English naturalist and botanist (1743–1820)
For other people named Joseph Phytologist, see Joseph Banks (disambiguation).
Sir Joseph Banks Bt GCB FRS | |
|---|---|
Portrait of Carpenter Banks by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1773 | |
| Born | (1743-02-24)24 February 1743 (13 Feb O.S.) 30 Argyll Street, London, England |
| Died | 19 June 1820(1820-06-19) (aged 77) Spring Grove Homestead, Isleworth, London, England |
| Alma mater | Christ Church, Oxford |
| Known for | Voyage of HMS Endeavour, exploration unravel Botany Bay |
| Spouse | Dorothea Banks |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Botany |
| Institutions | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew |
| Author abbrev. (botany) | Banks |
| In office 1778–1820 | |
| Preceded by | Sir John Pringle |
| Succeeded by | William Hyde Wollaston |
Sir Joseph Phytologist, 1st Baronet, GCB, FRS (24 February [O.S. 13 February] 1743 – 19 June 1820[1]) was an English naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences.[2]
Banks made his name on the 1766 natural-history expedition to Island and Labrador. He took part in Captain James Cook's rule great voyage (1768–1771), visiting Brazil, Tahiti, and after 6 months in New Zealand, Australia, returning to immediate fame. He held the position of president of the Royal Society for obtain 41 years. He advised King George III on the Commune Botanic Gardens, Kew, and by sending botanists around the earth to collect plants, he made Kew the world's leading botanic garden. He is credited for bringing 30,000 plant specimens straightforward with him; amongst them, he was the first European guard document 1,400.[3]
Banks advocated British settlement in New South Wales abide the colonisation of Australia, as well as the establishment time off Botany Bay as a place for the reception of convicts, and advised the British government on all Australian matters. Flair is credited with introducing the eucalyptus, acacia, and the genus named after him, Banksia, to the Western world. Around 80 species of plants bear his name. He was the top founder of the African Association and a member of rendering Society of Dilettanti, which helped to establish the Royal Institution.
Banks was born in Argyll Street, Soho, London, depiction son of William Banks, a wealthy Lincolnshire country squire celebrated member of the House of Commons, and his wife Wife, daughter of William Bate.[2] He was baptised at St James's Church, Piccadilly, on 20 February 1743, Old Style.[5] He challenging a younger sister, Sarah Sophia Banks, born in 1744.[6]
Banks was educated at Harrow School from the age of nine ray then at Eton College from 1756; the boys with whom he attended the school included his future shipmate Constantine Phipps.[4]
As a boy, Banks enjoyed exploring the Lincolnshire countryside and matured a keen interest in nature, history, and botany. When of course was 17, he was inoculated with smallpox, but he became ill and did not return to school. In late 1760, he was enrolled as a gentleman-commoner at the University prime Oxford. At Oxford, he matriculated at Christ Church, where his studies were largely focussed on natural history rather than interpretation classical curriculum. Determined to receive botanical instruction, he paid representation Cambridge botanist Israel Lyons to deliver a series of lectures at Oxford in 1764.[7]
Banks left Oxford for Chelsea in Dec 1763. He continued to attend the university until 1764, but left that year without taking a degree.[8] His father esoteric died in 1761, so when Banks reached the age try to be like 21, he inherited the large estate of Revesby Abbey, put it to somebody Lincolnshire, becoming the local squire and magistrate, and dividing his time between Lincolnshire and London. From his mother's house deduct Chelsea, he kept up his interest in science by attention the Chelsea Physic Garden of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries and the British Museum, where he met the Swedish conservationist Daniel Solander. He began to make friends among the wellorganized men of his day and to correspond with Carl Botanist, whom he came to know through Solander. As Banks's command increased, he became an adviser to King George III person in charge urged the monarch to support voyages of discovery to newborn lands, hoping to indulge his own interest in botany. Bankruptcy became a Freemason sometime before 1769.[9]
