>Phil Fish at 02:29, 20 February 2021

2021-02-20T02:29:06Z

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{{For|the Canadian politician|Francis Alvin George Hamilton}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2013}}
Dr '''Francis Buchanan''' [[Royal Society of London|FRS]] [[FRSE]] [[Fellow of the Linnean Society|FLS]] FAS FSA DL (15 February 1762 – 15 June 1829), later known as '''Francis Hamilton''' but often referred to as '''Francis Buchanan-Hamilton''', was a Scottish physician who made significant contributions as a geographer, zoologist, and botanist while living in India. He did not assume the name of Hamilton until three years after his retirement from India.<ref>V.H. Jackson, preface in "Journal of Francis Buchanan", Delhi 1989</ref>

The standard botanical author abbreviation '''Buch.-Ham.''' is applied to plants and animals he described, though today the form "Hamilton, 1822" is more usually seen in [[ichthyology]] and is preferred by [[Fishbase]].

==Early life==
Francis Buchanan was born at Bardowie, [[Callander]], [[Perthshire]] where Elizabeth, his mother, lived on the estate of Branziet; his father Thomas, a physician, came in [[Stirling|Spittal]] and claimed the chiefdom of the name of [[Clan Buchanan|Buchanan]] and owned the Leny estate. Francis Buchanan matriculated in 1774 and received an MA in 1779.<ref>{{cite book|title=Biographical index of former fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 1783 – 2002|date=July 2006|publisher=The Royal Society of Edinburgh|isbn=0-902-198-84-X|url=https://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/biographical_index/fells_indexp1.pdf}}</ref> As he had three older brothers, he had to earn a living from a profession, so Buchanan studied medicine at the [[University of Edinburgh]], graduating MD in 1783. His thesis was on ''febris intermittens'' (malaria). He then served on [[Merchant Navy]] ships to Asia, and served in the [[Bengal Medical Service]] from 1794 to 1815. He also studied botany under [[John Hope (botanist)|John Hope]] in Edinburgh. Hope was among the first in Britain to teach the Linnean system of botanical nomenclature, although he knew of several others having been trained under [[Antoine Laurent de Jussieu]].<ref name=biopart1 />

==Career in India==
Buchanan's early career was on board ships plying between England and Asia. The first few years were spent as surgeon aboard the ''Duke of Montrose'' sailing between Bombay and China under Captain Alexander Gray and later Captain Joseph Dorin. He then served on the ''Phoenix'' along the Coromandel Coast again under Captain Gray. In 1794, he served on the ''Rose'', sailing from Portsmouth to Calcutta, and reaching Calcutta in September, he joined the Medical Service of the Bengal Presidency. Buchanan's training was ideal as a surgeon naturalist for a political mission to the Kingdom of Ava in Burma under Captain Symes (as replacement for the previously appointed surgeon Peter Cochrane). The Ava mission set sail on the ''Sea Horse'' and passed the Andaman Islands, Pegu, and Ava before returning to Calcutta.<ref name=biopart1 >{{cite journal|doi=10.1080/00033790.2016.1195446|pmid=27399603|title=Career, collections, reports and publications of Dr Francis Buchanan (later Hamilton), 1762–1829: Natural history studies in Nepal, Burma (Myanmar), Bangladesh and India. Part 1|journal=Annals of Science|volume=73|issue=4|pages=392–424|year=2016|last1=Watson|first1=Mark F.|last2=Noltie|first2=Henry J.|s2cid=22631605}}</ref>

[[File:Buchanan Journey map.jpg|thumb|right|Map illustrating Buchanan-Hamilton's journey through southern India]]
In 1799, after the defeat of [[Tipu Sultan]] and [[Fourth Anglo-Mysore War|the fall of Mysore]], he was asked to survey [[South India]], resulting in ''A Journey from Madras through the Countries of Mysore, Canara and Malabar'' (1807). He also wrote ''An Account of the Kingdom of Nepal'' (1819).

He conducted two surveys, the first of Mysore in 1800 and the second of Bengal in 1807–14. From 1803 to 1804, he was surgeon to the governor general of India [[Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley|Lord Wellesley]] in [[Calcutta]], where he also organized a zoo that was to become the Calcutta [[Alipore Zoo]]. In 1804, he was in charge of the Institution for Promoting the Natural History of India founded by Wellesley at [[Barrackpore]].

From 1807 to 1814, under the instructions of the government of [[Bengal]], he made a comprehensive survey of the areas within the jurisdiction of the [[British East India Company]]. 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 are reported in a series of treatises that are retained in major United Kingdom libraries; many have been reissued in modern editions. They include an important work on Indian fish species, entitled ''An account of the fishes found in the river Ganges and its branches'' (1822), which describes over 100 species not formerly recognised scientifically.

