A Chronology of the Life of James Petiver (ca 1663–1718)

‘James Pettyfer’ (father of James Petiver) baptised in Hillmorton near Rugby, 22 February

James (senior) indentured to a London haberdasher, Robert Spicer, 14 January

James (senior) fulfils the terms of his apprenticeship

James (senior) and Mary Elborow (‘Seaborough’) marry in London at the church of St Clement Danes, 17 September

James Petiver born to James and Mary (presumably in London and probably in this year; no baptismal record survives), eventually the eldest brother of at least three siblings, Richard, Jane and John

James (senior) dies around this year, probably buried at St Andrew's church in Rugby

Enrols at Rugby School, through the support of his maternal grandfather, Richard Elborowe

Apprenticed to Charles Feltham, apothecary to St Bartholomew's Hospital in London, 5 June

Makes acquaintance of fellow apothecary's apprentice Samuel Doody (1656–1706)

James's mother, Mary (now a widow, of St Lawrence Jewry in London), marries the Garlick Hill dyer Thomas Glentworth, April

John Watts appointed to manage the Society of Apothecaries’ Physic Garden at Chelsea

Elborow Glentworth, half-brother to James, baptised on 1 November

Participation in the Society of Apothecaries’ regular herborizing excursions around London results in Petiver's earliest surviving herbarium collection (now in the Natural History Museum, London)

Fulfils the eight-year term of his apprenticeship and is made a freeman of the Society of Apothecaries, 6 October

Samuel Doody opens an apothecary business near the Strand

Petiver opens his own apothecary business in London at the sign of the White Cross, Aldersgate Street, his address for the rest of his life. Surviving records of pharmaceutical prescriptions commence on 24 June 1687

The botanical expertise of Petiver and Doody acknowledged in print by John Ray in the second volume of his authoritative Historia Plantarum

Earliest extant manuscript example of the detailed collecting instructions he sent throughout his adult life to his various correspondents (now bound as the first item in Petiver's manuscript adversaria at the British Library)

Commences an extended and profitable correspondence with the East India Company surgeon Samuel Browne, in Fort St George (Chennai)

Leonard Plukenet (1641–1706), botanist to Queen Mary, publishes the first part of his Phytographia, which includes descriptions and engravings of Indian plants forwarded to him by Petiver from Browne

Botanical tour through the counties of the Midlands, collecting e.g. in Charley Forest, Leicestershire

Produces his earliest surviving printed list of little-known and desirable drug plants for distribution among botanically inclined travellers and merchants

Attends a meeting of the Royal Society, where he is consulted on a number of horticultural and botanical matters, 21 June

Hans Sloane (1660–1753) elected Secretary of the Royal Society, becoming editor of the Philosophical Transactions

Earliest record of his correspondence with the botanist William Sherard (1659–1728), whom Petiver addresses as ‘Cozen’ and describes as his kinsman (although their precise relationship is unclear)

First publication of note, the account of the flora of Middlesex in Edmund Gibson's edition of William Camden's Britannia (other counties supplied by Ray)

Elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, along with Samuel Doody, by the Council on 13 November, and formally admitted at the annual meeting on 27 November

First century of Musei Petiveriani published, describing 100 insects, shells, fossils and plants from Europe, North America, western Africa, and South and East Asia, 30 November (five subsequent parts published 1698–1703)

Meets the Scottish surgeon James Cuninghame (ca 1665–1709), who proves to be a highly productive collector for Petiver, sending large numbers of specimens to London, particularly from China and Vietnam

Petiver estimates that his herbarium collection contains 5000–6000 dried specimens

Description of a collection of dried plant specimens sent to Petiver from West Africa by the clergyman John Smith, a minister to the Royal African Company, published in the Philosophical Transactions

Latvian physician David Krieg lodges with Petiver at the sign of the White Cross (1697–1698)

Earliest printed version of Petiver's instructions to collectors, 30 May

Publications in the Philosophical Transactions this year include a description of collections sent from Maryland by the clergyman Hugh Jones, and the first of eight articles on Indian medicinal plants sent by Samuel Browne

Travels to Black Notley in Essex to visit the elderly John Ray

Appointed as apothecary to the Charterhouse school and hospital, a position he holds until his death

Publication of The Transactioneer, an anonymous satire attributed to William King, in which the activities of, and relationship between, James Petiver and Hans Sloane are ridiculed and condemned

An account of observations on Virginia insects made by John Banister published by Petiver alongside his own remarks in the Philosophical Transactions

Publishes first part of the extensively illustrated Gazophylacii naturae et artis (five subsequent parts, 1703–1711)

Elected to the Council of the Royal Society for the first of seven non-consecutive annual terms of office, 30 November

Specimens supplied by James Cuninghame from China and by Georg Kamel from the Philippines described in the Philosophical Transactions (two further articles on Kamel's plants follow in 1705)

William Sherard appointed Consul in Smyrna

Publication of the third volume of John Ray's Historia Plantarum, including Petiver's supplementary lists of little-known African and Asiatic plants from his own collections