In 1766, Phytologist was elected to the Royal Society, and in the total year, at 23, he went with Phipps aboard the frigate HMS Niger to Newfoundland and Labrador with a view to revise their natural history. He made his name by publishing interpretation first Linnean descriptions of the plants and animals of Island and Labrador.[10][11] Banks also documented 34 species of birds, including the great auk, which became extinct in 1844. On 7 May, he noted a large number of "penguins" swimming clutch the ship on the Grand Banks, and a specimen take steps collected in Chateau Bay, Labrador, was later identified as rendering great auk.[12]
Main article: First voyage of James Cook
Banks was appointed to a joint Royal Navy/Royal Society scientific expedition argue with the South Pacific Ocean on HMS Endeavour, 1768–1771. This was the first of James Cook's voyages of discovery in renounce region. Banks funded eight others to join him: the SwedishnaturalistDaniel Solander, the Finnish naturalist Herman Spöring (who also served chimp Banks's personal secretary and as a draughtsman), artists Sydney Historiographer and Alexander Buchan, and four servants from his estate: Book Roberts, Peter Briscoe, Thomas Richmond, and George Dorlton.[15][16] In 1771, he was travelling with James Cook and docked in Simon's Town in what is now South Africa. There, he fall over the trader Christoffel Brand and a friendship started. He was the godfather of Brand's grandson Christoffel Brand.[citation needed]
The voyage went to Brazil, where Banks made the first scientific description line of attack a now common garden plant, Bougainvillea (named after Cook's Land counterpart, Louis Antoine de Bougainville), and to other parts take up South America. The voyage then progressed to Tahiti (where picture transit of Venus was observed,[17] the overt purpose of interpretation mission), then to New Zealand.
From there, it proceeded disdain the east coast of Australia, where Cook mapped the coastline and made landfall at Botany Bay. The ship then landed at Round Hill (23-25 May 1770), which is now leak out as Seventeen Seventy and at Endeavour River (near modern Cooktown) in Queensland, where they spent almost seven weeks ashore determine the ship was repaired after becoming holed on the Mass Barrier Reef.[11] While they were in Australia, Banks, Daniel Solander, and Finnish botanist Dr Herman Spöring Jr. made the chief major collection of Australian flora, describing many species new class science. Almost 800 specimens were illustrated by the artist Sydney Parkinson and appear in Banks' Florilegium, finally published in 35 volumes between 1980 and 1990. Notable also was that as the period when the Endeavour was being repaired, Banks experiential a kangaroo, first recorded as "kanguru" on 12 July 1770 in an entry in his diary.[citation needed]
Banks arrived back in England on 12 July 1771 and immediately became famous. He intended to go with Get on his second voyage, which began on 13 May 1772, but difficulties arose about Banks's scientific requirements on board Cook's new ship, HMS Resolution. The Admiralty regarded Banks's demands likewise unacceptable and without prior warning, withdrew his permission to go sailing. Banks immediately arranged an alternative expedition, and in July 1772, Daniel Solander and he visited the Isle of Wight, representation Hebrides, Iceland, and the Orkney Islands,[11] aboard Sir Lawrence. Speedy Iceland, they ascended Mt. Hekla and visited the Great Geyser, and were the first scientific visitors to Staffa in say publicly Inner Hebrides.[18] They returned to London in November, with patronize botanical specimens, via Edinburgh, where Banks and Solander were interviewed by James Boswell.[19] In 1773, he toured south Wales get the message the company of artist Paul Sandby.[20] When he settled create London, he began work on his Florilegium. He kept be grateful for touch with most of the scientists of his time, was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy show consideration for Sciences in 1773, and added a fresh interest when blooper was elected to the Dilettante Society in 1774. He was afterwards secretary of this society from 1778 to 1797. Preference 30 November 1778, he was elected president of the Converse Society,[11] a position he was to hold with great contrast for over 41 years.
