Henry Lyte (botanist)
Henry Lyte (1529? – 16 October 1607) was an English
Life
Henry Lyte was born at
In 1558, John Lyte made over his property[1] to Henry who managed the Somerset estate until his father's death in 1576, when his stepmother brought a writ of dower against him. Lyte seems to have served as sheriff, or perhaps only as under-sheriff, of Somerset during the reign of Mary I, and perhaps until the second year of Elizabeth (that is, 1559).[2]
Lyte was married three times: in September 1546 to Agnes, daughter and heiress of John Kelloway of Collumpton, Devon, who died in 1564, and by whom he had five daughters; in July 1565 to Frances, daughter of John Tiptoft, citizen of London, who died in 1589, and by whom he had three sons and two daughters; and in 1591 to Dorothy, daughter of John Gover of Somerton, Somerset, by whom he had two sons and a daughter. Lyte was a distant connection of antiquarian John Aubrey, who says that Henry Lyte "had a pretty good collection of plants for that age," though an extant list in the handwriting of Lyte'e second son and successor, Thomas, enumerates only various fruit trees.[2]
Work
Lyte's first and most important work was his translation of the Cruydeboeck of
Lyte's second work was The Light of Britayne; a Recorde of the honourable Originall and Antiquitie of Britaine (1588), also dedicated to Elizabeth, and containing her portrait. Its object is to trace the descent of the British from Brutus of Troy. Lyte presented a copy of this work to the queen on 24 November 1588, when she went in state to St. Paul's to return thanks for the defeat of the Spanish Armada.[2]
List of selected publications
- Lyte, Henry (1586). A new herball, or, Historie of plants : wherein is contained the whole discourse and perfect description of all sorts of herbes and plants : their diuers and sundrie kindes : their names, natures, operations, & vertues : and that not onely of those which are heere growing in this our countrie of England, but of all others also of forraine realms commonly used in physicke, First set foorth in the Douch or Almaigne toong. London: Ninian Newton.
Legacy
Lyte died in the house in which he was born, Lytes Cary Manor, on 16 October 1607, and was buried at the north end of the transept of
References
Bibliography
- Arber, Agnes, editor. Herbals: Their Origin and Evolution, Cambridge University Press, 1986 reprint of 1938 edition, ISBN 0-521-33879-4
- Lee, Sidney, ed. (1893). . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 34. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 364.