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John Bellenden Ker, originally John Gawler, was an English botanist born about 1764 in Ramridge,
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,
Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...
and died in June 1842 in the same town. On 5 November 1804 he changed his name to Ker Bellenden, but continued to sign his name as Bellenden Ker until his death. He was an unsuccessful claimant to the Roxburghe dukedom. His son was the legal reformer
Charles Henry Bellenden Ker Charles Henry Bellenden Ker (c.1785–1871) was an English barrister and legal reformer. Early life The son of John Bellenden Ker, he was born about 1785. As a young man, he was a patron of William Blake, though unwilling when it came to paymen ...
. He is noted for having written ''Recensio Plantarum'' (1801), ''Select Orchideae'' (c. 1816) and ''Iridearum Genera'' (1827). He contributed to
Curtis's Botanical Magazine ''The Botanical Magazine; or Flower-Garden Displayed'', is an illustrated publication which began in 1787. The longest running botanical magazine, it is widely referred to by the subsequent name ''Curtis's Botanical Magazine''. Each of the issue ...
under John Sims, using the initial G. He edited Edward's Botanical Register from 1815 to 1824 and was famous as a wit and botanist as well as being the author of ''Archaeology of Popular Phrases and Nursery Rhymes'' (1837). The 2nd volume of this work was published in 1840. Robert Brown (1773–1858) named the genus '' Bellendena'' of the Proteaceae in his honour in 1810. The state of
Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , establishe ...
in Australia has named its second highest peak
Mount Bellenden Ker Mount Bellenden Ker is the second-highest mountain in Queensland, Australia, with a height of . It is named after the botanist John Bellenden Ker Gawler. Located south of Cairns, Queensland, Cairns near Babinda, Queensland, Babinda, it is adj ...
. The Bellenden Ker Range in the same area was also named after him. His work on English nursery rhymes argued in four volumes that they were actually written in "Low Saxon", a hypothetical early form of Dutch. He then "translated" them back into English, revealing particularly a strong tendency to anti-clericalism.H. Carpenter and M. Prichard, ''The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature'' (Oxford University Press, 1984), p. 290.


Notes


Sources

*Ray Desmond (1994). ''Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturists including Plant Collectors, Flower Painters and Garden Designers''. Taylor & Francis and The Natural History Museum (London). * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ker Gawler, John Bellenden 1764 births 1842 deaths British botanists