Early Life

nlike his self-educated father, William Bartram grew up in a highly intellectual atmosphere. Throughout his childhood, William's father was corresponding with the leading scientists on both sides of the Atlantic. The botanical garden, in which William played, was a well known center for those with horticultural interests and was visited by many of the intellectual, social and political leaders of the day. With his father's encouragement, and surrounded by such inspiring personalities as Benjamin Franklin, James Logan, Joseph Breintnall, and a host of visiting naturalists (including Peter Kalm of Sweden), it is little wonder that the young Bartram acquired a thirst for knowledge at an early age. William was fortunate to have access to his father's personal library, as well as the libraries of the Darby (Friends) Meeting and the Library Company of Philadelphia.(15)

Unfortunately, few records survive to reveal the nature of his relationships with his siblings. About his twin sister Elizabeth we know practically nothing. (It can be assumed that she and the first Elizabeth, who died almost at birth in 1734, were named after their aunt, John Bartram’s half sister and one of the children kidnapped in the North Carolina episode.) Nor do we know much about his other sisters, Mary and Ann, or his brothers, James and Benjamin. Of John and Moses we do know a little. It is clear from letters between Peter Collinson and John the father, that John Jr. was the most steady and hard working of the boys.(16)

In 1752, William entered the newly formed Philadelphia Academy (later called the College of Philadelphia), where he was tutored by William Smith, founder of the first literary review in America; Charles Thomson, classicist, Indian diplomat, and first secretary of the Continental Congress; and several other teachers. He remained under their instruction for about four years. Despite his training in history, Latin, French and the classics, however, botany and drawing remained his “darling delights” according to his father. “I'm afraid he can't settle to any business else,” John wrote in 1755.(17)

The interest was not surprising. When the boy was only fourteen years old, John had initiated him as a botanical traveler by taking him on a collecting trip to the Catskills in New York. On this trip he was exposed to Cadwallader Colden, considered by many Europeans “the best scientific thinker in the New World,” his daughter Jane, a minor artist in her own right, and Alexander Garden, the Charleston physician and botanist of whom the young Bartram would see much in the years to come.(18) In 1755, John took his son on another trip, this time to Killingsworth, Connecticut, where they visited Jared Eliot, a physician and agriculturalist of note. They were accompanied by Dr. Alison, professor of the higher classics, logic, metaphysics, and geography at the College of Philadelphia, whom one contemporary described as “the greatest classical scholar in America.”(19) On both trips and through the two intervening years, William spent much of his free time studying and drawing the native plants and birds he encountered. So good were his drawings, in fact, that Peter Collinson saw fit to share them with such influential scientists as George Edwards and Carl Linnaeus; artist C. D. Ehret; collectors Lord Bute, the Duchess of Portland and London Physician John Fothergill.(20)

John Bartram was pleased with his son's artistic accomplishments and scientific interests, but feared William would be unable to make a living from them. He was anxious for his son to learn a trade by which he could “get a handsome livelihood.”(21) “My son William is just turned of sixteen,” he wrote in April, 1755:

“It is now time to prepare 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 industry, get a temperate, reasonable living. I am afraid that botany and drawing will not afford him one, and hard labour don't agree with him.”(22)

Collinson concurred that it was time for William to learn a trade. While admiring the boy's artistic abilities (and encouraging them with artist's supplies and repeated requests for more pictures), Collinson admitted, “...I am concerned that Billy—so ingenious a lad—is, as it were, lost in indolence and obscurity.”(23)

Many suggestions on how to handle the boy were forthcoming from john's correspondents, but William was not willing to give up his “darling amusements” as friends advised.(24) He shunned Benjamin Franklin’s offer to teach him the printer's trade, rejected his father's suggestion that he take up surveying or medicine, and ignored Peter Collinson’s advice that engraving would provide an income, while at the same time allowing him to pursue his artistic interests.

In 1761, at the age of 21, William abandoned a frustrating business apprenticeship in Philadelphia and traveled south to Cape Fear, North Carolina, where his father's half-brother William (the other kidnap victim) owned a trading post. Though no more successful at business there, William seemed to enjoy being away from the constant scrutiny of his family.

William was in Cape Fear when he received the exciting news of John's appointment as Royal Botanist for the colonies in 1765. He was happy to join his father on the longest and most important botanical expedition of the elder Bartram’s career.(25)

The one-year trip was a rewarding experience for William and seemed to confirm his interests in botanical exploration and illustration.

“I have left my son Billy in Florida,” wrote his despairing father a few months later. “Nothing will do with him now, but he will be a planter upon the St. Johns River about twenty-four miles from Augustine. This frolic of his hath drove me to great straits.”(26) John had borrowed against his own income to help William acquire the plantation, but he considered the money “thrown away.”(27) In fact, his fears were only too well justified, for William was no more successful in Florida than he had been in Philadelphia in handling the affairs of business. The indigo venture proved a frustrating failure and within a year, William was back in Philadelphia again.

