X PREFACE 



It is now locally known as the "Leech" or "Gaul" Burying Ground. 

 The inscription on the founder's tombstone reads : "In memory of 

 William Young, who departed this life May 28, 1785, aged 72 years, 

 4 months, 14 days," etc. 



Why the name of William Young, Jr., was not given in his father's 

 will is explained by some on the ground that he died before his 

 father. I have examined the original will of William Young, Jr., 

 which was written at Kingsessing, December 4, 1784. It is quite 

 lengthy, written entirely in his own hand, and signed "William 

 Young, Jr." 



The writing, spelling and style indicate a person of the average 

 limited education of that period. He leaves the Plantation to his 

 "wife Martha" and after her death it is to go to his "Boy Colly," 

 who is to be "Lamed to Read, & Write and so must be send to Lern 

 it," etc. Colly was probably named after Peter Collinson, Young's 

 London patron, but it seems strange he did not call him his son, if, 

 indeed, a son he was! 



The junior Young, his will, was probated July 19, 1785, and in 

 the absence of any record of his death, it seems doubtful that he 

 died before his father, whose will was probated June llth of the same 

 year. It is probable that Young's father intended to disinherit 

 him and that the son knew he had no tenure of nor right in the ground 

 on which he was allowed to live. 



The "Queen's Botanist" named as his Executors his wife and his 

 two brothers-in-law, Leech and Hofman. The appraisement of 

 his effects identifies him beyond question as our man. Witness 

 these entries "Sundry Plants brought from Carolina, 25." 

 "Moveable Plants in Boxes, 22 10 sh." 



It would be interesting to know the fate of "Martha" Young and 

 her "Boy Colly" and whether descendants of that namesake of one 

 of the greatest patrons of the Linnsean age of Botany may now be 

 living. 



Thus we know that "M. Yong, Botaniste de Pensylvanie," up 

 to the tune of his death, in 1785, continued to deal in the "Arbres, 

 Arbustes (etc. ) d'Amerique," named and described in his "Catalogue", 

 which had been printed in Paris two years before. We have no 

 record of the date of his birth, but from what we do know, he should 

 have been in the prime and vigor of middle life when he died, a 

 result, perhaps, of his extravagances at the Court of London and in 

 the capitals of Europe. 



Considered from a scientific standpoint, Young's Catalogue 

 signifies very little; in fact, makes no pretensions. His nomenclature 



