DELAWARE VALLEY ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 6 



Although a man of deeply rehgious nature, he was neverthe- 

 less exceedingly broad and liberal in his beliefs. So independent 

 did he become in his religious views that in later life he was dis- 

 owned by the Society of Friends. William's religious attitude 

 appears to have corresponded with that of his father. Their 

 views were simply those of present-day Unitarians. William, 

 however, never severed his connection with Friends. Over the 

 ■door of John Bartram's greenhouse were written these lines : 



" Slave to no sect, who takes no private road, 

 But looks through Nature up to Nature's God." 



William's boyhood was spent under the care and influence of 

 this broad-minded, nature-loving father, and with the now 

 famous garden growing up about him. It was not strange that 

 he too should develop the tastes and instincts of the naturalist 

 and seek to follow in his father' footsteps. 



When William was fifteen years of age, we find the elder 

 Bartram writing to his friend Peter Collinson of England — a 

 wealthy Quaker greatly interested in horticulture — and enclos- 

 ing some of William's drawings of natural objects. At about 

 this time he took him on a trip to the Catskills. In 1765 Bar- 

 tram writes to Collinson as follows : "I design to set Billy to 

 draw all our turtles, with remarks as he has time, which is only 

 on Seventh Days in the afternoons and First Day mornings, for 

 he is constantly kept to school to learn Latin and French." 

 One might infer from this that William and his father were not 

 altogether regular in their attendance at First Day meeting. 

 Young Bartram thus earlj' showed skill as an artist, and it is 

 evident that his father did not want him to be hampered in his 

 studies, as he himself had been through lack of French and 

 Latin. 



In another letter written to Collinson, Bartram writes as fol- 

 lows : " My son William is just turned of sixteen. It is now 

 time to propose some way for him to get his living by. I don't 

 want him to be what is commonly called a gentleman. I want 

 to put him to some business by which he may with care and in- 

 dustry get a temperate, reasonable living. I am afraid that 

 botany and drawing may not afford him one, and hard labour 



