Person Sloane; Sir; Hans (1660 - 1753); physician and collector Sloane Hans Sir physician and collector 1660 - 1753 Male Killyleagh or White's Castle, County Down, Ireland, Europe 16 April 1660 16600416 Chelsea, London, England, Europe 11 January 1753 17530111 Burial: Chelsea Old Church, London, England, Europe (18 January 1753)

Water Lane, Blackfriars, London (1679-1683); 3-4 Bloomsbury Place, Bloomsbury Square, Middlesex (1689-1742); Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury (1718) The Manor House, Chelsea , London (1742);

Physician Medicine Natural history Botany Education: Killyleagh school; when removed from school due to poor health continued education supported by the Hamilton Family of Killyleagh Castle; studied medicine at Apothecaries Hall, London (1679-1883); Pupil of Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, at the Jardin Royal, Paris and Montpellier (1683-1684); University of Orange (MD 1683); University of Oxford (DMed, by diploma 1701) Career: Went to Jamaica as personal physician to the 2nd Duke of Albemarle, Governor of Jamaica, where he worked as a doctor on slave plantations whilst collecting over 800 botanical specimens and other items of natural history with the assistance of planters and enslaved Africans (1687-1689); practised medicine in Bloomsbury, Middlesex (1689-1741); published multiple papers on his observations in Jamaica (1680s); Physician, Christ's Hospital (1694-1730); carried out the autopsy of Samuel Pepys PRS (1703); purchased the manor of Chelsea, Middlesex (1712); physician to Queen Anne and George I (1712-1727); Physician to the Army (1714); first British physician to receive a baronetcy (1716); founded the Botanic Garden at Chelsea on behalf of the Society of Apothecaries (1721); First Physician to George II (1727); experimented with inoculation of smallpox inoculating the children of the Princess of Wales; also advocated the use of quinine in treatment of malaria and eye ailments; one of the promoters of the colony of Georgia (1732); a founding governor of London's Foundling Hospital (1739), retired from general practice (1741); benefactor to Christ's Hospital and the Bodleian Library and to many other individuals and institutions; bequeathed his collection to King and Parliament in return for a payment of £20,000 to his heirs (his collection was estimated to have cost him £100,000). The bequest was accepted and on 7 June 1753 the British Museum act became law, establishing the first national museum freely open to the public, the Sloane collections forming the nucleus of the British Museum (around 200,000 specimens) Honours: Bt 1716 Memberships: Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (1687, President 1719-1735) Foreign Member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences (1712) Member of the Academy of Science of St Petersburg and of Madrid (1735) Member of the Academy of Sciences of Göttingen (1752) Parents: Alexander Sloane and Sarah Hicks Married: Elizabeth Rose (née Langley) Children: Mary Sloane; Sarah Stanley (née Sloane); Elizabeth Cadogan (née Sloane); Hans Sloane Additional relatives: son-in-law Charles Cadogan (FRS 1718), step-son-in-law Thomas Isted (FRS 1698); grandson Rose Fuller (FRS 1732); nephew William Sloane (FRS 1722) As a protestant, Sloane was not permitted to take his degree at Paris or Montpellier where he studied. He took his degree as Doctor of Physic at the University of Orange, near Avignon in Provence, on July 28th 1683. During his chemistry studies at the Apothecaries' Hall, Sloane struck up life-long friendships with John Ray (FRS 1667) and Robert Boyle (FRS 1660). After returning to London, Sloane became a protégé of sorts to Thomas Sydenham at whose address he likely practiced for a time. Later in life, he was a close acquaintance of James Petiver (FRS 1695), who went on to develop one of the largest natural history correspondences. Through his connections and placement in London at the quasi-hub of scientific correspondence in the growing British empire, Sloane made use of the machinery of empire to expand his collecting activities and contribute to the Society's network of correspondents. The nomenclature and systemisation present in Sloane's plant catalogue of Jamaica was considered a valuable contribution to the field of botany and natural history, only later superseded by Linneaus' system. At the end of his life, his collections encompassed, amongst others, objects from Ghana, drawings attributed to Albrecht Dürer, and manuscripts from Sir Robert Cotton's estate. He is also credited with introducing to England a recipe for 'health-giving' drinking chocolate with milk, which was widespread in Jamaica and one of many recipes in circulation at the time. Sloane's wide-ranging collecting was funded, alongside his medical practice, by profits from sugar plantations in Jamaica. His wife Elizabeth was the co-heir of John Langley, a plantation owner and enslaver. Furthermore, Sloane made use of enslaved people's knowledge of the island's flora and fauna for his collections, though he rarely