Joseph Dandridge was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 silk-pattern designer of Huguenot

Huguenot

The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France during the 16th and 17th centuries. Since the 17th century, people who formerly would have been called Huguenots have instead simply been called French Protestants, a title suggested by their German co-religionists, the...

 descent, a natural history illustrator, an amateur naturalist specialising in entomology, and a leading figure in the Society of Aurelians

Aurelian (entomology)

Aurelian is an archaic word for lepidopterist, one who is interested in butterflies. The term is derived from aurelia, meaning chrysalis, and relates to the golden color it may attain just before the butterfly emerges; the Latin word for gold is aurum.The Society of Aurelians in London, England,...

 of which he was a founder member.

Despite having left no published works, and not being part of the close-knit collectors of the Royal Society

Royal Society

The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...

, Dandridge is credited by numerous entomologists of his time with having provided invaluable assistance and access to his extensive collections of specimens, and even near the end of his life remaining 'affable and communicative'. The collections spanned, besides insects and arachnids, shells, fossils, birds' eggs and skins, flowering plants, lichens, mosses and fungi. A volume of 119 water-colours by Dandridge dating from before 1710 of the arachnids, accompanied by meticulous notes, is in the Sloane Collection of the British Museum

British Museum

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...

 and is designated Sloane MS 3999. W. S. Bristowe discovered that this work had been used without acknowledgement by Eleazar Albin

Eleazar Albin

Eleazar Albin was an English naturalist and watercolourist illustrator who wrote and illustrated a number of books including A Natural History of English Insects , A Natural History of Birds and The Natural History of Spiders and other Curious Insects...

 in his Natural History of Spiders and other Curious Insects of 1736.

Large numbers of Huguenot silk weavers moved to the Spitalfields

Spitalfields

Spitalfields is a former parish in the borough of Tower Hamlets, in the East End of London, near to Liverpool Street station and Brick Lane. The area straddles Commercial Street and is home to many markets, including the historic Old Spitalfields Market, founded in the 17th century, Sunday...

 area at the end of the 17th century. One of the most noted silk producers was James Leman (1688-1745), who was both designer and manufacturer and made use of other designers such as Christopher Baudouin and Joseph Dandridge. A number of Dandridge's silk designs dating from 1717 to 1722 have found their way to the Victoria & Albert Museum and may be seen in the Prints & Drawings Study Room.

Dandridge lived at Moorfields

Moorfields

In London, the Moorfields were one of the last pieces of open land in the City of London, near the Moorgate. The fields were divided into three areas, the Moorfields proper, just north of Bethlem Hospital, and inside the City boundaries, and Middle and Upper Moorfields to the north.After the Great...

 near Bedlam

Bethlem Royal Hospital

The Bethlem Royal Hospital is a psychiatric hospital located in London, United Kingdom and part of the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. Although no longer based at its original location, it is recognised as the world's first and oldest institution to specialise in mental illnesses....

, close to his friend James Petiver

James Petiver

James Petiver was a London apothecary, a Fellow of the Royal Society as well as London's informal Temple Coffee House Botany Club, famous for his study of botany and entomology.-Life:...

, and for a while at Stoke Newington

Stoke Newington

Stoke Newington is a district in the London Borough of Hackney. It is north-east of Charing Cross.-Boundaries:In modern terms, Stoke Newington can be roughly defined by the N16 postcode area . Its southern boundary with Dalston is quite ill-defined too...

, which at that time was in the country. He became acquainted with the leading workers in the fields of his interests, such as John Ray

John Ray

John Ray was an English naturalist, sometimes referred to as the father of English natural history. Until 1670, he wrote his name as John Wray. From then on, he used 'Ray', after "having ascertained that such had been the practice of his family before him".He published important works on botany,...

, Adam Buddle

Adam Buddle

Adam Buddle was an English cleric and botanist.Born at Deeping St James, a small village near Peterborough, Buddle was educated at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, where he gained a BA in 1681, and an MA four years later. Buddle was eventually ordained into the Church of England, obtaining a...

, Benjamin Wilkes

Benjamin Wilkes

Benjamin Wilkes was an 18th-century artist and naturalist in London. Wilkes' profession was 'painting of History Pieces and Portraits in Oyl'. When a friend invited him to a meeting of the Aurelian Society, where he first saw specimens of butterflies and moths, he became convinced that nature...

, Eleanor Glanville

Eleanor Glanville

Lady Eleanor Glanville was a 17th century English entomologist from Tickenham in Somerset. She was particularly interested in butterflies. Lady Glanville collected large numbers of butterfly specimens, many of which survive as some of the earliest specimens kept in the Natural History Museum...

 and William Sherard

William Sherard

William Sherard was an English botanist. Next to John Ray, he was considered to be one of the outstanding English botanists of his day.-Life:...

, and instructed Eleazar Albin, the watercolourist, in natural history.

According to Mendes de Costa, Dandridge 'had two daughters who were single women'.

Commemorated by Dandridgia dysderoides White

Francis Buchanan White

Francis Buchanan White was a Scottish entomologist and botanist.He studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh. After doing a Grand Tour in 1866, he settled in Perth where he would remain his entire life. His main area of interest was the Lepidoptera and the taxonomy of the Hemiptera...

1849.