Hearing this news, Collinson wrote that he was “much concerned for William's unsteady conduct.” “Nothing but marrying will settle him,” the Englishman advised.(28) William never did heed this advice. Discouraged and deeply in debt, he fled Philadelphia, and in 1770, once again headed for Cape Fear.

Had William shown more abilities in the field of business, it is quite likely that he would have been given more responsibility in the running of his father's profitable botanical garden. But as William had shown no hope of improving in this direction, in 1771 John deeded his beloved garden to William's younger brother John Jr., whom the father proudly described as “worthy, sober, industrious...” and with an interest in plants.(29)

No records survive to indicate William's reaction to this news, but it is quite possible that he was relieved not to be tied to the business aspects of the garden. In fact he had other plans in mind.(30) For several years Peter Collinson had been showing Billy's Florida pictures to his circle of amateur naturalists and influential collectors in London. All were deeply impressed by their quality and several had offered to purchase his drawings of natural history subjects. In these patrons, young William saw his chance to resume the life of a collector-naturalist. With unprecedented initiative, he wrote to John Fothergill in 1772 suggesting that the doctor finance a return trip to the Floridas-this time, for William alone. Fothergill had no particular interest in the southern regions, but as a horticulturist, he found the possibility of new species hard to resist.(31) He was also anxious to help the friends of the recently deceased Collinson with whom he had shared so many botanical delights. “For his [William's] sake, as well as thine,” wrote Fothergill to John Bartram, “I should be glad to assist him. He draws neatly; has a strong relish for Natural History; and it is a pity that such a genius should sink under distress.”(32)

The Englishman's willingness to support Bartram on speculation was to prove one of the most auspicious sponsorships imaginable, for not only science, but literature and history were the ultimate beneficiaries.

Footnotes

15. For a discussion of the contents of the Darby Library and Bartram’s involvement with the selection of the books, see: Ernest Earnest, John and William Bartram, op. cit. pp. 26–30; see also: N. Bryllian Fagin, William Bartram Interpreter of the American Landscape, Baltimore, 1933, pp. 18–21.

16. “Johnny seems to be our sheet anchor,” wrote Collinson in 1764. “I hope he will inherit his father’s virtues, and at leisure and suitable opportunities, make nature his study.” (Letter to John Bartram, March 7, 1764; Darlington’s Memorials, op. cit. pp. 262–3.) Moses, William’s older brother was a bit less successful. He spent part of his life at sea. On one occasion, reporting to Collinson in London, the “poor lad” received a paternal lecture on sound business management from his father’s wealthy friend: “It may be of service to him in future life,” wrote Collinson to the boy’s father, “to take care and make a sure bargain, and not trust any man’s promises; but have it under their handwriting.” (Letter to John Bartram, September 20, (17517), Ibid., pp. 187–8.) In several subsequent letters Collinson expressed concern, but hope for the eventual happiness for “poor Moses...Now he has eat his brown bread, his white will come next.” (Letter to John Bartram, November 3,1759; Ibid., p. 222; Also see letter to John Bartram, June 1, 1764; Ibid., pp. 264–265.)

17. Letter to Peter Collinson, September 28, 1755; Darlington’s Memorials, op. cit. p. 200.

18. The significance of this meeting is discussed in Joseph Kastner’s A Species of Eternity, New York, 1977.

19. Earnest, John and William Bartram, op. cit. p. 94.

20. Ibid., p. 92.

21. Letter to Peter Collinson, September 28, 1755; Darlington’s Memorials, op. cit., p. 200.

22. Letter to Peter Collinson, September 27, 1755, Ibid., pp. 198–199.

23. Letter to John Bartram, June 1, 1764, Ibid., pp. 264–265.

24. Letter to John Bartram, February 10, 1756; Darlington, Memorials, op. cit., p. 203.

25. See Francis Harper, “Diary of a Journey…” Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. XXXIII, Part 1, December, 1942.

26. Letter to Peter Collinson, June 1766; Darlington, Memorials, op. cit., p. 281.

27. Letter to Peter Collinson, August 26, 1766; Darlington, Memorials, op. cit., p. 283.

28. Letter to John Bartram, February 10, 1767; Darlington, Memorials, op. cit., p. 286.

29. Letter to Peter Collinson, March 4, 1764; Darlington, Memorials, op. cit., p. 261.

30. The first evidence of William Bartram’s desire to explore the far reaches of the country dates from 1763 when John records his son’s wish to explore “the banks of the Ohio and Mississippi” by joining an exploratory expedition as draughtsman.” (Letter to Peter Collinson, September 30, 1763; Ibid., pp. 254–255.) In the following year, he evidently expressed interest in yet another trip, for when John invited him to join his Florida expedition in 1765, he observed that William, “wrote to me last winter, and seemed so very desirous to go there [Florida].” (Letter to William Bartram, June 7, 1765; Ibid., pp. 424–425.)

31. In a letter to John Bartram (C.1772), Fothergill indicates his personal preference for William’s destination would have been Canada, from which hardier plants could be obtained. For the complete text of this letter and his reply to William, see Darlington, Memorials, op. cit., p. 344–345.

32. Letter to John Bartram (no date, probably 1772); Ibid., pp. 343–345.