John Richardson (convict)
John Richardson | |
---|---|
Born | John Matthew Richardson April 28, 1797 |
Died | July 28, 1882 | (aged 85)
Occupation(s) | Convict, botanical collector |
Known for | Participating in several expeditions |
John Matthew Richardson (28 April 1797 – 28 July 1882) was an Australian convict who accompanied several exploring expeditions as a botanical collector.[1]
Biography
Richardson was born in England on 28 April 1797 at
How Richardson spent the years 1823 to 1826 is not clear. Hall (1984) states that he was a member of
In February 1826, Richardson, by then married, was sent to take change of the garden of a new settlement at Fort Dundas on Melville Island. In August that year he is recorded as having accompanied the Mermaid on a visit to Timor to obtain seeds. When the settlement failed in 1829, Richardson returned to Sydney. The following year his wife died, and a year after that his ticket of leave was revoked for bad behaviour. He was assigned to a settler at Cooks River, until he was sent to work on an Iron Gang on Mount Gibraltar near Bowral in 1834. The same year he absconded and was recaptured.[citation needed] In 1836 he was appointed botanical collector to Thomas Mitchell's third expedition. During Mitchell's expedition Richardson discovered many new plants, of which John Lindley described 68 as new species. In his private journal, Mitchell never once refers to Richardson by name, but mentions the "collector" four times; and even "collector" is purged from the published version of the journal, Mitchell replacing it with even vaguer language such as "we". Yet, despite giving Richardson no recognition in his journal, Mitchell subsequently recommended Richardson receive a conditional pardon for his "indefatigable" efforts.[3][4]
Richardson continued to collect botanical collections, providing specimens for the
Legacy
Richardson's name is commemorated in the plant species names
On 10 July 2002 a
See also
References
- ^ a b
"Richardson, John Matthew (1797–1882)". OCLC 70677943. Retrieved 4 December 2014.
- ^ a b Smith, Val (March 2016). "Biographical Sketch – John Matthew Richardson (1797–1882)". New Zealand Botanical Society Newsletter. 123: 14–15.
- ^ ISBN 0-7316-8463-X.
- ^ ISBN 0-643-03734-9.