314
THE ESSEX NATURALIST
Judging by his will, he was at his death a man of con-
siderable property. His botanical collections were bequeathed
to the Society of Apothecaries, where they remained until
1862, when they were transferred to the British Museum,
which is their rightful home. Recently I was privileged to
examine some of his herbarium sheets and was able to see
his lucid descriptive notes in a firm, bold handwriting.
Shortly after the death of John Ray and whilst Samuel
Dale was still in his prime, Richard Warner was born in
London in the year 1713. He was the third son of John
Warner, who was a goldsmith, and possibly also a banker,
in business near Temple Bar.
It seems that the eldest son died before his father, for
on his book-plate Richard Warner blazons a "crescent" as
the difference for a second son.
Although John Warner senior was described by the
Bishop of Salisbury, then Bishop Burnet, as a goldsmith,
and his name does not appear in P. G. Hilton Price's Hand-
book of London Bankers as having kept running cash, he
was described as a banker on his son's tomb at Woodford.
Whether a banker or a goldsmith, or both, he must certainly
have been a wealthy man. He owned considerable property
in Clerkenwell which was bequeathed to the elder son
Robert, and he probably left a large sum to his widow and
younger son, for the widow purchased "Harts" at Wood-
ford Row, where both she and her son spent the remainder
of their lives in comfortable circumstances.
At the time Richard and his mother came to live at
"Harts", he was nine years old, and the next trace we find
of him was that he matriculated at the age of 17 on the 18th
July, 1730, at Wadham College, Oxford. He appears to
have entered Wadham some time between midsummer and
Christmas, 1730, as a commoner and to have taken his B.A.
in 1734, but did not take up his M.A.
The house, "Harts", where he and his mother lived,
was built in 1617 by Sir Humphrey Handforth, Master of
the Robes to King James I, and it is said the King used to
breakfast here frequently when he came hunting in Epping
Forest.