Rash's Surname Index
Notes for John BARTRAM
John was the son of William and Elizabeth (Hunt) Bartram. He was born in a house built by his father on the Bartram plantation in Darby, PA. This land was obtained from Thomas Brassey and consisted of 300 acres lying between the present lines on Providence Road and Bartram Avenue and extending westward from Darby Creek almost to the Muckinipatus, a plot marked No. 34 on Holmes' map of early settlements. He became an orphan at the age of thirteen and was raised by his grandmother on the farm in Darby. He inherited the farm when she died in 1723.
He had no formal schooling but educated himself and learned Latin so he could study his botanical books. In 1728 he purchased, at sheriff's sale, 102 acres along the west bank of the Schuykill River about three miles below the Philadelphia Park System where he founded Bartram's Botanical Gardens at Kingsessing, PA and there he performed hybridization experiments. He traveled in the eastern and southern states and published descriptions of the soil, climate and life forms of the regions that he visited. As a result he is considered to be the father of American botany.
John proposed the establishment of an academy modeled after the Royal Society of London which became the American Philosophical Society.
John introduced many American plants into Europe and started some European plants in America. Many famous Americans and distinguished European travelers visited his home and gardens. His fame spread and he was appointed Royal Botanist for the colonies in 1765 by King George III. A genus of mosses, Bartramia, was named for him.
On 6 Feb 1723, John formally proposed marriage to Mary Maris before the Chester Friends Meeting. The proposal was approved and they were married there on 25 April 1723.
After his first wife died, John declared his intentions of marriage to Ann
Mendenhall before several Concord Monthly Meetings in 1729. At the meeting on 10 October, "John Bartram taking the said Ann Mendenhall by the hand did in a solemn manner openly declare that he took her to be his wife promising with the Lord's assistance to be unto her a loving and faithful husband." She made reciprocal vows and both signed the marriage certificate at the Concord meeting.
John was a man of modest and gentle manners, frank, cheerful, and of great good nature; a lover of justice, truth and charity. He was himself an example of filial, conjugal and parental affection. He zealously testified against slavery and was destined for study and philosophical retirement.
It appears from the minutes of Darby Meeting that in 1758 that John was
excluded from membership on account of his religious views, which might be viewed as Unitarian. Following is a transcription of a letter of disownment to John from the Darby Monthly Meeting.
Whereas by the prevalence of a report concerning John Bartram (who had his birth and education amongst Friends and made profession with us from his youth, up to this time) viz. that he disbelieved in the divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as being perfectly God as well as man, it became the tender concern of Friends to inquire of him whether he had given occasion for such a report by believing and uttering as above, that which he did not deny but rather appeared to vindicate and notwithstanding our earnest labor of love from time to time, cannot be prevailed to decline such a belief and by public testimony clear our Society from the great reproach of being unsound in the Christian faith.
Wherefore fully believing in the miraculous conception birth, miraculous
death, glorious resurrection and ascention of our blessed lord and saviour,
Jesus Christ, as recorded in holy writ; we can do no less for the clearing of truth than give for the same that which we sincerely desire he may give forth by our Monthly Meeting held at Darby the 1st day of the 2nd mo, 1758 and on behalf and by order of the same.
(signed) Abram Bonsall.
Carved on the stones of his mansion were the words, "Tis God alone, Almighty Lord, The Holy One, by me adored. John Bartram, 1770" which was doubtless intended as a reaffirmation of his position.
The death of John Bartram occurred eleven days after the battle of
Brandywine and a granddaughter who distinctly remembered him, stated that he was exceedingly annoyed and agitated and she thought his days were shortened by the approach of the royal army after the battle, he being apprehensive that it might lay waste his beautiful garden, the cherished nursling of almost half a century.
Sources
Henry B. Mendenhall, 6812 Burnside Drive, San Jose, CA 95120
A Mendenhall-Newlin Alliance, Russell Newlin Abel, 1989, Southeast Landing
Rt. 1 Box 55A, Church Hill MD 21623-9723, rabel@@friend.ly.net
Mendenhall Family, Nellie E. Evans, Route #1, Sheridan, IN 46069,
LDS film #1572051
The Mendenhalls: A Genealogy, Henry Hart Beeson, 1969, LD.
Bartram (1699-1777) for all his myriad accomplishments belongs in the select company of Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin. Linnaeus, the Swedish botanist and originator of the system of taxonomic classification, called him "the greatest natural botanist in the world." The self-taught Bartram was also a naturalist, paleontologist, scientist, and herbalist. He is credited with pollinating a pink flower with a white flower of the same species, which produced a progeny with colors and characteristics of both parents. He corresponded regularly with Europe's cognoscotti, exporting seeds and plants to the aristocracy overseas. Bartram introduced about 500 new species of plants from the New World to the Old World. He was given the post of King's botanist in America with a stipend of 50 pounds which allowed him to focus more on botany than farming wheat. He was among the first to practice farming techniques which are de riguer today. He rotated crops, let fields lie fallow, used compost with manure and gypsum.
Bartram was also a de facto doctor in an age when physicians were few and expensive. He prescribed herbs for his ailing neighbors who could not make the trip into Philadelphia. Further, Bartram explored from Lake Ontario to Florida and to the Ohio Valley in search of new specimens for his garden.