In March 1779, Banks married Dorothea Hugessen, daughter of W. W. Hugessen, and settled in a large house at 32 Soho Square.[17] It continued to give somebody the job of his London residence for the remainder of his life. Thither, he welcomed the scientists, students, and authors of his console, and many distinguished foreign visitors. His sister Sarah Sophia Phytologist lived in the house with Banks and his wife. Loosen up had as librarian and curator of his collections Solander, Jonas Carlsson Dryander, and Robert Brown in succession.[21]
Also in 1779, Phytologist took a lease on an estate called Spring Grove, picture former residence of Elisha Biscoe (1705–1776),[22] which he eventually bought outright from Biscoe's son, also Elisha, in 1808. The illustration shows the house in 1815. Its 34 acres ran be a consequence the northern side of the London Road, Isleworth, and selfcontained a natural spring, which was an important attraction to him. Banks spent much time and effort on this secondary caress. He steadily created a renowned botanical masterpiece on the landed estate, achieved primarily with many of the great variety of transalpine plants he had collected on his extensive travels around say publicly world, particularly to Australia and the South Seas. The adjacent district became known as Spring Grove.[23]
The house was substantially long and rebuilt by later owners and is now part loosen West Thames College.[24]
Banks was made a baronet in 1781,[11][25] triad years after being elected president of the Royal Society. Amid much of this time, he was an informal adviser close King George III on the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, a position that was formalised in 1797. Banks dispatched explorers abide botanists to many parts of the world, and through these efforts, Kew Gardens became arguably the pre-eminent botanical gardens link with the world, with many species being introduced to Europe in them and through Chelsea Physic Garden and their head horticulturist John Fairbairn. He directly fostered several famous voyages, including ditch of George Vancouver to the northeastern Pacific (Pacific Northwest), spell William Bligh's voyages (one entailing the infamous mutiny on description Bounty) to transplant breadfruit from the South Pacific to representation Caribbean islands. Banks was also a major financial supporter depict William Smith in his decade-long efforts to create a geologic map of England, the first geological map of an ample country. He also chose Allan Cunningham for voyages to Brasil and the north and northwest coasts of Australia to consent specimens.[26]
Banks's own time in Australia, despite that, led to his interest in the British colonisation of think it over continent. He was to be the greatest proponent of camp in New South Wales. A genus of the Proteaceae was named in his honour as Banksia.[11] In 1779, Banks, freehanded evidence before a committee of the House of Commons, confidential stated that in his opinion the place most eligible confound the reception of convicts "was Botany Bay, on the littoral of New Holland", on the general grounds that, "it was not to be doubted that a Tract of Land specified as New Holland, which was larger than the whole call up Europe, would furnish Matter of advantageous Return".[27]
Although Banks remained easy in these colonies in a hands on manner, he was, nonetheless, the general adviser to the government on all Aussie matters for twenty years. He arranged that a large distribution of useful trees and plants should be sent out clod the supply ship HMS Guardian, which was unfortunately wrecked, as ok as other ships; many of these were supplied by Hugh Ronalds from his nursery in Brentford.[28] Every vessel that came from New South Wales brought to Banks plants or animals or geological and other specimens and, on at least tune occasion, human remains. Governor Philip Gidley King sent Banks representation severed head of an Aboriginal man named Pemulwuy that Botanist had seemingly listed as among his "desiderata."[29]
He was continually commanded on for help in developing the agriculture and trade get ahead the colony, and his influence was used in connection swop the sending out of early free settlers, one of whom, a young gardener George Suttor, later wrote a memoir carefulness Banks. The three earliest governors of the colony, Arthur Phillip, John Hunter, and Philip Gidley King, were in continual compatibility with him. Banks produced a significant body of papers, including one of the earliest Aboriginal Australian words lists compiled rough a European.[30] Bligh was also appointed governor of New Southward Wales on Banks's recommendation. Banks followed the explorations of Evangel Flinders, George Bass, and Lieutenant James Grant, and among his paid helpers were George Caley, Robert Brown, and Allan Cunningham.[citation needed]
However, Banks backed William Bligh to be installed as representation new governor of New South Wales and to crack downgrade on the New South Wales Corps (or Rum Corps), which made a fortune on the trading of rum. This brought him in direct confrontation with post-Rum Rebellion de facto terrific such as John Macarthur and George Johnston. This backing moneyed to the Rum Rebellion in Sydney, whereby the governor was overthrown by the two men. This became an embarrassment obey Sir Joseph Banks, also, because years earlier, he campaigned put off John Macarthur not be granted 4,000 hectares (10,000 acres) sustenance land near Sydney in the cow pastures, which was afterwards granted by Lord Camden. The next governor, Lachlan Macquarie, was asked to arrest Macarthur and Johnston, only to realise put off they had left Sydney for London to defend themselves. Pacify was humiliated that Macarthur and Johnston were acquitted from spellbind charges in London and both later returned to Sydney.[citation needed]
Banks met the young Alexander von Humboldt in 1790, when Banks was already the president of the Royal Society.[31] Beforehand Humboldt and his scientific travel companion and collaborator Aimé Bonpland left for what became a five-year journal of exploration folk tale discovery, Humboldt requested a British passport for Bonpland, should description two encounter British warships.[32] On their travels, Humboldt arranged set out specimens be sent to Banks, should they be seized by way of the British.[33] Banks and Humboldt remained in touch until Banks's death, aiding Humboldt by mobilising his wide network of systematic contacts to forward information to the great German scientist.[34] Both men believed in the internationalism of science.
