Herbs In History

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Pilgrims Taking Herbs To America

The early settlers to North America from England became known as pilgrims, and the most famous were the Pilgrim Fathers who sailed in 1623 on "The Mayflower". They were followed by many puritans seeking religious freedom and independence, many in the Winthrop Fleet that landed at Boston in 1630. George Washington's ancestor was an early settler. Many died facing the rigours of the New World, but many survived and prospered assisted by their stock of herbs that they took with them and grew in their gardens in New England.

These herbs were at first their only source of medicines, and of household requirements such as controlling fleas (pennyroyal and wormwood). They also made their stored foods palatable, and brought pleasure to their lives. In 1631 John Winthrop jr [born 1606 in Edwardstone, Suffolk, d. 1676] ordered seeds for America, which arrived with him and his wife on the Lyon at the Massachusetts Bay Colony, of 48 herbs, which he then cultivated. The order cost him £160! These included onions, parsley, carrots, parsnips, radishes, rosemary, thyme, clary sage, Alexander's, angelica, dock, bugloss, borage, chervil, sage, lamb's lettuce, hyssop, lovage, field daisy, catnip, columbine, hollyhock and monkshood [wolfsbane].

Governor Winthrop also had medical recipes written by Dr Edward Stafford of London, given to him in 1643, including use of St John's Wort for sores, he also incorporated elder, wormwood and anise. John Winthrop jr was himself a successful physician, and treated many patients in America with his herbal plants. He was the first representative of The Royal Society in America, and corresponded with Newton and others. He also had the largest collection of books in America. His father John Winthrop was governor of Massachusetts, while JW jr. became founder and governor of Connecticut.

[Editors Note: As an interesting aside I was contacted by Peter Leyel the grandson of Hilda Leyel with the following piece of information. "Mary Winthrop, the great-granddaughter of John Winthrop, Junior (1606-1676) married Governor Joseph Wanton (1705-1780) in 1729 in Plymouth, Mass. Joseph Wanton was Governor of Rhode Island from 1769-1775, and was the great-great-great-grandfather of Hilda Wauton (Mrs C.F.Leyel.)"]

The First Emigration under the Massachusetts Bay Company which was under Master Endicott as Governor, arrived at Salem in 1629.The Second Emigration was under Rev. Francis Higginson, who noted among fruit plants, raspberries. In 1629 a note was written "Articles to be sent to New England by the Massachusetts Bay Company: vines, cereals, fruit seeds, woad seed, saffron heads, liquorice seed, madder roots, hop-roots".

John Josselyn was born at Willingale Doe in Essex in England around 1610 and lived until around 1674 or 1692. (A tombstone in Willingale Doe with his name is dated 1700). In 1637- 38 he went to Maine, New England to stay with his brother, Henry Josselyn. John was resident in New England in 1638-9 and 1663-71. He probably had trained as a surgeon or physician. In 1674 he wrote "An Account of Two Voyages to New England", which was printed by Giles Widdows of London. In 1672 he also wrote "New England's Rarities Discovered". In the former he listed herbs taken on the voyage, and in New England gardens, include savory, tansy, spearmint. For personal fresh provisions he recommended including against sea-sickness, conserves of roses, and clove-gillyflowers, wormwood, mustard, with spices green-ginger, nutmeg, mace, nutmeg, cinnamon, pepper, ginger, lemon juice. Josselyn carried with him the 1633 edition of Gerard's 'Herbal'.

The most notable collector among the settlers was the Quaker farmer John Bartram (1699-1777) of Philadelphia. He was called America's first true botanist and planted his finds in his garden, that he founded in 1728. That garden, acknowledged as the first botanic garden in America, still exists. 1765 Bartram was commissioned as 'Botanizer Royal for America'. He is credited with first finding and raising black cohosh and beebalm, or Oswego Tea, (Monarda didyma). In his garden of plants introduced as herbs by settlers were agrimony, apothecary's rose, dill, English holly, lemon balm, sweet basil, bay laurel, blackberry, borage, catnip, chamomile, chives, clove pink, comfrey, dogwood, French tarragon, French lavender, fennel, fuller's teasel, germander, lungwort, great lobelia, lovage, hyssop, pot marigold, mullein, myrtle, mint, peony, St John's wort, sweet woodruff, sweet flag, saffron crocus, tansy, pennyroyal, periwinkle, rosemary, rue, sage, thyme, white horehound, woodbine honeysuckle, yarrow. Plants popular in colonial times and cultivated in America included anise, apple, bedstraw, beet, bloody cranesbill, bugleweed, currant, raspberry, strawberry, carrot, cowslip, cotton lavender, Canterbury bells, creeping bellflower, dandelion, English ivy, fennel, feverfew, cottage pink/dianthus, garlic, gillyflower, heartsease, hop, lavender, leek, lesser periwinkle, lettuce, lily of the valley, meadowsweet, meadowrue, mint, onion, parsley, parsnip, pea, pot marigold, radish, rose, sweet flag, sneezewort, sea holly, Solomon's Seal.

List Of Over 100 Herbs Taken To And Grown In New England By Early Settlers

Compiled By Roger Tabor

Text © 2003 Roger Tabor Former Chairman of The Herb Society.

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