Biography JOHN BARTRAM, the earliest native American Botanist,
and the founder of the first Botanical Garden on this continent, was born near the village of Darby, in Chester (now Delaware) county, Pennsylvania, on the 23d say of March, 1699. - He was the eldest son of William Bartram and Elizabeth,
daughter of James Hunt. His lot being cast in a newly settled colony, his education was very defective. He however had a great desire for knowledge, - applied himself diligently to classical and philosophical studies, whenever circumstances permitted, and always sought the society of the most learned
and virtuous men. He had an early inclination to the study of physic and surgery. He acquired so much knowledge of medical science, as to be of great service among his neighbors; and it is very probable, that, as most of his medicines were derived from the vegetable kingdom, this circumstance might indicate
the necessity of, and thus excite a taste for, the study of Botany. As John Bartram's acquaintance with plants extended, he soon conceived the idea of establishing a Botanic Garden, for the reception and cultivation of various indigenous vegetables, as well as of exotics; and also, of traveling for the discovery and acquisition of rare and interesting species. With these views, in 1728, he purchased the ground on which his Botanic Garden was laid out and planted. It contained about five acres, and was situated on the right bank of the
Schuylkill river a couple of miles below the city of Philadelphia, as then limited. (The Bartram Garden is now the property of A.M. Eastwick, Esq. a gentleman who rightly appreciates the treasure, and whose good taste has induced him to restore the premises, as nearly as practicable, to the condition in which they were put, and left, by the venerable founder) Here he built, with his own hands, a comfortable house of hewn stone. The date of the building is given in an
inscription on a stone in the wall, viz: 'JOHN * ANN BARTRAM. 1731.'He began his travels at his own expense. His various excursions rewarded his labors with the possession of a great variety of new, beautiful, and useful trees, shrubs, and
herbaceous plants. His Garden, at length, attracting the visits and notice of distinguished persons, he was encouraged to persevere in his labors. Not content with having thus begin the establishment of a school of science in the blooming fields of FLORA, he sought farther means for its perfection and importance, by communicating his discoveries and collections to the curious, at home and abroad, for the benefit of science, commerce, and the useful arts. Having arranged his various collections and observations in natural history, one of his particular friends (JOSEPH BRINTNALL, an enterprising merchant of Philadelphia,) undertook to convey them to the celebrated PETER COLLINSON, of London. This laid the foundation of a friendship and correspondence, which
continued uninterrupted - and even increasing - for nearly fifty years. It was principally through the interest, and influence of Peter Collinson, that Bartram became acquainted, and entered into correspondence, with many of the scientific
and literary celebrities of Europe, - such as LINNAEUS, GRONOVIUS, DILLENIUS, Sir HANS SLOANE, PHILIP MILLER, CATESBY, KALM, DALIHARD, Dr. FOTHERGILL, SOLANDER, SITHORPE, HOPE, and others. Bartram was also engaged in an active correspondence with nearly every scientific contemporary in our country, - such as COLDEN, JAMES LOGAN, Dr. GARDEN, CLEYTON, MITCHELL, CHALMERS, FRANKLIN, &c., &c. He was indefatigable in his
explorations of our forrests and mountain regions, from the Catskills, and great Lakes, down to the sandy lowlands and swamps of the South. A plant was dedicated to Bartram, by Linnaeus; but it was subsequently merged in a genus previously established. Now, a humble moss bears the name BARTRAMIA,
imposed by Hedwig. If our noble American Perennials, the LANIELS, had received the name of BARTRAMIA, instead of KALMIA, the tribute would have seemed more obviously appropriate. At the advanced age of near 70 years, John
Bartram embarked at Philadelphia for Charleston, South Carolina; from thence he proceeded by land, through Carolina and Georgia, to St. Augustine, in East Florida. When arrived at the last mentioned place, - being then appointed Kings
Botanist and Naturalist, for exploring the Provinces, - he received orders to search for the sources of the great river San Juan, (or St. John). John Bartram was a man of modest and gentle manners, frank, cheerful, and of great good nature; a lover of justice, truth and charity. During the whole course of his life, there was not a single instance of his engaging in a litigious contest. In his political principles, he was a decided Patriot, and zealously testified against every description of human Slavery. He was through life, a striking example of temperance, - especially in the use of vinous and spirituous liquors. He was born and educated in the sect called Quakers, but, for some differences of opinion, he was disowned by the Society. John Bartram was twice married. His
first wife was Mary, daughter of Richard Maris, of Chester Monthly Meeting. She died in 1727. His second wife was Ann Mendenhall, of Concord Monthly Meeting. They were married in 1729, and had nine children. Ann Bartram survived her husband upwards of six years, having died January 29, 1784, aged 87.
It appears by the records of the American Philosophical Society, of which John Bartram was one of the original members, (his name standing next to that of Dr. Franklin, who headed the list,) that he died on the 22d of September, 1777,
aged 78 years and 6 months. One of the grand-daughters of the venerable Botanist, who recollected him distinctly, informed the compiler that the old gentleman was exceedingly annoyed and agitated, (she though his days were shortened,) by the approach of the royal army, after the battle of Brandywine. As
that army had been ravaging various portions of the revolted colonies, he was apprehensive it might also lay waste his darling GARDEN, the cherished nursling of almost half a century. In the 'LETTRES D'UN CULTIVATEUR AMERICAIN, PAR M. ST. JOHN DE CREVE-COEUR, published at Paris, in 1787, vol. 1, p. 150, is an amusing letter, purporting to be written by a RUSSIAN GENTLEMAN to one of his friends in Europe. The letter described a real or pretended visit to John Bartram, the Pennsylvania Botanist, in the year 1769, is quite graphic, and has very much the air of a genuine Epistle; yet it is know to
be fictitious - and to have been written by St. John himself!
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