Edward Rudge

He was the son of Edward Rudge, a merchant and alderman of Salisbury, who possessed a large portion of the abbey estate at Evesham.

His attention was early turned to botany, through the influence of his uncle, Samuel Rudge (died 1817), a retired barrister, who formed an herbarium, which passed to his nephew.

His uncle's encouragement and the purchase of a fine series of plants from The Guianas, collected by Joseph Martin, led Rudge to study the flora of that country, and to publish between 1805 and 1807 Plantarum Guianæ rariorum icones et descriptiones hactenus ineditæ, fol.

[1] Between 1811 and 1834 he conducted a series of excavations in those portions of the Evesham Abbey estate under his control, and communicated the results to the Society of Antiquaries of London, who figured the ruins and relics discovered in their Vetusta Monumenta, accompanied by a memoir from Rudge's son.

In 1842 he erected an octagon tower on the battlefield of Evesham, commemorative of Simon de Montfort, earl of Leicester.