Joseph Banks

Sir Joseph Banks Dorothea Banks
Scientific career
Fields	Botany
Institutions	Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Author abbrev. (botany)	Banks
21st President of the Royal Society
In office 1778–1820
Preceded by	Sir John Pringle
Succeeded by	William Hyde Wollaston
Signature

Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet,

Banks was born in Argyll Street, Soho, London, the son of William Banks, a wealthy Lincolnshire country squire and member of the House of Commons, and his wife Sarah, daughter of William Bate.^[2] He was baptised at St James's Church, Piccadilly, on 20 February 1743, Old Style.^[5] He had a younger sister, Sarah Sophia Banks, born in 1744.^[6]

Education

Banks was educated at Harrow School from the age of nine and 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 developed a keen interest in nature, history, and botany. When he 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 of Oxford. At Oxford, he matriculated at Christ Church, where his studies were largely focussed on natural history rather than the classical curriculum. Determined to receive botanical instruction, he paid the Cambridge botanist Israel Lyons to deliver a series of lectures at Oxford in 1764.^[7]

Banks left Oxford for

Banks was appointed to a joint

The voyage went to Brazil, where Banks made the first scientific description of a now common garden plant, Bougainvillea (named after Cook's French counterpart, Louis Antoine de Bougainville), and to other parts of South America. The voyage then progressed to Tahiti (where the transit of Venus was observed,^[17] the overt purpose of the mission), then to New Zealand.

From there, it proceeded to 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 known as Seventeen Seventy and at Endeavour River (near modern Cooktown) in Queensland, where they spent almost seven weeks ashore while the ship was repaired after becoming holed on the Great Barrier Reef.^[11] While they were in Australia, Banks, Daniel Solander, and Finnish botanist Dr Herman Spöring Jr. made the first major collection of Australian flora, describing many species new to 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 during the period when the Endeavour was being repaired, Banks observed a kangaroo, first recorded as "kanguru" on 12 July 1770 in an entry in his diary.^{[citation needed]}

In March 1779, Banks married

Also in 1779, Banks took a lease on an estate called Spring Grove, the former residence of Elisha Biscoe (1705–1776),[22] which he eventually bought outright from Biscoe's son, also Elisha, in 1808. The picture shows the house in 1815. Its 34 acres ran along the northern side of the London Road, Isleworth, and contained a natural spring, which was an important attraction to him. Banks spent much time and effort on this secondary home. He steadily created a renowned botanical masterpiece on the estate, achieved primarily with many of the great variety of foreign plants he had collected on his extensive travels around the world, particularly to Australia and the South Seas. The surrounding district became known as Spring Grove.^[23]

The house was substantially extended and rebuilt by later owners and is now part of West Thames College.^[24]

Banks was made a baronet in 1781,^[11][25] three years after being elected president of the Royal Society. During much of this time, he was an informal adviser to King George III on the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, a position that was formalised in 1797. Banks dispatched explorers and botanists to many parts of the world, and through these efforts, Kew Gardens became arguably the pre-eminent botanical gardens in the world, with many species being introduced to Europe through them and through Chelsea Physic Garden and their head gardener John Fairbairn. He directly fostered several famous voyages, including that of George Vancouver to the northeastern Pacific (Pacific Northwest), and William Bligh's voyages (one entailing the infamous mutiny on the Bounty) to transplant breadfruit from the South Pacific to the Caribbean islands. Banks was also a major financial supporter of William Smith in his decade-long efforts to create a geological map of England, the first geological map of an entire country. He also chose Allan Cunningham for voyages to Brazil and the north and northwest coasts of Australia to collect specimens.^{[citation needed]}

