Charles Vancouver (c. 1756 – c. 1815) was an Anglo-American agricultural writer. He worked with varying success in several countries.

Life

He was baptised in a Dutch family at

King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is located north of London, north-east of Peterborough, no ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

in November 1756, and was an elder brother of

George Vancouver Captain George Vancouver (22 June 1757 – 10 May 1798) was a British Royal Navy officer best known for his 1791–1795 expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern Pacific Coast regions, including the coasts of what a ...

. He learned farming in Norfolk, and then was found, around 1776, a post in Ireland working for

Lord Shelburne William Petty Fitzmaurice, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, (2 May 17377 May 1805; known as the Earl of Shelburne between 1761 and 1784, by which title he is generally known to history), was an Irish-born British Whig statesman who was the first ...

by Arthur Young, at Rahan. He worked there on bog

drainage Drainage is the natural or artificial removal of a surface's water and sub-surface water from an area with excess of water. The internal drainage of most agricultural soils is good enough to prevent severe waterlogging (anaerobic conditio ...

, and during the 1780s took on related reclamation work in

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

. Kentucky was being settled at this time by westward migration, and Vancouver had a large holding (53,000 acres) there. In 1789 Vancouver was trying to establish a settlement on the Big Sandy River, where he had 15,000 acres from 1785. The plan encountered resistance from Native Americans, who by the account of John Hanks, who accompanied Vancouver, stole the party's horses. Vancouver was hoping the intended road from

Staunton, Virginia Staunton ( ) is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 25,750. In Virginia, independent cities a ...

Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a city in Kentucky, United States that is the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, Fayette County. By population, it is the List of cities in Kentucky, second-largest city in Kentucky and List of United States cities by popul ...

would open up the area and went back east to lay in stores. But he also lost financially in schemes of

James Wilkinson James Wilkinson (March 24, 1757 – December 28, 1825) was an American soldier, politician, and double agent who was associated with several scandals and controversies. He served in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, b ...

. The trial settlement, around where

Louisa, Kentucky Louisa is a home rule-class city located at the merger of the Levisa and Tug Forks into the Big Sandy River. It is located in Lawrence County, Kentucky, in the United States, and is the seat of its county. The population was 2,467 at the 2010 ...

now is, lasted until April 1790. Vancouver returned to

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

in England. A plan he had for exploring the

Nootka Sound , image = Morning on Nootka Sound.jpg , image_size = 250px , alt = , caption = Clouds over Nootka Sound , image_bathymetry = , alt_bathymetry = , caption_bathymetry = Map of Nootka So ...

via an overland route was intended to be put to

Sir Joseph Banks Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1820) was an English naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. Banks made his name on the 1766 natural-history expedition to Newfoundland and Labrador. He took part in Captain James C ...

through

Thomas Martyn Thomas Martyn (23 September 1735 – 3 June 1825) was an English botanist and Professor of Botany at Cambridge University. He is sometimes confused with the conchologist and entomologist of the same name. Life Thomas Martyn was the son of th ...

. On the establishment of the Board of Agriculture in 1793, Vancouver was engaged by

Sir John Sinclair Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster, 1st Baronet, (10 May 1754 – 21 December 1835), was a British politician, a writer on both finance and agriculture, and was one of the first people to use the word ''statistics'' in the English language, in h ...

to write reports on the state of agriculture in some of the English counties. Maria Josepha Holroyd wrote of him in July 1795 as a sensible, well-informed man, who had visited several countries. From the late 1790s Vancouver travelled again, working in the Netherlands and marrying there. He returned also to his American estates, and he stated in 1807 that he has been engaged in "cutting down the woodland and clearing the forests in Kentucky". In 1806 he was again in England, and Young mentions that he was consulted by

Nicholas Vansittart Nicholas Vansittart, 1st Baron Bexley, (29 April 1766 – 8 February 1851) was an English politician, and one of the longest-serving Chancellors of the Exchequer in British history. Background and education The fifth son of Henry Vansittart ( ...

. He reportedly died in 1815, in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

Works

Vancouver's first book ''A general Compendium of Chemical, Experimental, and Natural Philosophy, with a complete System of Commerce'', was published at

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

in 1785. In 1786 he was described as "Vancouver of Philadelphia" in Arthur Young's ''Annals of Agriculture'', to which he contributed a glowing account of the farming of Kentucky. The Board of Agriculture published in 1794 an account of Vancouver's tour in

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Counties of England, county in the East of England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and North ...

, and in 1795 an account of a similar tour in

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. He wrote two more reports for the Board's

General View of Agriculture county surveys The ''General View'' series of county surveys was an initiative of the Board of Agriculture of Great Britain, of the early 1790s. Many of these works had second editions, in the 1810s. The Board, set up by Sir John Sinclair, was generally a pro ...

: on the county

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

, (1808, republished in 1813); and on

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

(1813). William Marshall, who criticised most of the board's reports, spoke of Vancouver's ''Cambridgeshire'', though not of the other reports. Vancouver wrote in 1794 a paper on the drainage of the fens of the

Great Level Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements * Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size * Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent People * List of people known as "the Great" *Artel Great (born ...

, and especially of Cambridgeshire. It remained unprinted for 17 years, and finally appeared as an appendix to the Huntingdon Report.C. Vancouver, "Observations on the proposed Eau Brink cut for the further draining of the fens", in: R. Parkinson, ''General View of the Agriculture of the County of Huntingdon'', 1813.

References

Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Vancouver, Charles 1756 births 1815 deaths British agriculturalists English people of Dutch descent People from King's Lynn