He also collected and described many new [[plant]]s in the region, and collected a series of watercolours of Indian and [[Nepal]]ese plants and animals, probably painted by Indian artists, which are now in the library of the [[Linnean Society of London]] [https://web.archive.org/web/20120705004529/http://www.linnean-online.org/view/buchanan_hamilton/buchanan_hamilton.html]

He was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]] in May, 1806,<ref>{{cite web| url= http://www2.royalsociety.org/DServe/dserve.exe?dsqIni=Dserve.ini&dsqApp=Archive&dsqCmd=Show.tcl&dsqDb=Persons&dsqPos=0&dsqSearch=%28Surname%3D%27buchanan%27%29| title= Library and Archive Catalogue| publisher= Royal Society| access-date= 20 December 2010}}{{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> and a fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in January 1817.

==Later life==
He succeeded [[William Roxburgh]] to become the superintendent of the [[Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden|Calcutta botanical garden]] in 1814, but had to return to Britain in 1815 due to his ill health. In an interesting incident, the notes that he took of Hope's botany lectures in 1780 were lent to his shipmate Alexander Boswell during a voyage in 1785. Boswell lost the notes in [[Satyamangalam]] in Mysore and the notes went into the hands of [[Tipu Sultan]], who had them rebound. In 1800, they were found in Tippu's library by a major who returned them to Buchanan.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ehrlich|first=Joshua|date=2020-05-03|title=Plunder and Prestige: Tipu Sultan’s Library and the Making of British India|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00856401.2020.1739863|journal=South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies|language=en|volume=43|issue=3|pages=478–492|doi=10.1080/00856401.2020.1739863|issn=0085-6401}}</ref>

Buchanan left India in 1815, and in the same year 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".{{Citation needed|date=December 2015}}

==Legacy==
[[File:Geoclemys hamiltonii Hardwicke.jpg|alt=Geoclemys hamiltonii (Black pond turtle) |thumb|An illustration of ''Geoclemys hamiltonii'' (black pond turtle) by [[Thomas Hardwicke]]]]
Francis Buchanan-Hamilton is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of South Asian turtle, ''[[Black pond turtle|Geoclemys hamiltoni]]''.<ref>Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. {{ISBN|978-1-4214-0135-5}}. ("Hamilton", p. 114).</ref>

The fish ''[[Thryssa hamiltonii]]'' is one of the many fish named after Hamilton.

==Abbreviation==
{{botanist|Buch.-Ham.|Francis Buchanan-Hamilton}}

==See also==
*[[:Category:Taxa named by Francis Buchanan-Hamilton]]
*[[Claudius Buchanan]] Rev. Claudius Buchanan was also frequently referred as Dr. Buchanan in missionary journals.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite journal|last=Vicziany|first=Marika|title=Imperialism, Botany and Statistics in Early Nineteenth-Century India: The Surveys of Francis Buchanan (1762-1829)|journal=[[Modern Asian Studies]]|year=1986|volume=20|issue=4|pages=625–660|doi=10.1017/S0026749X00013676|jstor=312628}}
*{{cite book |title=A Journey from Madras through the Countries of Mysore, Canara and Malabar |year=1807 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6vPmAAAAMAAJ |first=Francis |last=Buchanan |location=London |publisher=T. Cadell & W. Davies / Black, Parry & Kingsbury}} – in three volumes, publishers noted as booksellers to the [[Royal Asiatic Society|Asiatic Society]] and the [[East India Company]], respectively.
* Noltie, H.J. (1999) Indian botanical drawings 1793–1868. {{ISBN|1-872291-23-6}}

==External links==
* {{Gutenberg author | id=Hamilton,+Francis | name=Francis Hamilton}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Francis Hamilton}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buchanan-Hamilton, Francis}}
[[Category:1762 births]]
[[Category:1829 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Stirling (council area)]]
[[Category:Botanists with author abbreviations]]
[[Category:Scottish botanists]]
[[Category:Botanists active in India]]
[[Category:British pteridologists]]
[[Category:Scottish zoologists]]
[[Category:Scottish sailors]]
[[Category:Scottish ichthyologists]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Newar studies scholars]]
[[Category:Alumni of the University of Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Linnean Society of London]]
[[Category:Scottish people of the British Empire]]
[[Category:Scottish geographers]]
[[Category:18th-century Scottish medical doctors]]
[[Category:19th-century Scottish medical doctors]]
[[Category:People educated at the High School of Glasgow]]
[[Category:Scottish travel writers]]

Francis Buchanan-Hamilton - Revision history

>Phil Fish at 02:29, 20 February 2021