Peter Collinson FRS
Encyclopedia
John Bartram
*Hoffmann, Nancy E. and John C. Van Horne, eds., America’s Curious Botanist: A Tercentennial Reappraisal of John Bartram 1699-1777. Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 243. ....
and his correspondence with Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
about electricity
Electricity
Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...
.
Life and work
Born the son of a London woolen draper, Collinson entered his father's business and developed an interest in botany. His family belonged to the Gracechurch StreetGracechurch Street
Gracechurch Street is a street in the City of London which forms part of the A10. It is home to a number of shops, restaurants, offices and Leadenhall Market....
Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends
Religious Society of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...
(or Quakers).
In October 1728 Collinson wrote to Sir Hans Sloane
Hans Sloane
Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet, PRS was an Ulster-Scot physician and collector, notable for bequeathing his collection to the British nation which became the foundation of the British Museum...
, President of the Royal Society, about strange events in Kent and on 7 November 1728 he was proposed for Fellowship of the society.
Collinson supported the struggle of Thomas Coram, William Hogarth
William Hogarth
William Hogarth was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects"...
and others to establish a charitable institution that would welcome babies abandoned by their mothers. A Royal Charter
Royal Charter
A royal charter is a formal document issued by a monarch as letters patent, granting a right or power to an individual or a body corporate. They were, and are still, used to establish significant organizations such as cities or universities. Charters should be distinguished from warrants and...
to start the Foundling Hospital
Foundling Hospital
The Foundling Hospital in London, England was founded in 1741 by the philanthropic sea captain Thomas Coram. It was a children's home established for the "education and maintenance of exposed and deserted young children." The word "hospital" was used in a more general sense than it is today, simply...
was granted by George II
George II of Great Britain
George II was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Archtreasurer and Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 11 June 1727 until his death.George was the last British monarch born outside Great Britain. He was born and brought up in Northern Germany...
on 17 October 1739. The charter lists Collinson as a founding governor.
Although Collinson was a cloth merchant by vocation, largely trading with North America, his real love was gardening. Through his business contacts he obtained samples of seeds and plants from around the world. Collinson's personal plant collections, first at Peckham
Peckham
Peckham is a district in south London, England, located in the London Borough of Southwark. It is situated south-east of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London...
and later at Mill Hill
Mill Hill
Mill Hill is a place in the London Borough of Barnet. It is a suburb situated 9 miles north west of Charing Cross. Mill Hill was in the historic county of Middlesex until it was absorbed by London...
became famous. He came to realise that there was a market for such things in England, and in the late 1730s began to import North American botanical seeds for English collectors to grow, financing the travels of John Bartram
John Bartram
*Hoffmann, Nancy E. and John C. Van Horne, eds., America’s Curious Botanist: A Tercentennial Reappraisal of John Bartram 1699-1777. Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 243. ....
. Yearly, he distributed the New World seeds collected by Bartram to British gentry, nurserymen, and natural scientists including Dillenius, Philip Miller
Philip Miller
Philip Miller FRS was a Scottish botanist.Miller was chief gardener at the Chelsea Physic Garden from 1722 until he was pressured to retire shortly before his death...
, Lord Petre
Robert James Petre, 8th Baron Petre
Robert James Petre, 8th Baron Petre was a renowned horticulturist and a British peer.Lord Petre was the son of Robert Petre, 7th Baron Petre and his wife Catherine Walmesley , heiress of the Walmesley family of Lancashire...
, the Dukes of Richmond and Norfolk, James Gordon, John Busch
Loddiges
The Loddiges family managed one of the most notable of the eighteenth and nineteenth century plant nurseries that traded in and introduced exotic plants, trees, shrubs, ferns, palms and orchids into European gardens....
, etc. Collinson was also the patron of the artist and natural historian Mark Catesby
Mark Catesby
Mark Catesby was an English naturalist. Between 1731 and 1743 Catesby published his Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, the first published account of the flora and fauna of North America...
.
Collinson maintained an extensive correspondence and was friendly with notable scientists in London and abroad including Sloane, Carolus Linnaeus
Carolus Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus , also known after his ennoblement as , was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology...
, Gronovius
Gronovius
Gronovius is the name of:* Johann Friedrich Gronovius, né Gronow , German classical scholar and critic, father of Jakob* Jakob Gronovius , Dutch classical scholar, father of Jan Frederik...
, Dr. John Fothergill
John Fothergill (physician)
John Fothergill FRS was an English physician, plant collector, philanthropist and Quaker.- Life and work :...
, Cadwallader Colden
Cadwallader Colden
Cadwallader Colden was a physician, farmer, surveyor, botanist, and a lieutenant governor for the Province of New York.-Biography:...
, and Benjamin Franklin. Collinson was a particular patron of the Philadelphia scientific community assisting the fledgling American Philosophical Society
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society, founded in 1743, and located in Philadelphia, Pa., is an eminent scholarly organization of international reputation, that promotes useful knowledge in the sciences and humanities through excellence in scholarly research, professional meetings, publications,...
founded by Bartram and Franklin in 1743. He also served for many years as the purchasing agent for the Library Company of Philadelphia
Library Company of Philadelphia
The Library Company of Philadelphia is a non-profit organization based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded by Benjamin Franklin as a library, the Library Company of Philadelphia has accumulated one of the most significant collections of historically valuable manuscripts and printed material in...
. It was through Collinson that Franklin first communicated to the Royal Society what would in 1751 be published as Experiments and Observations on Electricity.
He was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences or Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien is one of the Royal Academies of Sweden. The Academy is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization which acts to promote the sciences, primarily the natural sciences and mathematics.The Academy was founded on 2...
in 1747.
Whilst living in Mill Hill, he lived in what is now the Ridgeway House boarding house of Mill Hill School
Mill Hill School
Mill Hill School, in Mill Hill, London, is a coeducational independent school for boarding and day pupils aged 13–18. It is a member of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, an organisation of public schools in the United Kingdom....
. Furthermore, the school also has a Collinson House and more recently a Cedars House, named after the trees Collinson planted.