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James Petiver (c. 1665 – c. 2 April 1718) was a London
apothecary ''Apothecary'' () is a mostly archaic term for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses '' materia medica'' (medicine) to physicians, surgeons, and patients. The modern chemist (British English) or pharmacist (British and North Ameri ...
, a fellow of the
Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
as well as London's informal Temple Coffee House Botany Club, famous for his specimen collections in which he traded and study of
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 ...
and
entomology Entomology () is the science, scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such ...
. He corresponded with
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 ...
and
Maria Sibylla Merian Maria Sibylla Merian (2 April 164713 January 1717) was a German naturalist and scientific illustrator. She was one of the earliest European naturalists to observe insects directly. Merian was a descendant of the Frankfurt branch of the Swiss Mer ...
. Some of his notes and specimens were used by
Carolus Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his Nobility#Ennoblement, ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalise ...
in descriptions of new species. The genus ''
Petiveria ''Petiveria'' is a genus of flowering plants in the pigeonberry family, Petiveriaceae. The sole species it contains, ''Petiveria alliacea'', is native to Florida and the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas in the United States, Mexico, Central A ...
'' was named in his honour by
Charles Plumier Charles Plumier (; 20 April 1646 – 20 November 1704) was a French botanist after whom the frangipani genus ''Plumeria'' is named. Plumier is considered one of the most important of the botanical explorers of his time. He made three botanizing ...
. His collections were bought by Sir
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 became a part of the
Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...
.


Life

Born somewhere between 1663 and 1665 in
Hillmorton Hillmorton is a suburb of Rugby, Warwickshire, England, around south-east of Rugby town centre, forming much of the eastern half of the town. It is also a ward of the Borough of Rugby. Hillmorton was historically a village in its own right, bu ...
, Warwickshire to James (baptism record from Hillmorton has "Pettyfer", 22 February 1635) and Mary née Elborow, the family moved to London soon after where his father became a
haberdasher In British English, a haberdasher is a business or person who sells small articles for sewing, dressmaking and knitting, such as buttons, ribbons, and zippers; in the United States, the term refers instead to a retailer who sells men's clothing, ...
. After the death of his father in 1676, Petiver was sent to Rugby Free School, sponsored by his maternal grandfather Richard Elborow. Petiver later stated that "I have often bewailed my not being allowed after that time academical learning." He became an apprentice to an
apothecary ''Apothecary'' () is a mostly archaic term for a medical professional who formulates and dispenses '' materia medica'' (medicine) to physicians, surgeons, and patients. The modern chemist (British English) or pharmacist (British and North Ameri ...
Charles Feltham in London on 5 June 1677, and was made a freeman of the
Society of Apothecaries The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London is one of the livery companies of the City of London. It is one of the largest livery companies (with over 1,600 members in 2012) and ranks 58th in their order of precedence. The society is a m ...
on 6 October 1685, later supplying medicine to
St. Bartholomew's Hospital St Bartholomew's Hospital, commonly known as Barts, is a teaching hospital located in the City of London. It was founded in 1123 and is currently run by Barts Health NHS Trust. History Early history Barts was founded in 1123 by Rahere (died ...
. In 1692 he set up his apothecary practice "at the sign of the white cross" on Aldersgate and lived in London for the rest of his life. His interest in natural history may have come from visits to the garden of the Society for Apothecaries or at Fulham Palace. Early naturalist influences included John Watts and fellow apothecary
Samuel Doody Samuel Doody (1656–1706) was an early English botanist. Life The eldest of the second family of his father, John Doody, an apothecary in Staffordshire who later moved to London where he had a shop in The Strand, he was born in Staffordshire 28 ...
. The Temple Coffee House Botany Club, an informal group set up around 1689 by several people, including Dr
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 ...
, was a place of botanical discussion. By 1691, the club included
Martin Lister Martin Lister FRS (12 April 1639 – 2 February 1712) was an English naturalist and physician. His daughters Anne and Susanna were two of his illustrators and engravers. J. D. Woodley, ‘Lister , Susanna (bap. 1670, d. 1738)’, Oxford Dict ...
, Tancred Robinson, John Watts,
Nehemiah Grew Nehemiah Grew (26 September 164125 March 1712) was an English plant anatomist and physiologist, known as the "Father of Plant Anatomy". Biography Grew was the only son of Obadiah Grew (1607–1688), Nonconformist divine and vicar of St Micha ...
,
William Sherard William Sherard (27 February 1659 – 11 August 1728) was an English botanist. Next to John Ray, he was considered to be one of the outstanding English botanists of his day. Life He is still a little-known figure of that era coming as he did from ...
, Samuel Doody,
Leonard Plukenet Leonard Plukenet (1641–1706) was an English botanist, Royal Professor of Botany and gardener to Queen Mary. Biography Plukenet published ''Phytographia'' (London, 1691–1696) in four parts in which he described and illustrated rare exotic p ...
, Charles Hatton,
Adam Buddle Adam Buddle (1662–1715) was an English cleric and botanist. Born at Deeping St James, a small village near Peterborough, Buddle was educated at Woodbridge School and St Catharine's College, Cambridge, where he gained a BA in 1681, and an M ...
, and
Samuel Dale Samuel Dale (1772 – ), known as the "Daniel Boone of Alabama", was an American frontiersman, trader, miller, hunter, scout, courier, soldier, spy, army officer, and politician, who fought under General Andrew Jackson, in the Creek War, la ...
. Petiver began to collect objects of natural history through his networks and his office became a centre for visiting travellers and collectors. Collectors and correspondents included Rev. John Banister from Virginia, Samuel Browne in Madras, surgeon Edward Bartar in Africa, John Smyth in Jamaica, and John Dickinson in Bermuda. In 1695 he published a catalogue, the first of many, of his collections as ''Musei Petiverani Centuria Prima Rariora Naturae Continens''. He managed numerous specimens received by post and was routinely sending collection instructions to his correspondents (he had nearly 80 in America). One visitor, Zacharias von Uffenbach, noted that his specimens were poorly documented and heaped into a cabinet unworthy of display. In 1700 he was appointed as Apothecary to the Charterhouse. Patrick Blair promoted Petiver's publications in Scotland. Petiver himself did not travel much with visits restricted to Bristol and Cambridge and in 1711 to the Netherlands. He was known for his administrative ability which he extended to the Royal Society to which he (along with Samuel Doody) was elected in 1695 and Society of Apothecaries. He never married and was found dead around 2 April 1718 (incorrectly noted as 20 April in some sources) after a long illness. His body was taken on 10 April, the pallbearers included Sir Hans Sloane, Dr Levit and four other physicians and was buried at St Botolph Church on Aldersgate.