Colonisation of New South Wales

Banks's own time in Australia, however, led to his interest in the British

Although Banks remained uninvolved in these colonies in a hands on manner, he was, nonetheless, the general adviser to the government on all Australian matters for twenty years. He arranged that a large number of useful trees and plants should be sent out in the supply ship HMS Guardian, which was unfortunately wrecked, as well as other ships; many of these were supplied by Hugh Ronalds from his nursery in Brentford.^[27] Every vessel that came from New South Wales brought plants or animals or geological and other specimens to Banks. He was continually called on for help in developing the agriculture and trade of the colony, and his influence was used in connection with the sending out of early free settlers, one of whom, a young gardener George Suttor, later wrote a memoir of Banks. The three earliest governors of the colony, Arthur Phillip, John Hunter, and Philip Gidley King, were in continual correspondence with him. Banks produced a significant body of papers, including one of the earliest Aboriginal Australian words lists compiled by a European.^[28] Bligh was also appointed governor of New South Wales on Banks's recommendation. Banks followed the explorations of Matthew 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 the new governor of New South Wales and to crack down 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 leaders such as John Macarthur and George Johnston. This backing led to the Rum Rebellion in Sydney, whereby the governor was overthrown by the two men. This became an embarrassment for Sir Joseph Banks, also, because years earlier, he campaigned that John Macarthur not be granted 4,000 hectares (10,000 acres) of land near Sydney in the cow pastures, which was later granted by Lord Camden. The next governor, Lachlan Macquarie, was asked to arrest Macarthur and Johnston, only to realise that they had left Sydney for London to defend themselves. He was humiliated that Macarthur and Johnston were acquitted from all charges in London and both later returned to Sydney.^{[citation needed]}

Later life

Banks met the young Alexander von Humboldt in 1790, when Banks was already the president of the Royal Society.^[29] Before Humboldt and his scientific travel companion and collaborator Aimé Bonpland left for what became a five-year journal of exploration and discovery, Humboldt requested a British passport for Bonpland, should the two encounter British warships.^[30] On their travels, Humboldt arranged for specimens be sent to Banks, should they be seized by the British.^[31] Banks and Humboldt remained in touch until Banks's death, aiding Humboldt by mobilising his wide network of scientific contacts to forward information to the great German scientist.^[32] Both men believed in the internationalism of science.

Banks was elected a member of the

He worked with Sir

Banks was a large landowner and activist encloser, drainer and ‘improver’ in Fens at Revesby.^[39]

Banks's health began to fail early in the 19th century and he suffered from gout^[11] every winter. After 1805, he practically lost the use of his legs and had to be wheeled to his meetings in a chair, but his mind remained as vigorous as ever. He had been 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 Banks climbing rose after Banks's wife.^[40] Banks was made an honorary founding member of the Wernerian Natural History Society of Edinburgh in 1808. In 1809, he became associated member of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands.^[41] In 1809, his friend Alexander Henry dedicated his travel book to him. In May 1820, he forwarded his resignation as president of the Royal Society, but withdrew it at the request of the council. In 1819, Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen on his First Russian Antarctic Expedition, briefly stopped in England and met Joseph Banks. Banks had sailed with James Cook 50 years earlier and supplied the Russians with books and charts for their expedition.^[42] He died on 19 June 1820 in Spring Grove House, Isleworth, London, and was buried at St Leonard's Church, Heston. Lady Banks survived him, but they had no children.^[11]

Legacy

Banks was a major supporter of the internationalist nature of science, being actively involved both in keeping open the lines of communication with continental scientists during the

An image of Banks was featured on the paper $5 Australian banknote from its introduction in 1967 before it was replaced by the later polymer currency.^[46]

In 1986, Banks was honoured by his portrait being depicted on a postage stamp issued by Australia Post.^[47]

In

Banks appears in the historical novel Mutiny on the Bounty, by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. He appears briefly as a contact with British naval intelligence in the historical novel Post Captain, from the Aubrey–Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian. He is also featured in Elizabeth Gilbert's 2013 best-selling novel, The Signature of All Things, and is a major character in Martin Davies' 2005 novel The Conjuror's Bird.

