THE LIFE OF 

 SIR JOSEPH BANKS 



CHAPTER I 

 EARLY YEARS 



JOSEPH BANKS was born in Argyle Street, London, 

 February, 1743. 

 His great-grandfather, Joseph Banks, was 

 representative of a family of some wealth and 

 position in Lincolnshire ; member of Parliament for 

 Grimsby, and later for Totnes. He was an enthusiastic 

 antiquary ; and had for friends and correspondents such 

 men as Browne Willis, Doctor William Stukeley, and 

 others. Warmly attached to his house of Revesby Abbey, 

 he made his home there ; and probably travelled little, 

 except to London on his parliamentary duties. In a letter 

 to Stukeley, he speaks gratefully of a friend who writes 

 to tell him how the world goes on, news so welcome in a 

 remote place like his. He wishes the Doctor was able to be 

 with him : for plenty of unworldly news was within reach : 

 " I would show you a sight of eight Religious Houses, 

 very great ones, in twelve miles riding, in the nearest road 

 from my house to Lincoln, all within two hundred paces of 

 the road. Revesby Abbey, Tattershall College, Kirkstead, 

 Stickswould, Axholme, Bardney, Stanfield and Barlings 

 abbeys ; which show you what fine folks we have been 



