Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Buddle, Adam
BUDDLE, ADAM (d. 1715), botanist, was born at Deeping St. James, Lincolnshire, and educated at St. Catharine's Hall, Cambridge, taking the degree of B.A. in 1681, and that of M.A. in 1685. He does not seem to have taken up the study of British botany, with which his name is chiefly connected, until a later date; he is mentioned by Petiver, writing in 1687, as well versed in mosses. He was at one time (1689 or 1690) a nonjuror, but subsequently complied. In 1696–8 he was living at Henley in Suffolk (where his two children were baptised), and corresponded with Doody and Petiver, to whom he sent his collections of grasses and mosses, then the best in the kingdom; these were afterwards transmitted to Tournefort. In 1699 he paid a visit to Ray. In 1703 he was presented to the living of North Fambridge, Essex, and he was also reader at Gray's Inn. In 1708 Buddle wrote an entirely new and complete English Flora, which will be found in the Sloane MSS. (2970–2980); his herbarium, also in the British Museum, occupies vols. cxiv–cxxv. of the Sloane collections. From these two works we are able to form a very high estimate of the accuracy, diligence, and knowledge of their author. It is to be regretted that the Flora was never printed, although Petiver, who had access to it, frequently made use of the information it contains. Dawson Turner's note (Richardson's Correspondence, p. 151), that ‘justice was not done him by those of his immediate successors who more particularly benefited by his labours,’ seems fully justified. Dillenius had the use of the herbarium for his edition (the 3rd) of Ray's ‘Synopsis.’ There is a letter of Buddle's published in the Richardson correspondence, pp. 87–9; several exist in the Sloane MSS. He died at Gray's Inn on 15 April 1715, and was buried at St. Andrew's, Holborn.
[Richardson's Correspondence, pp. 87, 95, 151; Trimen and Dyer's Flora of Middlesex, pp. 386–388.]