities of nature in addition to all the common vegetables for family use."<ref>Ramsay, 1809, 2: 227, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/D9NEJJM8 view on Zotero].</ref> The Lambolls initiated a lengthy correspondence with [[John Bartram]] following his visit to Charleston in 1760. Elizabeth prepared and packed seeds, bulbs, and plants from her garden, and Thomas wrote accompanying letters conveying her instructions, requests, and information. The "noble cargoes" sent from the Lambolls' garden contained a treasure trove of exotic specimens, including China oranges, Belladonna lilies, and umbrella trees.<ref>Quotation is from Bartram to Collinson, May 10, 1762, in Bartram, 1992, 559; see also 504-05, 511, 549, 575, 614, 620, 637-38, 648, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/NZGMIACI view on Zotero].</ref>  After describing some of the Lambolls' recent offerings in a letter to [[Peter Collinson|Collinson]], Bartram exclaimed, "Oh Carolina Carolina A ravishing place for a curious Botanist."<ref> Bartram, 1992, John Bartram to Peter Collinson, May 10, 1762, in Bartram, 1992, 558,[https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/NZGMIACI view on Zotero].</ref> In addition to [[John Bartram|Bartram]], the Lambolls sent seeds and plants to other gardeners (such as James Alexander at [[Springettsbury]] in Philadelphia), and in May 1765 [[Peter Collinson|Collinson]] even broached the idea that "by the aid of our Friend Lamboll seeds & specimens may be sent directly to Mee for the King."<ref>Peter Collinson to John Bartram, April 9, 1765, in Bartram, 1992, 644; see also 505, 634-35, 676-77,[https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/NZGMIACI view on Zotero].</ref> [[John Bartram|Bartram]] did not actually meet Elizabeth Lamboll until his second visit to Charleston in 1765, while en route to Florida, when the two of them "rambled in the Intense Heat of a Mid Day sun."<ref>Peter Collinson to John Bartram, September 19, 1765, in Bartram, 1992, 654; see also 656, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/NZGMIACI view on Zotero].</ref>  When Thomas Lamboll delayed in sending [[Peter Collinson|Collinson]] some coveted berries from a shrub that grew on James Island, he urged [[John Bartram|Bartram]] to ask Elizabeth instead for "the Women Deny the[e] Nothing[;] thou hath such a[n] Art of wriggling into their Good Graces to Drag specimens in Flower & then in Fruit."<ref>Peter Collinson to John Bartram, December 25, 1767, Bartram, 1992, 695; see also 686, 688, 694, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/NZGMIACI view on Zotero].</ref>  
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Elizabeth Lamboll's interest in horticulture revealed itself soon after her marriage. Among those "persons who cultivated gardens on a large scale both for use and pleasure," the early nineteenth-century Charleston historian David Ramsay singled her out as "the first that can be recollected," adding "before the middle of the 18th century, [she] improved the south west extremity of King-street, in a garden which was richly stored with flowers and other curiosities of nature in addition to all the common vegetables for family use."<ref>Ramsay, 1809, 2: 227, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/D9NEJJM8 view on Zotero].</ref> The Lambolls initiated a lengthy correspondence with [[John Bartram]] following his visit to Charleston in 1760. Elizabeth prepared and packed seeds, bulbs, and plants from her garden, and Thomas wrote accompanying letters conveying her instructions, requests, and information. The "noble cargoes" sent from the Lambolls' garden contained a treasure trove of exotic specimens, including China oranges, Belladonna lilies, and umbrella trees.<ref>Quotation is from Bartram to Collinson, May 10, 1762, in Bartram, 1992, 559; see also 504-05, 511, 549, 575, 614, 620, 637-38, 648, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/NZGMIACI view on Zotero].</ref>  After describing some of the Lambolls' recent offerings in a letter to [[Peter Collinson|Collinson]], Bartram exclaimed, "Oh Carolina Carolina A ravishing place for a curious Botanist."<ref> Bartram, 1992, John Bartram to Peter Collinson, May 10, 1762, in Bartram, 1992, 558,[https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/NZGMIACI view on Zotero].</ref> In addition to [[John Bartram|Bartram]], the Lambolls sent seeds and plants to other gardeners (such as James Alexander at [[Springettsbury]] in Philadelphia), and in May 1765 [[Peter Collinson|Collinson]] even broached the idea that "by the aid of our Friend Lamboll seeds & specimens may be sent directly to Mee for the King."<ref>Peter Collinson to John Bartram, April 9, 1765, in Bartram, 1992, 644; see also 505, 634-35, 676-77,[https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/NZGMIACI view on Zotero].</ref> [[John Bartram|Bartram]] did not actually meet Elizabeth Lamboll until his second visit to Charleston in 1765, while en route to Florida, when the two of them "rambled in the Intense Heat of a Mid Day sun."<ref>Peter Collinson to John Bartram, September 19, 1765, in Bartram, 1992, 654; see also 656, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/NZGMIACI view on Zotero].</ref>  When Thomas Lamboll delayed in sending [[Peter Collinson|Collinson]] some coveted berries from a shrub that grew on James Island, he urged [[John Bartram|Bartram]] to ask Elizabeth instead, for "the Women Deny the[e] Nothing[;] thou hath such a[n] Art of wriggling into their Good Graces to Drag specimens in Flower & then in Fruit."<ref>Peter Collinson to John Bartram, December 25, 1767, Bartram, 1992, 695; see also 686, 688, 694, [https://www.zotero.org/groups/54737/items/itemKey/NZGMIACI view on Zotero].</ref>  
  