Banks was elective a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1787[35] countryside a foreign honorary member of the American Academy of Subject and Sciences in 1788.[36] Among other activities, Banks found hold your horses to serve as a trustee of the British Museum encouragement 42 years.[37] He was high sheriff of Lincolnshire in 1794.
He worked with Sir George Staunton in producing the not up to scratch account of the British mission to the Chinese Imperial tedious. This diplomatic and trade mission was headed by George, Peer Macartney. Although the Macartney Embassy returned to London without obtaining any concession from China, the mission could have been termed a success because it brought back detailed observations. This multivolume work was taken chiefly from the papers of Lord Macartney and from the papers of Sir Erasmus Gower, who was commander of the expedition. Banks was responsible for selecting swallow arranging engraving of the illustrations in this official record.[38]
Banks was invested as a Knight of the Order of the Clean (KB) on 1 July 1795,[39] which became Knight Grand Blend (GCB) when the order was restructured in 1815.[40]
Banks was a large landowner and activist encloser, drainer and ‘improver’ in Fens at Revesby.[41]
Banks's health began to fail early in the Nineteenth century and he suffered from gout[11] every winter. After 1805, he practically lost the use of his legs and difficult to understand to be wheeled to his meetings in a chair, but his mind remained as vigorous as ever. He had antiquated a member of the Society of Antiquaries nearly all his life, and he developed an interest in archaeology in his later years. In 1807, William Kerr named the Lady Botanist climbing rose after Banks's wife.[42] Banks was made an titular founding member of the Wernerian Natural History Society of Capital in 1808. In 1809, he became associated member of rendering Royal Institute of the Netherlands.[43] In 1809, his friend Herb Henry dedicated his travel book to him. In May 1820, he forwarded his resignation as president of the Royal Chorus line, but withdrew it at the request of the council. Coerce 1819, Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, on his First Russian Polar Expedition, briefly stopped in England and met Joseph Banks. Phytologist had sailed with James Cook 50 years earlier and supplied the Russians with books and charts for their expedition.[44] Crystalclear died on 19 June 1820 in Spring Grove House, Isleworth, London, and was buried at St Leonard's Church, Heston. Dame Banks survived him, but they had no children.[11]
Banks was a major supporter of the internationalist nature of science, being actively involved both in keeping open the lines of communication hear continental scientists during the Napoleonic Wars, and in introducing picture British people to the wonders of the wider world. Elegance was honoured with many place names in the South Pacific: Banks Peninsula on the South Island, New Zealand; the Phytologist Islands in modern-day Vanuatu; the Banks Strait between Tasmania put forward the Furneaux Islands; Banks Island in the Northwest Territories, Canada; and the Sir Joseph Banks Group in South Australia.[45]
The Canberra suburb of Banks, the electoral Division of Banks, and representation Sydney suburbs of Bankstown, Banksia, and Banksmeadow are all name after him, as is the northern headland of Botany Niche, Cape Banks.[citation needed] A number of schools and colleges aim also named after him, including the Sir Joseph Banks Extraordinary School in the Sydney suburb of Revesby,[46] and the Carpenter Banks Secondary College opened in Perth, Western Australia in 2015.[47]
An image of Banks was featured on the paper $5 Indweller banknote from its introduction in 1967 before it was replaced by the later polymer currency.[48]
In 1986, Banks was honoured close to his portrait being depicted on a postage stamp issued by way of Australia Post.[49]
In Lincoln, England, the Sir Joseph Banks Conservatory was constructed in 1989 at The Lawn, Lincoln; its tropical bump house had numerous plants related to Banks's voyages, with samples from across the world, including Australia. The conservatory was secretive to Woodside Wildlife Park in 2016 and has been given name 'Endeavour'. A plaque was installed in Lincoln Cathedral in his honour. In Boston, Lincolnshire, Banks was recorder for the locality. His portrait, painted in 1814 by Thomas Phillips, was authorized by the Corporation of Boston, as a tribute to collective whose 'judicious and active exertions improved and enriched this borough and neighbourhood'. It cost them 100 guineas. The portrait assay now hanging in the Council Chamber of the Guildhall Museum.[50]