Scientific work

Petiver made use of a global network of collectors who worked aboard colonial trading ships and naval vessels, about a quarter to a third of his collectors were associated with the global slave trade. The collection that Petiver amassed was the largest natural history collection in his time. Petiver visited the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
in 1711 on behalf of Sloane to study the collections of the Dutch entomologist Paul Hermann. He also met
Boerhaave Herman Boerhaave (, 31 December 1668 – 23 September 1738Underwood, E. Ashworth. "Boerhaave After Three Hundred Years." ''The British Medical Journal'' 4, no. 5634 (1968): 820–25. https://www.jstor.org/stable/20395297.) was a Dutch botanist, ...
and other Dutch naturalists of the period and received an honorary degree from the University of Leiden. He recorded many English folk-names for butterflies, also coining some himself, and wrote some of the first butterfly books that used English names in addition to Latin. He himself was not very proficient in Latin although he was a member of several scholarly societies and an educated gentleman. He named the white admiral butterfly, and gave the name
fritillary ''Fritillaria'' (fritillaries) is a genus of spring flowering herbaceous bulbous perennial plants in the lily family (Liliaceae). The type species, ''Fritillaria meleagris'', was first described in Europe in 1571, while other species from the ...
to another group of butterflies after the Latin word for a chequered dice box. He called skippers "hogs", swallowtails "Royal Williams",
walls Walls may refer to: *The plural of wall, a structure * Walls (surname), a list of notable people with the surname Places * Walls, Louisiana, United States *Walls, Mississippi, United States * Walls, Ontario, neighborhood in Perry, Ontario, C ...
as "Enfield Eyes" and marbled whites as "Half-Mourners". Petiver received many specimens, seeds and much other material from overseas correspondents including Samuel Browne and
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 Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
, Jezreel Jones in Barbary, and the Czech Jesuit
Georg Joseph Kamel Georg Joseph Kamel (; la, Georgius Josephus Camellus; cz, Jiří Josef Kamel; es, Jorge Camel; 12 April 1661 – 2 May 1706) was a Jesuit missionary, pharmacist and naturalist known for producing the first comprehensive accounts of Philippine f ...
in Manila. Petiver traded these specimens, often at exorbitant prices. From 1709 he used his position in the Society of Apothecaries to use the Chelsea botanic garden for his personal gain. After his death, his collections went to his sister Jane Woodstock and were purchased by
Sir 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 ...
for £4000, and some of it is now in the
Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...
in London. Sloane found the condition of Petiver's collections appalling on purchase in 1718.


Published works

* * 1698 ''An account of some Indian plants etc. with their names, descriptions and vertues; communicated in a letter from Mr James Petiver...to Mr
Samuel Brown Samuel Brown may refer to: * Samuel Brown (Royal Navy officer) (1776–1852), English pioneer suspension bridge engineer and inventor * Samuel Brown (engineer) (died 1849), English inventor of early internal combustion engine * Samuel Brown (Wisco ...
, surgeon at Fort St George,'' Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. * 1700–1703 — ''An account of part of a collection of curious plants and drugs, lately given to the Royal Society of 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 ...
,
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society'' is a scientific journal published by the Royal Society. In its earliest days, it was a private venture of the Royal Society's secretary. It was established in 1665, making it the first journa ...
'' * * ''Gazophylacium naturae et artis'' (1702–06) — an illustrated catalogue of British insects * ''Papilionum Brittaniae Icones'' (1717) — included 80 British butterflies with life-histories based on rearing


References


External links

*
Aquatilium Animalium Amboinæ
',
Gazophylacium naturae et artis
' (partial) and
Pteri-Graphia Americana
' Scans at GDZ Göttingen.
Gaedike, R.; Groll, E. K. & Taeger, A. 2012: Bibliography of the entomological literature from the beginning until 1863 : online database – version 1.0 – Senckenberg Deutsches Entomologisches Institut.
Bibliography * The Biodiversity Heritage Library {{DEFAULTSORT:Petiver, James 1665 births 1718 deaths 18th-century British botanists English entomologists English natural history collectors Fellows of the Royal Society People educated at Rugby School People from Rugby, Warwickshire 17th-century English botanists