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Nathaniel Wallich (1786-1854) was born in Copenhagen. He obtained the diploma of the Royal Academy of Surgeons at Copenhagen in 1806 and was subsequently appointed Surgeon to the Danish settlement at Serampore, Bengal, in 1807. From 1817 he took a permanent post as Superintendent of the Calcutta Botanic Garden, and travelled widely in the Indian subcontinent. Wallich published two major works on the plants of the region, Tentamen Flora Nepalensis Illustratae (1824-26) and Plantae Asiaticae Rariories (1830-32). Due to ill-health, Wallich resigned his post in 1846 and retired to London, where he became Vice-President of the Linnean Society, of which he had been a fellow since 1818. Wallich remained in London until his death seven years later, aged 68.

Sir William Jones, was born on 28th September 1746, in London, the third child of William Jones, F.R.S., an able mathematician. His father died in 1749 and he was raised by his mother Maria Jones (née Nix). Jones attended Harrow School from 1753 where he taught himself Hebrew and was seen to be an able poet, keen chess-player and to have a prodigious memory. After school he went to University College, Oxford, where alongside the usual studies he learnt Arabic and Persian.

In 1766 Jones became tutor to Lord Althorp (later Earl Spencer) and with the Spencer family travelled to Europe, learning German. In 1770 he translated the Persian history of Nadir Shah into French at the request of King Christian VII of Denmark. Other publications followed including the Grammar of the Persian Language in 1771, a volume of poetry in 1772 and the Commentaries on Asiatic Poetry in 1774. Jones was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1772.

Jones was admitted to the Temple in 1770 to read law, being appointed in 1776 as one of sixty Commissioners of Bankruptcy. In 1783, he was appointed to the India Bench in Calcutta, the hope of which had precipitated his proposal in October 1782, to Anna Maria Shipley, whom he had known for several years. The appointment also brought him a knighthood. William and Anna were married by special licence on April 6th 1783 and four days later sailed from Portsmouth on the frigate Crocodile.

Besides serving on the bench William Jones set up the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1784, becoming its President until his death. He also studied Sanskrit and during an illness both he, and Lady Anna, became interested in Indian botany. Despite frequent bouts of illness, Jones continued to write publications and aimed to compile a complete digest of Hindu and Mohammedan laws. In the end it was Henry Colebrooke who finished this task. Jones also undertook the editorship of the Researches of the Asiatic Society, the first volume being published in 1789.

Lady Jones also suffered from ill-health, and in 1793, William persuaded her to sail for England promising to follow her as soon as he was able. However in 1794 he became ill with 'inflammation of the liver' and died on 27th April, 1794.

Sir Joseph Banks was born on 15th February 1743 in London into a wealthy land-owning family. He was educated at Harrow School and Eton College, where he became interested in botany. Between 1760 and 1763, Banks studied at Christ Church, Oxford, inheriting a considerable fortune after the death of his father in 1761. This wealth funded his travel to collect botanical specimens.

In 1772, Banks became Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society from 1766 and its president from 1778 until his death in 1820. He was created a baronet in 1781 and appointed to the Order of the Bath in 1795. He died on 19th June 1820 in London.

Archibald Campbell was appointed assistant surgeon in the East India Company's service in 1828. He first went to Nepal in 1830 as surgeon to the residency at Kathmandu, whilst Hodgson was resident, and left in 1838 after being sent by Hodgson to settle a boundary dispute with Sikkim. This accomplished he was given charge of the hill station at Darjeeling in 1840. Hooker and Campbell were imprisoned, in 1849, in an attempt by the Rajah of Sikkim to set up an exchange of runaway slaves. This failed and the Rajah lost his annual pension and some of his land was annexed. Campbell resided over Darjeeling from 1840-1862, during which time it became well-settled by Europeans. He retired to England in 1862 but continued to take an active part in projects affecting Darjeeling and other areas. This is reflected in the 1870s correspondence in this series. He was an active member of the Society of Arts and the Anthropological Institute. He died on 5 November 1874.