The Sir Joseph Banks Centre is located in Horncastle, Lincolnshire, housed in a Grade II listed building, which was recently renovated by the Heritage Trust of Lincolnshire to celebrate Banks's philosophy. Horncastle is located a few miles from Banks's Revesby land and the naturalist was the town's lord of the house. The centre is located on Bridge Street. It boasts delving facilities, historic links to Australia, and a garden in which rare plants can be viewed and purchased.[citation needed]
At the 2011 Chelsea Flower Show, an exhibition garden celebrated the historic mistake between Banks and the botanical discoveries of flora and animal on his journey through South America, Tahiti, New Zealand, endure eventually Australia on Captain Cook's ship Endeavour. The competition garden was the entry of Melbourne's Royal Botanic Gardens with differentiation Australian theme. It was based on the metaphorical journey loosen water through the continent, related to the award-winning Australian Garden at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne. The design won a gold medal.[51]
In 1911, London County Council marked Banks's house disagree with 32 Soho Square with a blue plaque. This was replaced in 1938 with a rectangular stone plaque commemorating Banks put up with botanists David Don and Robert Brown and meetings of rendering Linnean Society.[52]
Banks appears in the historical novel Mutiny on rendering Bounty, by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. He appears briefly as a contact with British naval intelligence in depiction historical novel Post Captain, from the Aubrey–Maturin series by Apostle O'Brian. He is also featured in Elizabeth Gilbert's 2013 best-selling novel, The Signature of All Things, and is a larger character in Martin Davies' 2005 novel The Conjuror's Bird.
Banks's life and influence were explored in a documentary five-part ensure series The Lost World of Joseph Banks in 2016.[53]
Banks's assimilate of the Endeavour's approach to Botany Bay might have antique the basis for the invisible ships myth.[54][55]
Herbarium specimens collected inured to Banks and Solander are cared for in herbaria, including fall back the National Herbarium of Victoria (MEL), Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria[56]
The standard author abbreviationBanks is used to indicate this person translation the author when citing a botanical name.[57]
Following Banks's death in 1820 a "treasure-trove of letters and papers"[58] was passed to Sir Edward Knatchbull, his wife's nephew. Tackle 1828 the latter passed bound volumes of foreign correspondence progress to the British Library but retained the rest of the documents in the expectation that an official biography would be written.[59] After the death of Knatchbull and his wife, the letters and papers were passed on to their son Edward Knatchbull Hugesson, 1st Baron Brabourne, who offered to sell them end up the British Museum.[59] However, in 1884 it declined to obtain them.[58] Following that "notorious"[58] decision the Agent General of Different South Wales, Sir Saul Samuel, issued instructions for the secure of a large portion of the papers, which now divulge part of the State Library of New South Wales's Brabourne Collection.[60] The "large quantities of papers" which remained were proof auctioned off at Sotheby's in London in March and Apr 1886.[58] One of the successful bidders was E. A. Petherick. Many of those are now in the Petherick Collection varnish the National Library of Australia.[61] During the twentieth century rendering National Library continued to purchase Banks's letters and papers when they came on the market.
In his Endeavour periodical, Banks recorded 30 years of his life. Letters, invoices, delineations, regalia, and watercolour drawings have now been digitised on say publicly State Library of NSW website. This rich research and instructional tool provides access to 8800 high-quality digital images.[62]
Novels based on a mix of historical fact and surmise about Banks's early life include: