Joseph Banks

@Scientists, Timeline and Childhood

Sir Joseph Banks was an English botanist whose work paved the way for future-botanists

Feb 24, 1743

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Biography

Personal Details

  • Birthday: February 24, 1743
  • Died on: June 19, 1820
  • Nationality: British
  • Famous: Eton College, Oxford University, Scientists, Botanists
  • Siblings: Sarah Sophia Banks
  • Known as: Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet
  • Universities:
    • Eton College,Oxford University
    • Christ Church
    • Oxford
    • University of Oxford
    • Eton College
    • Harrow School

Joseph Banks born at

London

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Birth Place

Joseph Banks married Dorothea Hugessen in 1779 and their marriage remained child-less.

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Personal Life

To commemorate his efforts and findings in the field of botany around 80 plants derive their names from his name.

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Personal Life

He passed away on June 19, 1820 at his Spring Grove House in London and was buried at St Leonard’s Church in Heston.

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Personal Life

Joseph Banks was born on February 24, 1743 in London to a wealthy family. His father was a doctor, squire of the Lincolnshire county and a member of the House of Commons.

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Childhood & Early Life

Joseph’s initial education was in the form of private tuitions at home. In 1752 he enrolled in the Harrow School, London and then went to Eton College, Windsor in 1756.

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Childhood & Early Life

In 1760 he entered Christ Church at Oxford University as a gentleman-commoner. After noticing there weren’t any professors to deliver lectures on botany he paid Israel Lyons, a Cambridge botanist, to do so at the university in 1764. He left the university without a degree in 1764.

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Childhood & Early Life

His father had passed away in 1761 and left him a sizeable inheritance. After attaining the age of 21 he inherited his father’s fortunes and became a considerably wealthy individual. This enabled him to devote his leisure time to botany.

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Childhood & Early Life

He moved to Chelsea in 1763 and there he visited the Chelsea Physic Garden and the British Museum. Gradually he made acquaintances with Daniel Solander (a Swedish naturalist) and Carl Linnaeus, and went onto become the adviser to King George III.

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Childhood & Early Life

In 1766 Joseph Banks was elected to the Royal Society and later to the Society of Antiquities. He went on the HMS Niger’s expedition to Newfoundland and Labrador and collected many species of plants and animals and recorded 34 species of birds, including the now-extinct bird species called the Great Auk.

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Career

He went along with James Cook on Cook’s first great voyage of discovery (1768–1771) aboard the HMS Endeavour to observe the transit of Venus. Banks financed the trip for Solander and Herman Sporing, a Finnish naturalist, and five others.

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Career

While traversing through Brazil, he made the first scientific description of the plant Bougainvillea. The explorers took notes and specimens of nearly 800 plants off the Australian banks which were later presented in Bank’s ‘Florilegium’.

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Career

He returned from the voyage as a famous man on July 12, 1771. However, he couldn’t find a place on Cook’s next voyage aboard the ship named Resolution pertaining to his scientific requirements.

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Career

He didn’t lose hope and lead an expedition with Solander aboard the ship Sir Lawrence to the Isle of Wight, the western islands of Scotland and Ireland. He returned with many more specimens and stored them at his house in London.

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Career

Joseph Banks’ major works include his 1766 expedition to Newfoundland and Labrador along with James Cook, his development of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, into an unparalleled garden and his unique position of high authority with the British government on any matter relating to the Australian continent.

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Major Works