 
--''Robyn Asleson''
 
--''Robyn Asleson''

Revision as of 20:33, May 19, 2015

Elizabeth Pitt Lamboll (1725-October 11, 1770)[1] and Thomas Lamboll (August 1794-October 29, 1774) developed an important garden in Charleston, South Carolina, and contributed to the expansion of the Bartram Botanic Garden and Nursery through the exchange of seeds and information with the Philadelphia botanist and explorer John Bartram.


History

During the autumn of 1740 the English evangelist George Whitefield (1714-1770) preached several fiery sermons in Boston, Massachusetts, on one occasion commanding children, “If your parents will not come to Christ, you [should] come and go to heaven without them.”[2] Two months later, on December 13, 1740, fifteen-year-old Elizabeth Pitts left Boston and enrolled at Whitefield’s Bethesda Home for orphans near Savannah, Georgia, where she was among a handful of girls categorized as "poor," with one or more parent still living.[3] Her education at Bethesda included religion, Latin, arithmetic, writing, and reading, in addition to which she picked cotton and practiced skills intended to make her “serviceable" (sewing, spinning, knitting, washing, house cleaning, and “housewifery”).[4] She may also have developed an interest in gardening at Bethesda. In addition to erecting a new brick “great house” — with "a piazza of ten feet wide...all around it, which will be wonderfully convenient in the heat of summer" — Whitefield was in the process of clearing and planting twenty acres of land. A visitor in 1748 described "Yards about 120 feet long, planted with orange Trees" and "a beautiful Garden and a fine Orchard containing allmost all sorts of fruits, Trees, and Herbs which the country will afford."[5]

After leaving Bethesda in June 1742, Elizabeth most likely went into service in Charleston.[6] There, on November 19, 1743, she married Thomas Lamboll, a wealthy, well-educated merchant whose second wife had died two months earlier. In addition to serving as justice of the peace and clerk of the Congregational Church, Lamboll owned extensive property in and around Charleston, including a rice plantation across the Ashley River on James Island that his father had acquired in 1696.[7] A French map of 1776 represents a two-story house on the property, framed by long avenues of trees. [Fig. 1] Around the time of Lamboll's first marriage in 1737 to Margaret Edgar (1711-1742), he had commissioned the architect Thomas Lee (1710-1769) to build a house in Charleston on property Lamboll had purchased in 1722, that extended all the way to White Point, the southernmost tip of the city, where the Cooper and Ashley rivers converged.[8] He evidently laid out a garden at his town house or country seat, for he began importing plants, such as the Pride of India (melia azedarach), which he is credited with introducing to North America.[9] By the early 1740s he was corresponding with the English merchant and plant and seed dealer Peter Collinson, sending local Carolina plants in exchange for exotic specimens imported from Europe.[10] Reflecting on the many additions to his garden that came through Lamboll, Collinson observed in a letter of 1764 to Cadwallader Colden of New York, “How Fragrant that Allspice, how Charming the Red flowered Acacia, Great Laurel Leafed Magnolia & Umbrella Magnolia & Loblolly Bay — these Charming Trees are the Glory of my Garden & the Trofies of that Friendship that subsists between Mee & my very obligeing Friend T. Lambol Esq of South Carolina."[11]


Elizabeth Lamboll's interest in horticulture revealed itself soon after her marriage. Among those "persons who cultivated gardens on a large scale both for use and pleasure," the early nineteenth-century Charleston historian David Ramsay singled her out as "the first that can be recollected," adding "before the middle of the 18th century, [she] improved the south west extremity of King-street, in a garden which was richly stored with flowers and other curiosities of nature in addition to all the common vegetables for family use."[12] The Lambolls initiated a lengthy correspondence with John Bartram following his visit to Charleston in 1760. Elizabeth prepared and packed seeds, bulbs, and plants from her garden, and Thomas wrote accompanying letters conveying her instructions, requests, and information. The "noble cargoes" sent from the Lambolls' garden contained a treasure trove of exotic specimens, including China oranges, Belladonna lilies, and umbrella trees.[13] After describing some of the Lambolls' recent offerings in a letter to Collinson, Bartram exclaimed, "Oh Carolina Carolina A ravishing place for a curious Botanist."[14] In addition to Bartram, the Lambolls sent seeds and plants to other gardeners (such as James Alexander at Springettsbury in Philadelphia), and in May 1765 Collinson even broached the idea that "by the aid of our Friend Lamboll seeds & specimens may be sent directly to Mee for the King."[15] Bartram did not actually meet Elizabeth Lamboll until his second visit to Charleston in 1765, while en route to Florida, when the two of them "rambled in the Intense Heat of a Mid Day sun."[16] When Thomas Lamboll delayed in sending Collinson some coveted berries from a shrub that grew on James Island, he urged Bartram to ask Elizabeth instead, for "the Women Deny the[e] Nothing[;] thou hath such a[n] Art of wriggling into their Good Graces to Drag specimens in Flower & then in Fruit."[17]

--Robyn Asleson

Texts

  • Lamboll, Thomas to John Bartram, February 16,1761 (Bartram, 1992: 504-05)[18]
"The manner Mrs. Lamboll managers her Ranunculas & Anemonies every Year, is thus: She prepares Beds of good Rich Mould at least Two Months before she takes up the Flower Roots; that the Earth may be well settled by Rain. Wherever the Ground is low, she raised the Flower Beds, at least a foot in heighth, and where high flattens them. In Summer time, the leaves of the Flower Roots being thoroughly dry, immediately after a Shower of Rain happens, she takes up the said Roots, divides & cleanses them (but not by washing) from Insects, then makes slight holes with the Fingers on the Tops of the prepared Beds, places the Roots about four inches asunder and covers them over with Dirt, Scrap’d from the Paths, about half an Inch deep; strewing it over with the Fingers. And if the Rain fails she afterwards causes the Beds of Flower Roots to be Watered gently, such Water having first stood a Convenient time in the Sun. In Cold Weather she causes the Flower Beds to be Cover’d and Shelter’d; especially when they have begun to Sprout."


  • Bartram, John, July 11, 1765, diary entry while traveling through South Carolina (1942: 14)[19]
"I have Just been on James island with Thomas Lambol & his lady to his countrey seat oposit to Charlstown....This day I spent in writeing letters & observing ye fine improvements of ye town & ye adjacent countrey seats."


  • Bartram, John, August 15, 1765, diary entry while traveling through South Carolina (1942: 19)[20]
"We observed many good farms & gentlemens seats.... Landed at Charlstown...& walked to our friend Lambols where we was accommodated in ye most civil & best manner. in A large chamber. one side fronting ye street with a large window & balcony with A prospect down ye bay [;] ye south side fronting ye garden & orange walks over which A lovely prospect apeared of James island over Ashley river[,] two mile broad[,] from two large windows[.] ye farther end of his garden reaches to within A few yards of ye rivers bank; ye north front hath A fine prospect of ye town through two large windows."


  • Shecut, John Linnaeus Edward Whitridge, 1819, describing the city of Charleston(1819: 42) [21]
"Sometime about the year 1750, Mrs. Lamboll excited great interest in the science of horticulture and gardening, by planting a large and handsome flower and kitchen garden, upon the European plan. It was the first of the kind in Charleston, and occupied the site, corner of King and Lamboll-streets."

Images


References

http://libertyparkusafd.org/lp/Bradford/monographs%5CSalley,%20The%20Introduction%20of%20Rice%20Culture%20into%20South%20Carolina.htm

