Sir Joseph Banks  (1743—1820)

Plant-collector, Scientific Patron and President of the Royal Society, 1778—1820  

Joseph Banks, was born in London the son of a Lincolnshire landowner being educated first at Harrow then at the age of thirteen moved to Eton and at eighteen entered Christ Church, Oxford,.  An early interest in botany developed when he found his mother’s copy of Gerard’s Herball, he continued these interests at the University.  When he found that there were no lectures on botany available at Oxford, he arranged that Israel Lyons, a Cambridge astronomer, botanist and author of a book on Cambridge flora was brought to Oxford to instruct interested undergraduates.  Years later, Banks returned the favour by enabling Lyons to join exploratory voyages towards the North Pole.

 In 1761 Banks’ father died, leaving him a wealthy man. Banks was elected Fellow of the Royal Society during 1766 the same year he made the first of his plant collecting expeditions with Constantine Phipps to Newfoundland.  On his return, he started what was to become a lifelong collaboration with Dr Daniel Solander an assistant in the British Museum Library and one-time pupil of Linnaeus.  Solander became Banks’ companion on his world voyages and finally his librarian. 

The influence of Lord Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty, enabled Banks to accompany Captain Cook on his expedition in 1768 in the Endeavour.  Banks was accompanied by a personal party of five, including Solander.  The tree year voyage (1768—1771) was highly successful and Banks was invited by Lord Sandwich to participate in a second journey.  Due to various problems Banks did not make this second voyage, but proceeded instead to plan an expedition to Iceland in 1772. 

Banks competently used the friendship of men in the highest positions, which was never more so demonstrated by his virtual direction of Kew Gardens due to the high regard in which he was held by King George III.  The study of plant life had played a significant part in his own three long voyages; with Phipps to Newfoundland, round the world with Cook, and to Iceland with Solander.  This must have assisted Banks’ decision in 1772 to send Kew’s first plant collector Francis Masson, a Kew gardener, to the Cape.   

On 7th March 1804 Banks was one of the seven men who met at Hatchard’s book shop in Piccadilly to institute what is now the Royal Horticultural Society. 

Banks was a highly determined man with a somewhat autocratic manner in which he carried out his duties at the Royal Society and at Kew made him a number of enemies.  Yet, amongst those with whom he worked closely, he was greatly admired.  In a posthumous eulogy, Georges Cuvier, the French botanist, spoke of Banks’ generosity towards foreign naturalists. When the results of a notable French plant-collecting expedition fell into British hands by fortune of war, Banks forwarded them to France without examination.  He would not, said another French naturalist, steal a single botanic idea from those who had hazarded their lives to gain them. 

In his latter years he was severely troubled by gout and died at his house in Isleworth and is buried in the parish church. He left his extensive library for the use of the British Museum.

Botanically, he is particularly associated with the Australian continent of which, with Cook’s party, he made the first scientific study.  He is commemorated by the genus Banksia, which is restricted to that country. Horticulturally, he is probably best described as an entrepreneur on the grandest scale.