Banks's life and influence were explored in a documentary five-part television series The Lost World of Joseph Banks in 2016.^[51]

Banks' account of the Endeavour's approach to Botany Bay might have been the basis for the invisible ships myth.^[52][53]

Dispersal of Banks papers

Following Banks's death in 1820 a "treasure-trove of letters and papers"^[55] was passed to Sir Edward Knatchbull, his wife's nephew. In 1828 the latter passed bound volumes of foreign correspondence to the British Library but retained the rest of the papers in the expectation that an official biography would be written.^[56] 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 to the British Museum.^[56] However, in 1884 it declined to purchase them.^[55] Following that "notorious"^[55] decision the Agent General of New South Wales, Sir Saul Samuel, issued instructions for the purchase of a large portion of the papers, which now form part of the State Library of New South Wales's Brabourne Collection.^[57] The "large quantities of papers" which remained were then auctioned off at Sotheby's in London in March and April 1886.^[55] One of the successful bidders was E. A. Petherick. Many of those are now in the Petherick Collection at the National Library of Australia.^[58] During the twentieth century the National Library continued to purchase Banks's letters and papers when they came on the market.

Online archive

In his Endeavour journal, Banks recorded 30 years of his life. Letters, invoices, maps, regalia, and watercolour drawings have now been digitised on the State Library of NSW website. This rich research and educational tool provides access to 8800 high-quality digital images.^[59]

See also

• European and American voyages of scientific exploration
• List of Notable Freemasons
• History of Australia
• List of presidents of the Royal Society

References

Cited sources

• Wulf, Andrea (2015). The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
  ISBN 978-0385350662
  .

Further reading

Primary resources

• Sutro Library, a branch of the California State Library. Sir Joseph Banks Collection, 1770-1812.
• State Library of New South Wales. Papers of Sir Joseph Banks and The Endeavour Journal of Joseph Banks, 1768–1771
• National Library of Australia (NLA). Papers of Sir Joseph Banks
• Royal Geographical Society of South Australia Journal of a voyage to Newfoundland and Labrador commencing 7 April and ending 17 November 1766
• Notebooks containing vocabularies of Tahitian languages and observations collected by Banks are held by SOAS Special Collections. Digitised items from the collection are available to view online here.

