Joseph Banks

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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’.

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.

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.

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.