George Clifford III

Who was George Clifford III?

George Clifford III 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 estate Hartekamp had a rich variety of plants and he engaged the Swedish naturalist Carl von Linné, who stayed at his estate from 1736 to 1738, to write Hortus Cliffortianus, a masterpiece of early botanical literature published in 1738, and for which Georg Dionysius Ehret did the illustrations. Many specimens from Clifford’s garden were also studied by Linnaeus for his Species Plantarum.

His grandfather Englishman George Clifford I, moved from Stow, where his father was rector to Amsterdam around 1640, beginning an Anglo-Dutch bankers dynasty. Subsequent members of the Clifford Family were prominent leaders in Amsterdam.