Charles Dubois or Charles du Bois (10 September 1658 (baptised)-20 October 1740), was

treasurer A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance. Government The treasury o ...

to the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

, cloth merchant, and naturalist. He corresponded with other naturalists including

James Petiver James Petiver (c. 1665 – c. 2 April 1718) was a London apothecary, a fellow of the Royal Society as well as London's informal Temple Coffee House Botany Club, famous for his specimen collections in which he traded and study of botany and entomo ...

, William Sherrard and

Hans Sloane Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet (16 April 1660 – 11 January 1753), was an Irish physician, naturalist, and collector, with a collection of 71,000 items which he bequeathed to the British nation, thus providing the foundation of the British Mu ...

and was famous for maintaining a garden with interesting plants from the colonies. He was instrumental in introducing rice cultivation in North America.

Biography

Dubois was the son of John Dubois (1622-1684) and Anne, daughter of Charles Herle. The wealthy Huguenot family was in the cloth and silk trade and Charles inherited his father's home at

Mitcham Mitcham is an area within the London Borough of Merton in South London, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross. Originally a village in the county of Surrey, today it is mainly a residential suburb, and includes Mitcham Common. It ha ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, where he had a garden filled with the newest exotics at that time in course of introduction. The family ran a business at St Mary Aldermanbury. John Dubois was involved in the politics of London and represented the Whigs. In 1681 he was in the Committee of the East India Company. A son who was also known as John Dubois became cashier general to the East India Company on 30 September 1697. Dubois became cashier-general to the East India Company on 27 October 1702 after the death of his step-brother, John Dubois the younger. In 1730 Charles Dubois and his nephew Waldo Dubois were implicated in a financial scandal involving some cargo shipments and false accounts. In 1734 he and a clerk named Tullidge were implicated in monetary losses arising from accepting security notes instead of cash from traders. As regards

botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

, he seems to have been chiefly a patron rather than a worker; thus he appears as one of twelve English subscribers to Micheli's ‘Nova Genera,’ 1728. His name, however, occurs as having contributed observations to the third edition of

John Ray John Ray FRS (29 November 1627 – 17 January 1705) was a Christian English naturalist widely regarded as one of the earliest of the English parson-naturalists. Until 1670, he wrote his name as John Wray. From then on, he used 'Ray', after ...

's ‘Synopsis,’ 1724. Many of the plants in his collection was acquired by his step-brother Daniel du Bois while others came from correspondents such as

Edward Bulkley Edward Bulkley (died 10 August 1714) was an East India Company surgeon (1602-1709) posted in Madras and a pioneer naturalist. He corresponded with James Petiver and was the first to document the bird species of which a list of birds was published ...

in Madras. His dried plants occupy seventy-four

folio The term "folio" (), has three interconnected but distinct meanings in the world of books and printing: first, it is a term for a common method of arranging sheets of paper into book form, folding the sheet only once, and a term for a book ma ...

volumes, the entire number of specimens being about thirteen thousand, and are in excellent preservation; they form part of the

herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (called ...

at the

Oxford Botanic Garden The University of Oxford Botanic Garden is the oldest botanic garden in Great Britain and one of the oldest scientific gardens in the world. The garden was founded in 1621 as a physic garden growing plants for medicinal research. Today it conta ...

. Dubois also collected shells, fossils and coins. He made notes on insects as well. Dubois obtained rice seed from India which was introduced into British South Carolina in 1766 through a Thomas Marsh. He died 21 October 1740. It has been claimed that Robert Brown established his genus ''

Duboisia :''The orchid genus described by Karsten as ''Duboisia'' is now included in ''Myoxanthus. For the prehistoric antelope genus, see ''Duboisia (antelope).'' ''Duboisia'' (commonly called corkwood tree) is a genus of small perennial shrubs and tree ...

'' in honour of Charles Dubois but it was actually named in honour of a Louis Dubois.

References

Year of birth missing 1740 deaths People from Mitcham Fellows of the Royal Society {{UK-business-bio-stub