George Clifford III
George Clifford III (7 January 1685, Amsterdam – 10 April 1760, Heemstede) was a wealthy Dutch banker and one of the directors of the Dutch East India Company. He is known for his keen interest in plants and gardens. His summer estate Hartekamp, south of Haarlem in Heemstede near Bennebroek, had a rich variety of plants and he engaged the Swedish naturalist Carl von Linné ("Carl Linnaeus"), who stayed at his estate from 1736 to 1738, to write '' Hortus Cliffortianus'' (1737), a masterpiece of early botanical literature published in 1738, and for which Georg Dionysius Ehret did the illustrations. His grandfather, Englishman George Clifford I, moved from Stow (where his father was rector) to Amsterdam around 1640, beginning an Anglo-Dutch trading and banking dynasty. Subsequent members of the Clifford Family were prominent leaders in Amsterdam. The garden at Hartekamp was already quite famous before George Clifford bought the estate in 1709 from Johan Hinlopen. Under his ow ...
[...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]