Joseph Banks

Sir Joseph Banks (1743–1820) was a British explorer, naturalist, and botanist who served as president of the Royal Society for 41 years[2][7]. He was an influential English botanist and naturalist, renowned for his contributions to scientific exploration and botanical study[9]. He gained prominence as the naturalist on Captain James Cook's first voyage aboard the Endeavour (1768-1771), during which he collected numerous plant specimens and studied indigenous peoples in the Pacific[9].

Early Life and Education

Joseph Banks was born in London on 13 February 1743, the son of William Banks, of Revesby Hall, Lincolnshire, England, and his wife Sarah, née Bate[7]. Born into a life of privilege, Joseph Banks was the son of a wealthy Lincolnshire landowner[3]. The family home at Revesby Abbey, Lincolnshire, had been bought in 1714 by his great-grandfather, Joseph Banks 'the first' (1665-1727) who, like his grandfather, Joseph 'the second' (1696-1741), and father, William, entered parliament[6].

In 1761, when Banks was only eighteen, his father died unexpectedly at the age of forty-two[3]. At 21, having inherited the impressive estate of Revesby Abbey in Lincolnshire, Banks became one of England's wealthiest men, with an income of £6,000 per year - more than £1 million pounds in today's money[1].

Banks was at Harrow from 1752 to 1756, and at Eton from that year until 1760, when he entered Christ Church, Oxford, remaining there until 1764[7]. It was at Eton, at age 14, that Banks, as he later recalled, discovered his calling in life. One summer evening, he was walking near the school when he suddenly became aware of the variety of flowers growing along the lane. Inspired to study nature, thereafter he learned as much as he could about botany[8].

At school at Eton, he decided he'd far rather study plants and animals than Greek and Latin. His first botany teachers were the local women who gathered the plants for apothecaries, the medicine-makers of that time. He'd pay them sixpence (a good sum in those days) for each bit of information they could give him[5].

Key Influences and Mentors

At Oxford he was shocked to learn that tuition in botany was unavailable because the Sherardian professor of botany, Humphrey Sibthorpe, did not lecture. Banks thereupon prevailed upon Sibthorpe for permission to seek a botany teacher at Cambridge, and taking letters of introduction to the Cambridge professor, John Martyn, he returned with Israel Lyons, a botanist and astronomer[6].

The voyage marked the beginning of Banks' lifelong friendship and collaboration with the Swedish naturalist Daniel Solander, one of Linnaeus' most esteemed pupils, and the beginning of Banks' lifelong advocacy of British settlement in New South Wales[14]. Banks attracted an inner circle of accomplished collectors and botanists, of whom Solander, Jonas Dryander (1748-1810) and Robert Brown were in turn his botanist-librarians[6].

Professional Development

As an independent naturalist, Banks participated in a voyage to Newfoundland and Labrador in 1767. Although he did not publish an account of this expedition, he allowed others full use of his collection. In the same year he was elected a Fellow of both the Royal Society and the Society of Antiquities[14].

Two weeks after his return to the UK, he was admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Society. He caught the attention of the scientific community by publishing the first Linnean descriptions of the plants and animals of Newfoundland and Labrador[1].

Cook's Endeavour Voyage

When the Royal Society persuaded the Admiralty to send James Cook in command of an expedition to observe the transit of Venus, it urged that 'Joseph Banks … a Gentleman of large fortune … well versed in natural history' should be permitted to join the expedition 'with his Suite'. Probably the earl of Sandwich influenced agreement to the request, and Banks joined the ship with a staff of eight: Daniel Solander and H. D. Spöring, naturalists; Alexander Buchan and Sydney Parkinson, landscape and natural history artists; James Roberts and Peter Briscoe, tenants from Revesby; Thomas Richmond and George Dorlton (Dollin), negro servants[6].

It was estimated to have cost him about £10,000 (worth more than NZ$1.5 million today) to mount it[5]. Only four of this party survived the voyage, Banks himself, Solander and the two Revesby men[6].

They made collections and observations at Rio de Janeiro, Tierra del Fuego, Tahiti, and during the survey of New Zealand. They took full advantage of landings on the eastern coast of Australia, especially at Botany Bay (28 April–5 May 1770) and at Endeavour River (17 June–3 August), where, however, the beaching of the holed ship unfortunately caused water to flow sternwards, thereby destroying some of the plant specimens, which Banks had 'for safety stowd in the bread room'[6].

