49
SAMUEL DALE (1659 ?-1739), OF BRAINTREE,
BOTANIST, AND THE DALE FAMILY: SOME
GENEALOGY AND SOME PORTRAITS.
By MILLER CHRISTY, F.L.S.
With three Illustrations.
IN 1913, I published in these pages some remarks1 on the
lives of the three early Braintree naturalists, John Ray,
Samuel Dale, and Benjamin Allen, illustrated by reproductions
of the National Portrait Gallery portrait of Ray and the
Apothecaries' Hall portrait of Dale.
Immediately after the publication of my paper, our member,
Mr. W. H. Dalton, F.G.S., informed me of the existence of
what he believed to be another portrait of Samuel Dale, together
with two more he believed to represent his first wife and eldest
son. Later, in 1916, Mr. Dalton exhibited these portraits at
a meeting of the Club, when much interest was expressed in
them2. Thereupon, the portraits were photographed, and it
was arranged that I should describe and reproduce them in
these pages.
It appears (from information supplied to me by Mr. Dalton)
that, up to about the middle of last century, these three portraits,
together with a fourth (now lost), were in the possession of Dr.
Perrott, of Braintree. On his death at the period indicated,
his representatives selected such of his effects as they wished
to retain, leaving the remainder to be sold by auction. The
four portraits in question formed a "job-lot" which was pur-
chased by Mrs. Dalton's father, the late Mr. Henry Everard,
who lived many years in Braintree. One of the pictures (a
portrait of a little girl) was too much damaged to be worth
removal, thus leaving the three with which ve are now concerned.
In due course, the portraits passed into the possession of his
eldest son; and they have been, for many years now, the pro-
perty of the latter's children, Miss Everard and Mr. Arthur
Everard, of Witham.
It may be that, when Mr. Henry Everard bought these
portraits, he did so because he believed they represented mem-
bers of the Dale family. Mrs. Dalton remembers her mother
1 Essex Nat., xvii., pp. 129-138 (1913). 
2 Id., xviii. pp. 128-129 (1917).