| AdminHistory | James Backhouse (1794-1869) was born on 8 July 1794 in Darlington, County Durham. He was the fourth child of Mary and James Backhouse, members of a Quaker business family. He was also third in a long family line to be called James Backhouse, going back to his grandfather who died at Lancaster Castle in 1697 as a Quaker martyr and prisoner. The Backhouse’s Bank of Darlington was founded by his grandfather, father and uncle Jonathan Backhouse. His mother Mary Dearman was a devout Quaker from Thorne, Yorkshire, and his father died when he was just ten years old. Backhouse was educated in Leeds before becoming an apprentice in a grocer and chemist, where he developed tuberculosis and was forced to give up work.
Stemming from a family of botanists, Backhouse was encouraged to study botany and spend time outdoors, which also helped him regain his health again. With assistance from his uncle, he was able to make botanical trips to Upper Teesdale with John Binks (1766–1817), lead miner and botanist of Durham. Subsequently, he trained as an apprentice at Wagstaffe's nursery in Tivetshall, Norfolk, and it is here he was inspired to go on a ‘gospel errand’ to the convict colonies in Australia.
James and his brother moved to York in 1815 and together purchased a nursery. In 1822 James married Deborah Lowe but she died five years later in 1827. He was made a minister in the Religious Society of Friends in 1824 and in 1831 was inspired to continue on the Quaker mission in Australia. Along with George Washington Walker, he sailed to Australia and for the next six years they travelled the penal colonies and visited Aboriginal settlements, campaigning for reform to the prison system and indigenous land rights for the Aboriginal people. During his travels, Backhouse observed and collected plant specimens which he sent to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Following their Australian travels, Backhouse and Walker travelled to Mauritius and South Africa to continue their Quaker mission, including visiting prisons such as Robben Island. Backhouse continued plant collecting in South Africa and sent what he amassed to his York nursery and Kew Gardens. On his return to England, he published "A Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies" (1843) and "A Narrative of a Visit to the Mauritius and South Africa" (1844). The York nursery had flourished in Backhouse’s absence under his brother’s care, and when his brother died in 1845, his own son James joined the business and in 1853 together they oversaw its move to a 100-acre site at Holgate.
Backhouse continued with his missionary and evangelical work for the rest of his life, preaching all over Great Britain and Ireland. He has also been honoured by the plant genus ‘Backhousia’ which is named after him.
Backhouse died on 20 January 1869 in York, aged 74. |