Secondary resources

• Cameron, H. C. (1952) Sir Joseph Banks, K.B., P.R.S.; the Autocrat of the Philosophers, Batchworth Press.
• Carter, H. B. (1964) His Majesty's Spanish Flock: Sir Joseph Banks and the Merinos of George III of England [sic], University of Sydney.
• Carter, Harold Burnell (1988) Sir Joseph Banks, 1743–1820 London:
  ISBN 0-565-00993-1
  ;
• Chambers, Neil (2007). Joseph Banks and the British Museum: the world of collecting, 1770-1830. London: Pickering & Chatto.
  OCLC 1028009661
  .
• Dawson, W. R. (ed) (1958) The Banks Letters, University of London.
• Durt, Tania (2007) "Joseph Banks", pp. 173–181 in The Great Naturalists, edited by Robert Huxley. London: Thames & Hudson with the Natural History Museum.
• ISBN 0-522-84753-6
• Marshall, John Braybrooke. "Daniel Carl Solander, Friend, Librarian and Assistant to Sir Joseph Banks." Archives of Natural History 11.3 (1984): 451–456.
• Duyker, Edward & Tingbrand, Per (ed. & trans) (1995) Daniel Solander: Collected Correspondence 1753–1782, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, pp. 466,
  ISBN 82-00-22454-6
• Fara, Patricia (2004) Sex, Botany & Empire: The Story Of Carl Linnaeus And Joseph Banks. New York: Columbia University Press
  ISBN 0-231-13426-6
• Gascoigne, John (1994) Joseph Banks and the English Enlightenment: Useful Knowledge and Polite Culture Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  ISBN 0-521-54211-1
• Gascoigne, John (1998) Science in the Service of Empire: Joseph Banks, The British State and the Uses of Science in the Age of Revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  ISBN 0-521-55069-6
• Hawkesworth, John; Byron, John; Wallis, Samuel; Carteret, Philip; Cook, James; Banks, Joseph (1773). An account of the voyages undertaken by the order of His present Majesty for making discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere, and successively performed by Commodore Byron, Captain Wallis, Captain Carteret, and Captain Cook, in the Dolphin, the Swallow, and the Endeavour drawn up from the journals which were kept by the several commanders, and from the papers of Joseph Banks, esq. London Printed for W. Strahan and T. Cadell., Volume I, Volume II-III
• Kryza, Frank T. (207) The Race to Timbuktu: In Search of Africa's City of Gold. New York: HarperCollins
  ISBN 0-06-056065-7
• Lysaght, A. M. (1971). Joseph Banks in Newfoundland and Labrador, 1766; his diary, manuscripts, and collections. Faber and Faber, London.
  ISBN 0-571-09351-5
  ;
• Mackaness, G. (1936) Sir Joseph Banks. His Relations with Australia, University of Sydney
• Maiden, J. H. (1909) Sir Joseph Banks: The “Father of Australia”.  Kegan Paul.
• Musgrave, Toby (2020). The Multifarious Mr. Banks: From Botany Bay to Kew, the Natural Historian Who Shaped the World. Yale University Press.
  ISBN 978-0-300-22383-5
  .
• ISBN 0-226-61628-2
• ——— 1987 Sir Joseph Banks London: Harvill Press.
  ISBN 0-00-272340-9
• Smith, Edward (1911) Life of Sir Joseph Banks: With Some Notices of his Friends and Contemporaries.  John Lane.

Select unpublished monographs

• Duncan, A. (1821) A Short Account of the Life of the Right Honourable Sir Joseph Banks, University of Edinburgh.
• Gilbert, L. (1962) Botanical Investigation of Eastern Seaboard Australia, 1788–1810, B.A. thesis, University of New England, Australia.

Fiction

Novels based on a mix of historical fact and conjecture about Banks' early life include:

• Davies, Martin (2005) The Conjurer's Bird New York:
  ISBN 1-4000-9733-9

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Joseph Banks and Banksia.

Wikiquote has quotations related to Joseph Banks.

Wikisource has original works by or about:
Joseph Banks

Wikispecies has information related to Joseph Banks.

• Works by Joseph Banks at Project Gutenberg Australia
• Journal of the Right Hon. Sir Joseph Banks during Captain Cook's first voyage in H.M.S. Endeavour in 1768–71 to Terra del Fuego, Otahite, New Zealand, Australia, the Dutch East Indies, etc. Joseph Banks and J. D. Hooker. Macmillan, 1896.
• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
• Correspondence concerning Iceland: written to Sir Joseph Banks, 1772–1818, from the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections
• Lovell, Jennifer. "A Bath Butterfly Botany and Eighteenth Century Sexual Politics." National Library of Australia News 15.7 (April 2005).
• Sir Joseph Banks Society. "Archive of Joseph Banks related material"
• British Museum: Bronze portrait bust of Sir Joseph Banks by Anne Seymour Damer (1814)
• BBC: Historic figures; BBC Radio 4: Science at Sea
• "Archival material relating to Joseph Banks". UK National Archives.
• Papers of Sir Joseph Banks – State Library of New South Wales
• William Bligh's letters to Sir Joseph Banks concerning the first Breadfruit Expedition
• Sir Joseph Banks papers (MS 58). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.
• Works by Joseph Banks at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)

Baronetage of Great Britain
New creation	Baronet (of Revesby Abbey) 1781–1820	Extinct
Professional and academic associations
Preceded by John Pringle	21st President of the Royal Society 1778–1820	Succeeded by William Hyde Wollaston