1882.] -j"<^ [Rothrock. 



Biographical Sketch of Thomas Potts James. By J. T. Rothrock. 

 {Read before the American Philosophical Society, May 19, 1SS2.) 



In the line of botanists binding the present to that remote past, when 

 our flora was as unlvnown accurately to Americans, as to the rest of the 

 world, but few survive. Darlington, Sullivant, Torrey, James, within 

 recent years have dropped out of the chain. Tlie interest attaching to such 

 men is more than an ordinary one. They were the last generation to 

 which our botanical pioneers belonged, and they witnessed not only the 

 rise of a republic in politics, but the rise of a republic in science. They 

 could remember when in all this broad land there were not a score of bot- 

 anists ; when the science of plants and plant life held no recognized place 

 in the colleges of this country ; when the literature of our flora was almost 

 exclusively foreign ; when the commonest implements of exact research 

 came from over the ocean. With them nearly the whole scientific tradi- 

 tion of the country disappeared. Later events find prompt and wide cir- 

 culation in our scientific periodicals, but much that would interest the 

 future is lost to the world when one of these honored witnesses leaves us 

 to join the host that went before. 



Thomas Potts James, in memory of whom this brief sketch has been 

 prepared, is the latest whose loss we deplore. 



Mr. James was born at Radnor, in Pennsylvania, on September 1, 1808. 

 He died suddenly of paralysis at Cambridge, in Massachusetts, on Feb. 

 22, 1882. His ancestors were among the leaders of thought and action be- 

 fore and during the Revolution. They arrived in Pennsylvania earlier 

 than Penn. His grandfather, Thomas Potts, after raising a company and 

 being commissioned captain in 1776, raised a battalion and was made its 

 coloiiel. He was also a member of the convention which assembled in 

 Philadelphia on July 9, 1776, to form the new government. Washington 

 and his staff were frequent guests at his house, and in it many important 

 public letters were written. As the friend and intimate associate of 

 Franklin it is not strange that he was one of the original members of this 

 society. 



He was also among the earliest to develop the iron interests of Penn • 

 sylvania. A great uncle of Mr. James, Dr. Jonathan Potts, was Deputy 

 Director-General of the Hospital in the Northern Department during the 

 Revolution, and was subsequently made Director-General of the Hospital 

 in the Middle Department when this State and New Jersey became the 

 seat of war. 



Another great uncle, Samuel Potts, was a member of the convention 

 which framed the Constitution of Pennsylvania, and was also elected 

 Associate Judge. The name of the family is still perpetuated in Potts- 

 town. 



Coming then from such a stock it is not strange that the subject of this 

 sketch developed marked intellectual traits. Indeed it would have been 

 stranger if he had not. 



