Catesby Magnolia I
by Mark Catesby
Mark Catesby
Mark Catesby was born on 24 March 1684 and baptized on 30 March 1684 at Castle Hedingham, Sudbury, Suffolk County, England.
Records of Mark's youth are sketchy, but there is evidence of frequent contact between his family and Castle Hedingham, where his uncle, Nicholas Jekyll, kept a botannical garden. Mark also had contact with John Ray, England's foremost naturalist of the period, who encouraged Mark's interest in natural history. Not being content with just flora and fauna in England, he arranged to visit with his sister, Elizabeth, who was moving to Williamsburg, Virginia, with her husband, Dr. William Cocke. Mark arrived there 22 April 1712, and spent much time traveling throughout the colony collecting seeds and specimens to send to fellow botonists in England. In 1714 he traveled to the West Indies. He returned to England in 1719 with knowledge, specimens, and reputation which led to his being considered for a collection trip to Africa. That trip did not materialize, but financial backing came for a trip to the Carolinas in February 1722. He was received by Governor Nicholson when he landed in Charles Town on 3 May 1722, and he visited the Bahamas in 1725.
Records indicate that Mark is credited for naming the "Mock Bird" in Charleston, SC. Soon he began collecting specimens, making drawings, and taking notes. His progress was halted by illness in the fall of 1722 and by a hurricane destroying many of his specimens. But he was determined to be the first to present to the Queen of Great Britain a sample of "the hitherto unregarded, tho' beneficial and beautiful Productions of Your Majesty's Dominion."
He made water color drawings to accompany the descriptions of what he found to put in his proposed book. He painted birds, reptiles, and fresh fish alive in their native habitat, arriving to a total of some 35,000 drawings. Many of his drawings are now located in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle in England. Reproductions may be purchased today in Williamsburg, Virginia.
After traveling for three years in Carolina and Florida, and most of a year in the Bahama Islands, Mark returned to England in 1726. He devoted his remaining years to his work as an artist and author and continued his botannical studies, never to work again as a field naturalist. Between 1727 and 1746 he worked on texts and plates for his Natural History, the first being completed by May 1729. From 1729 to November 1732 the first bolumn of five parts was completed. In spite of many speaking engagements, he finished his second volumn in 1743 with an appendix in 1747.
After finishing this two volumn Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Baham Islands in 1747, Mark married Elizabeth Rowland. They lived in Parish of St. Lukes in Middlesex on Old Street near Fulham Street. He died 23 December 1749 after six months of illness.
Mark Catesby's efforts over twenty years produced a work which was to remain for more than fifty years the most complete first-hand account of North American flora and fauna. His two-volumn work is located in the rare books section of Duke University.