Notes

  1. For her death date, see "Records Kept by Colonel Isaac Hayne," The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, 10 (July 1909): 159, view on Zotero.
  2. Thomas S. Kidd, George Whitefield: America’s Spiritual Founding Father (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014), view on Zotero.
  3. George White, Historical Collections of Georgia: Containing the Most Interesting Facts, Traditions, Biographical Sketches, Anecdotes, Etc. (New York: Pudney & Russell, 1854), 335 view on Zotero.
  4. George Whitefield, “An Account of the Money Received and Disbursed for the Orphan House in Georgia” (December 23, 1741), quoted in Eric McCoy North, Early Methodist Philanthropy (New York: The Author, 1914), 157, view on Zotero; Lilla Mills Hawes, "A Description of Whitefield’s Bethesda: Samuel Fayrweather to Thomas Prince and Thomas Foxcroft," The Georgia Historical Quarterly, 45 (December 1961), 366, view on Zotero; George Whitefield, The Works of the Reverend George Whitefield, M.A., ... to Which Is Prefixed, an Account of His Life, Compiled from His Original Papers and Letters, 6 vols. (London: Edward and Charles Dilly, 1771), 3: 466, view on Zotero.
  5. Samuel Fayrweather to Thomas Prince, May 25, 1748, quoted in Hawes, December 1961, 364, view on Zotero; George Whitefield, “An Account of the Money Received and Disbursed for the Orphan House in Georgia” (December 23, 1741), quoted in North, 1914, 158, view on Zotero; Whitefield, 1771, 3: 465-67, view on Zotero.
  6. Elizabeth Pitts left Bethesda prior to the evacuation of the orphan home on July 10, 1742, when the children took refuge in the Charleston plantations of Jonathan Bryan (1708-1788), his brother Hugh (1699-1753), and their brother-in-law Stephen Bull (d.1770). See Whitefield, 1771, 3: 455-59, view on Zotero; Alan Gallay, The Formation of a Planter Elite: Jonathan Bryan and the Southern Colonial Frontier (Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press, 2007), 41, view on Zotero.
  7. John Bartram and Francis Harper, "Diary of a Journey through the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida from July 1, 1765, to April 10, 1766," Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 33 (December 1942): 57, view on Zotero; Elise Pinckney, Thomas and Elizabeth Lamboll: Early Charleston Gardeners, Charleston Museum Leaflet, No. 28 (Charleston, S.C.: Charleston Museum, 1969), 4-9, view on Zotero; Preservation Constultants, Inc., James Island and Johns Island Historical Survey (Charleston, S.C.: South Carolina Department of Archives and History, Summer 1989), 8, view on Zotero.
  8. Pinckney, 1969, 6-7, view on Zotero.
  9. David Ramsay, The History of South-Carolina: From Its First Settlement in 1670, to the Year 1808, 2 vols. (Charleston: David Longworth, 1809), 2: 346, view on Zotero.
  10. See Collinson's letter of May 1762 to John Bartram in which he notes "It may be 20 years agon since I gave the White Broom to our Frd Lamboll which was sent me from Portugal," and Collinson's letter of July 25, 1762 describing a plant Lamboll sent to him "many years agon" (Bartram, 1992, 561, 566, view on Zotero.
  11. Peter Collinson to Cadwallader Colden, February 25, 1767, in "Forget Not Mee & My Garden": Selected Letters 1725-1768 of Peter Collinson, F.R.S., ed. Alan W. Armstrong (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 2002), 257, view on Zotero.
  12. Ramsay, 1809, 2: 227, view on Zotero.
  13. Quotation is from Bartram to Collinson, May 10, 1762, in Bartram, 1992, 559; see also 504-05, 511, 549, 575, 614, 620, 637-38, 648, view on Zotero.
  14. Bartram, 1992, John Bartram to Peter Collinson, May 10, 1762, in Bartram, 1992, 558,view on Zotero.
  15. Peter Collinson to John Bartram, April 9, 1765, in Bartram, 1992, 644; see also 505, 634-35, 676-77,view on Zotero.
  16. Peter Collinson to John Bartram, September 19, 1765, in Bartram, 1992, 654; see also 656, view on Zotero.
  17. Peter Collinson to John Bartram, December 25, 1767, Bartram, 1992, 695; see also 686, 688, 694, view on Zotero.
  18. John Bartram, The Correspondence of John Bartram, 1734-1777, ed. Edmund Berkeley and Dorothy Smith Berkeley (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1992), view on Zotero.
  19. John Bartram and Francis Harper, "Diary of a Journey through the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida from July 1, 1765, to April 10, 1766,' Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 33 (1942), view on Zotero.
  20. John Bartram and Francis Harper, "Diary of a Journey through the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida from July 1, 1765, to April 10, 1766,' Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 33 (1942), view on Zotero.
  21. John Linnaeus Edward Whitridge Shecut, Shecut’s Medical and Philosophical Essays...The Whole of Which Are Designed as Illustrative of the Domestic Origin of the Yellow Fever of Charleston; And, as Conducing to the Formation of a Medical History of the State of South-Carolina (Charleston: A. E. Miller, 1819), view on Zotero

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History of Early American Landscape Design contributors, "Elizabeth Pitts Lamboll and Thomas Lamboll," History of Early American Landscape Design, , https://heald.nga.gov/mediawiki/index.php?title=Elizabeth_Pitts_Lamboll_and_Thomas_Lamboll&oldid=10089 (accessed March 29, 2024).

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