Dr Francis Buchanan, later known as Francis Hamilton or Francis Buchanan-Hamilton, was a Scottish physician who made significant contributions as a geographer, zoologist, and botanist while living in India. He was born at Bardowie, Scotland, and studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, graduating in 1783. He also studied botany. He first served on merchant ships to Asia and then joined the Bengal Medical Service in 1794. Buchanan's training was ideal as a surgeon naturalist for a political mission to the Kingdom of Ava in Burma under Captain Symes. The Ava mission set sail on the Sea Horse and passed the Andaman Islands, Pegu, and Ava before returning to Calcutta. Subsequently Buchanan-Hamilton was asked to survey South India. He conducted a survey of Mysore in 1800 and a survey of Bengal from 1807-1814.

For the survey of Bengal he was asked to report on topography, history, antiquities, the condition of the inhabitants, religion, natural productions (particularly fisheries, forests, mines, and quarries), agriculture (covering vegetables, implements, manure, floods, domestic animals, fences, farms, and landed property, fine and common arts, and commerce (exports and imports, weights and measures, and conveyance of goods). His conclusions were made into a series of reports, of which these papers are the manuscripts. He also collected and described many new plants in the region, and collected a series of watercolours of Indian and Nepalese plants and animals, probably painted by Indian artists, which are now in the library of the Linnean Society of London.

He succeeded William Roxburgh to become the superintendent of the Calcutta botanical garden in 1814, but had to return to Britain in 1815 due to his ill health and in the same year he inherited his mother's estate and in consequence took her surname of Hamilton, referring to himself as "Francis Hamilton, formerly Buchanan" or simply "Francis Hamilton". However, he is variously referred to by others as "Buchanan-Hamilton", "Francis Hamilton Buchanan", or "Francis Buchanan Hamilton". From 1815 until 1829 he was Regius Keeper of the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh replacing Dr William Roxburgh.

Joseph Dalton Hooker, was born in Halesworth, Sussex, the second son of the botanist William Jackson Hooker. From the age of seven Hooker attended his father's lectures at Glasgow University. He was educated at Glasgow High school before studying medicine at Glasgow University. He graduated in 1839, entered the Naval Medical Service and joined polar explorer Captain James Clark Ross's Antarctic expedition to the South Magnetic Pole (1839-1843) after receiving a commission as Assistant-Surgeon on HMS Erebus. in 1845 he took up the position of botanist to the Geological Survey of Great Britain. He travelled to India and the Himalaya from 1847-1851. It is from this period that much of the correspondence in the archive belongs. He stayed with Hodgson during this period and would send him letters whilst he was travelling with Archibald Campbell (see BHH/3/1).

Hooker continued to travel including Palestine in 1860, Morocco in 1871 and the west of the United States in 1877.

In 1855 Hooker was appointed Assistant Director of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew and he succeeded his father as Director in 1865. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society and served as its President from 1873-1877.

Hooker married Frances Harriet Henslow in 1851 and they had four sons and three daughters, one of whom was named Brian Harvey Hodgson Hooker. Frances died in 1874 and Hooker remarried in 1876, Lady Hyacinth Jardine, and they had two sons. Hooker died at home in Berkshire on 10 December 1911 and was buried alongside his father at St. Anne's Church, Kew.

Benjamin Heyne was a botanist who joined the East India Service in 1793 being appointed as the Madras Presidency Botanist to Samalkot in British India in 1796. After the fall of Mysore, Heyne was ordered to accompany the Mysore Survey led by Colin Mackenzie on which Heyne worked as assistant to Francis Buchanan. Heyne was placed in charge of the Lalbagh botanical garden till 1812 and sent many specimens to London and to Albrecht Wilhelm Roth, the German botanist. Heyne died in Madras in 1819.