BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH 
OF 
WILLIAM BARTH AM. 
Tn a short biographical notice, like the present must 
necessarily be, little more can be said of a man, than to 
give the general outlines of character and the leading in- 
cidents of his life. 
Of Mr. Bartram, the world, in times past, knew much, 
for his fame extended to both continents; in his sphere, 
he was one of the most eminent men of America; his 
knowledge was acquired by incessant mental and bodily 
labour; the fields of natural science in his early days were 
unexplored, and he resorted to the study of nature where 
she unfolds her works to the senses as the only true source 
of knowledge, and it seems due to his eminence, to offer 
a small tribute of respect in a biographical way, that his 
example for temperance, application to the study of 
science, perseverance, and the strict performance of his 
social duties, should be given for the benefit and encourage- 
ment of others. 
The accompanying portrait is a correct likeness of Mr. 
Bartram, and the only engraved one ever given to the 
American public. 
JOHN BARTRAM, (father to the subject of the pre- 
sent biography,) was a celebrated and self-taught philoso- 
pher and botanist, and was born near the village of Darby, 
in Delaware county, Pennsylvania, in the year 1701. His 
grandfather, John Bartram, and family, emigrated to 
Pennsylvania from Derbyshire, in England, with some of 
the adherents of William Penn, in 1682. In very early 
life he manifested much desire for knowledge, but the means 
of education at that period in the colonies were not suffi- 
cient to satisfy his thirst for knowledge, and being at so 
great a distance from Europe, he had to content himself 
with only a moderate education, and rely on the resources 
of his own mind, and apply himself to books and the 
society of literary and eminent men; the result was, that 
he acquired a knowledge of other languages, and it is 
said, that “ so earnest was he in the pursuit of learning, 
that he seldom sat at his meals without his book; often his 
victuals in one hand and his book in the other,” and by 
l 
such indefatigable application he soon fitted himself for 
the highest scale of society; he was bred a husbandman, 
and while cultivating the grounds as means to support his 
family, he prosecuted his avocations as a philosopher. The 
vegetable kingdom, however, attracted most his attention, 
and he applied himself with renewed vigour to the study 
of botany. 
He was the first American who conceived and executed 
the design of a botanic garden; this he located in a de- 
lightful situation on the banks of the Schuylkill river, 
about four miles from Philadelphia, on a spot which em- 
braced a variety of soils and situations to the extent of six 
or seven acres, and enriched it with a great variety of 
indigenous and exotic plants; many of the former hav- 
ing been collected by himself during his travels in various 
parts from Canada to Florida. His progress in philoso- 
phy, botany, and other branches of natural history, attract- 
ed the notice and esteem of the principal literary and 
eminent characters of America, and the correspondence 
and friendship of many of those of Europe; in consequence 
of which he was frequently employed in collecting what 
was new and curious to furnish and ornament many of the 
European gardens with the productions of the new world, 
and he was at last appointed American Botanist to George 
the Third, in which appointment he continued until his 
death, in September, 1777, in the 76th year of his age. 
He left several children. John, (the fifth son,) succeed- 
ed him as proprietor of the Kingsess botanic garden, which, 
after his death, in 1812, was inherited by his daughter, 
Mrs. Carr, wife of Col. Robert Carr, in whose possession 
it still remains. 
WILLIAM BARTRAM, known as a traveller and 
a botanist, was the fourth son of John Bartram, and 
was born April the 9th, 1739, at the botanic garden, 
Kingsessing township, near Philadelphia. 
His education was a moderate one, and nothing remark- 
able appeared in his character during the early part of his 
youth, which was chiefly spentin agricultural pursuits; this. 
