Page:History of New South Wales from the records, Volume 1.djvu/595

 471 SIR JOSEPH RANKS. Sir Joseph Banks, who was born at Argyle-street, London, on 13 Birth and February, 1743-4, was the only son of William Banks of Revesby education. Abbey, in Lincolnshire, and Sarah, daughter of William Bata. He received his early education under a piivate tutor. At the age of nine he was sent to Harrow School, and thence transferred to £!ton when he was thirteen. He left that school in his eighteenth year, and then entered as a gentleman commoner at Christ Church Col- lege, Oxford, in December, 1760. His liking for botany — which had shown itself during his boyhood — increased while at the Uni- nSSS ^ versity, and he warmly embrsiced the other branches of natural i^tory. history. Finding that no lectures were given in botany, he sought and obtained permission to procure a teacher to be paid by the students. He then went by stage-coach to Cambridge, and brought back with him Mr. Israel Lyons, astronomer and botanist, who afterwards published a small book on the Cambridge Flora. Many years subsequently, Lyons, through the interest of Banks^ was appointed astronomer under Captain Phipps, afterwards Lord Mulgrave, on his voyage towards the North Pole. Banks's father died in 1761, during his first year at Oxford, At Oxford, leaving him an ample fortune and estate at Revesby. He left Oxford in December, 1763, after taking an honorary degree. Li February, 1764, he came of age and took possession of his paternal fortune He had already attracted attention in the University by his superior attainments in natural history, and in May, 1766, he was elected Fellow of the Eoyal Society. During the same summer he went to Newfoundland to collect plants with his friend, Lieu- in New- tenant Phipps. He returned to England the following winter by '«"°<*^<^- way of Lisbon. After his return, an intimacy was established between Dr. Daniel Solander and himself which only ended by the death of the former. Solander had been a favourite pupil of ^jan^^ Linnaeus, and at the time when Banks first came to know him was employed as an assistant librarian at the British Museum. He afterwards became Banks's companion round the world, and sub- sequently his librarian until his death. By his influence with Lord Sandwich, First Lord of the Ad-^^x^ ...^ • iiT»ii«i •• r>t % i t' tinDoardtno miralty, Banks obtained permission to accompany Cook s expedi- Endeavour, tion in the Endeavour, equipped at his own expense, taking with him Dr. Solander, two draughtsmen — Mr. Buchan for landscape^ and Mr. Sydney Parkinson for objects of natural history — and two attendants. The journal which he kept was largely utilised by Dr. Hawkesworth in his relation of the Voyages of Carteret, Wallis, and Cook. The Endeavour left England in August, 1768, and returned in June, 1771. 2 I Digitized by Google