With the help of collectors and artists such as Daniel Solander and Sydney Parkinson, Banks accumulated an enormous trove of knowledge and specimens, including more than 1,000 plant species previously unknown in Europe[1].

Royal Society Presidency and Scientific Leadership

In 1778 he was elected President of the Royal Society, a position he held with varying degrees of support, until his death in 1820. He remains the longest serving President in the history of the Royal Society, founded almost 350 years ago[14].

After he became president of the Royal Society (1778–1820), he improved the position of science in Britain and cultivated interchange with scientists of other nations; he was, however, accused by many fellow scientists of exercising excessive authority as president and even of being "despotic."[2]

He settled in London, assembling an enormous library and herbarium at his home in Soho Square.[1] Thanks to this unrivalled collection of plants and books, his home rapidly became one of the scientific and social centres of Georgian London. Banks made his unique collections open to anyone who wished to examine his plants and books. He also maintained an extensive network of correspondence with friends and scientific colleagues all over the world.

Kew Gardens and Botanical Work

He met King George III as a result of his south sea travels, and this started a lifetime friendship between the two. In 1772, the King appointed him scientific adviser at Kew Gardens. It was Banks' influence and organisational skills that set up the gardens as a centre of practical botany, with a growing (in both senses of the word) collection of plants that might be ornamental or useful in some way from all over the world[5].

Banks became a trustee of the British Museum and King George III's advisor for the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, which flourished under his care to become one of the most comprehensive botanical gardens in the world. He sent explorers and botanists all over the world, looking for new and economically useful species that could be cultivated on British lands[1].

He also organised the introduction of plants useful for commercial harvest into other countries, for example, of tea from its native China into India, and of breadfruit from Tahiti to the West Indies[5].

Personal Life

In March 1779, Banks married Dorothea Hugessen, the eldest daughter of wealthy land owner in Kent. They lived in a house in in Soho Square, London with Dorothea's unmarried sister Sophia[4]. He was 77 years old and left no family[4].

In his last years Banks was crippled by gout, yet he remained, even in his wheel chair, a venerable and formidable figure, especially when presiding at the Royal Society in full court dress and wearing the Order of the Bath[6].

Honors and Recognition

Joseph Banks was made a baronet in 1781 and a Knight Commander of Bath in 1795 for his patronage of natural science[1]. He was made a member of the Privy Council in 1797. He was also appointed an associate of the Institute of France In 1802[4].

Banks was made a member of the Privy Council in 1797, acting as adviser to successive governments and King George III. In this role he had a direct impact on many important affairs of state[1].

Australian Colonization

He was a strong supporter of the colonisation of New South Wales and recommended Botany Bay as a site for a penal colony. He became the government's advisor on Australia and corresponded with its first three governors[16].

Practically anyone who wanted to travel to New South Wales in the first 30 years of British colonisation in Australia, in almost any capacity, consulted Sir Joseph Banks. He was the one constant through changes of governors, administration and settlement policies[14].

Because of his keen interest in the colony Banks has been called 'the Father of Australia'. Bankstown was named after him; a monument to his memory is at Kurnell; and the north headland of Botany Bay was named Cape Banks by Cook[6].

Death and Legacy

He died at his house at Spring Grove, Isleworth, on 19 June 1820, and was buried in Heston church, near Hounslow[6].

Banks's herbarium, considered one of the most important in existence, and his library, a major collection of works on natural history, are now at the British Museum. Banks' Florilegium, a collection of engravings of plants compiled by Banks and based on drawings by Swedish botanist Daniel Solander during Cook's 1768–71 voyage, was not published in full until 1989[2].

Banks brought thousands of new species to the attention of Western science, including acacia, eucalyptus and banksia, a genus named in his honour[1]. About 80 other species of plants were also named after him[4].

The plant specimens that he brought back became the first collections at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. And several species, such as the famous Banksia integrifolia, were shared with institutions around the world—including the U.S. National Herbarium at the Smithsonian in 1980. Today, many modern collections and seed banks, such as the Millennium Seed Bank in London and the Svalbard Global Seed Bank in Norway, carry on Banks' legacy of species preservation[18].