Death of John Ray, 17 January

Receives a serious financial blow from the bankruptcy of his merchant friend James Ayrey, losing ‘neer 800 pounds’ that Petiver had invested with him

Incapacitated with an infection in his arm leading to a painful swelling in his right armpit, relieved by lancing, May–June

Death of Leonard Plukenet, 6 July

Engraving of ‘The balsam plant’ dedicated to Petiver by the surgeon Thomas Greenhill (?1669–1740) in ΝΕΚΡΟΚΗΔΕΙΑ; or, The Art of Embalming

Following the death of his friend Samuel Doody in November, Petiver purchases his collections

First volume of Sloane's Voyage to Jamaica published

Appointed to a committee to look into the parlous state of the Chelsea Physic Garden by the Society of Apothecaries

Helps to initiate The Monthly Miscellany; or, Memoirs for the Curious, a short-lived periodical that contains increasing numbers of articles by Petiver

Death in November of maternal uncle, Richard Elborowe, who leaves James a legacy of £700; his half-brother, Elborow Glentworth, appointed executor but the legacy remained unpaid in 1710 and is not known to have been fulfilled

Appointed Overseer and Botanical Demonstrator of Plants at the Chelsea Physic Garden, responsibilities he retains for the rest of his life (assisted by Isaac Rand)

Numerous short articles in The Monthly Miscellany include accounts of English freshwater fishes, an explanation of John Ray's ‘Method of English plants’, a series of articles on shells from Britain and abroad, and a review of Maria Sibylla Merian's Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium

Further articles in The Monthly Miscellany include a description of the ‘virtues’ of some Maryland plants, catalogues of fossils known from various sites in Kent, accounts of English beetles, and lists of the plants encountered during herborizing made around London by apprenticed apothecaries

The first of a series of six articles published in the Philosophical Transactions describing interesting plants in cultivation at the Chelsea Physic Garden and elsewhere in London

Visits the Netherlands (his only trip overseas) in June–July to purchase material from the collections of the late Paul Hermann (1645–1695) on behalf of Sir Hans Sloane. Apparently subscribes as a matriculant in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Leiden (in his will, deposed in 1717, he is styled ‘Doctor in Physick’)

Visits Bath and Bristol, collecting specimens at Clifton Gorge

Publishes Aquatilium Animalium Amboinae, descriptions and figures of Indonesian marine animals

Visited in London by the Scottish surgeon and botanist Patrick Blair, who lodges with him at the sign of the White Cross for several weeks

Shows natural history drawings at the Royal Society by the Tuscan monk Bruno Tozzi (1656–1743), whom he successfully proposes for Fellowship

Visits Kent and Sussex in August with his kinsman the apothecary James Sherard (1666–1738), their trip being documented among Petiver's adversaria as ‘M^r. Ja: Sherrard & I.P. Jornall to Hastings’

Publishes A Catalogue of Mr Ray's English Herbal, accompanied by 72 plates; also Hortus Peruvianus Medicinalis, in the hope of benefiting from the South Sea Company's new trading factories in Spanish America

Visits Cambridge and Norfolk, again in the company of James Sherard. Travels along the south coast of England between Portsmouth and Poole with the surgeon George Boucher (fl. 1680–1715), August

Patrick Blair imprisoned in Newgate (December) having been pressed into the service of the Earl of Mar during the Jacobite uprising in Scotland; Petiver and Sloane offer direct assistance until his eventual release 10 months later

William Sherard leaves Smyrna and returns to England

A further botanizing expedition with James Sherard to Norfolk and Suffolk in June and July, probably his last extended trip outside London

Publishes a concordance of British grasses, mosses, fungi and aquatic plants

Elected to the Council of the Royal Society for the seventh and final time

Increasing ill-health leaves Petiver ‘beyond active exertion’; in April James Sherard describes him as ‘very ill’ and physically ‘broke’

Issues Papilionum Britanniae, the first comprehensive account of British butterflies and one of his final publications

Last holograph item in Petiver's manuscript adversaria is a letter to the naturalist and watercolourist Eleazar Albin dated 29 July

Signs his will leaving most of his possessions, including his collections, to his sister, Jane Woodcock, 13 August

Death of James Petiver at his house in Aldersgate Street, ca 8 April

Buried 10 April in the chancel of the adjacent St Botolph's church, having allowed £100 out of his estate for funeral expenses

Petiver's collections purchased from Jane Woodcock by Hans Sloane, apparently by prior arrangement

The second volume of Sloane's Voyage to Jamaica blames the ‘Confusion’ in which he found Petiver's collections as a major contributory factor in the delay since the first volume of 1707; although open to question, the imputation proves damaging to Petiver's posthumous reputation

Following the death of Hans Sloane, Petiver's specimens, books and papers are destined for the national collection of the newly founded British Museum (and subsequently the British Library and Natural History Museum)

Two collected editions of Petiver's works, Jacobi Petiveri Opera, issued by the prominent London bookseller John Millan, primarily comprising unsold printed stock from publications produced during Petiver's lifetime