credited them as collectors. Sloane invested these profits and held shares in the East India Company, the South Sea Company, and the Royal African Company, mercantile companies directly involved in the trade of enslaved people. The RAC was a British trading company established by Royal Charter in 1660 which enslaved and sold African people. The company was chartered by Charles II, the founding royal Patron of the Royal Society, which was also chartered in 1660. The RAC held a monopoly on English trade on the west coast of Africa. The principal interest of the company was originally gold and secondarily other natural resources. The Company's second charter in 1663 mentions trade in enslaved people, who were mainly sold into slavery on British owned estates in the West Indies and America. The Jesus College Cambridge Legacy of Slavery Working Party has stated that the RAC was responsible for selling more Africans into slavery in America than any other institution in the history of the Atlantic slave trade, and that they ran a brutal regime with the full knowledge of their investors. The South Sea Company was a British joint-stock company founded in 1711, created as a public-private partnership to consolidate and reduce the cost of the national debt. To generate income, in 1713 the company was granted a monopoly (the Asiento) to supply enslaved Africans to the islands in the 'South Seas' and South America. Company stock rose greatly in value as it expanded its operations dealing in government debt, and peaked in 1720 before suddenly collapsing to little above its original flotation price. The notorious economic bubble thus created, which ruined thousands of investors, became known as the South Sea Bubble. The Company survived and between 1715 and 1731 profited from the sale of over 60,000 enslaved Africans. The Honorable East India Company (HEIC) was an English and later British company formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region. The company ended up seizing control of large parts of the Indian subcontinent (and briefly Afghanistan) and colonised parts of Southeast Asia and Hong Kong. Originally chartered as the Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading into the East-Indies, by Queen Elizabeth I in 1600, the East India Company rose to account for half of the world's trade, thereby amassing vast wealth, influence and private armies. The East India company enslaved people and exploited them for labour across their territories from 1621 until abolition of slavery in India in 1843. The company ruled large areas of India with its private armies, exercising military power and seizing administrative functions from local rulers from around 1757 until the British Raj which replaced HEIC control with direct colonial rule of India by the British Government in 1858. Under the HEIC and later colonial governance the British systematically oppressed indigenous people and exploited natural resources of colonised regions for commercial gain. The Company was dissolved in 1874. Royal Society roles: Council: 1690-1699; Secretary 1693-1713; PRS 1727-1741; VP 1703-1704, 1704-?, 1715-?, 1722-? ; Editor Phil. Trans.: 1696-1713 Committee and panels: Committee to inspect the Books and Papers of the Society (1692) Fellow 21/01/1685 24 Martin Lister Commissioned a variety of experiments and observations, e.g. in the field of natural history; Presented papers and collected specimens to the Society, e.g. Jamaican pepper tree; Listed as a principal benefactor with donation of £100 (1710); As secretary and subsequent editor of the 'Philosophical Transactions', Sloane was instrumental in revitalising the publication and his wide network of correspondents contributed to communication published in the 'Transactions'. During this time, he was also involved in a somewhat public feud with John Woodward (FRS 1693), who disagreed with Sloane's administrative style and qualification and insulted him during a presentation of a pa Sources: Bulloch's Roll; DNB; DSB; GEC Baronetage; Hunter; Foster; Irish Innovators; ODNB Delbourgo, J. 2017. 'Collecting the World: The Life and Curiosity of Hans Sloane' (Allen Lane) References: W H G Armytage, 'The Royal Society and the Apothecaries' in NR 1954-55 vol 11 pp 22-37 W H G Armytage, 'Sir Godfrey Copley, FRS (1653-1709). Some Tercentenary Glimpses through Letters to his Friends' in NR 1954-55 vol 11 pp 54-74 T E Allibone, 'The Diaries of John Byrom, MA, FRS, and their Relation to the Pre-history of the Royal Society Club' in NR 1965 vol 20 pp 162-183 John Thomas, 'Josiah Wedgwood's Portrait Medallions of Fellows of the Royal Society' in NR 1963 vol 18 pp 45-53, plate Jessie M Sweet, 'Sir Hans Sloane's Metalline Cubes' in NR 1953 vol 10 pp 99-100 Jessie M Sweet, 'Benjamin Franklin's Purse' in NR 1952 vol 9 pp 308-309 Jean Jacquot, 'Sir Hans Sloane and French Men of Science' in NR 1953 vol 10 pp 85-98 G R de Beer, 'The Relations between Fellows of the Royal Society and French Men of Science when France and Britain were at War' in NR 1952 vol 9 pp 244-299 G R de Beer, 'Sir Hans Sloane, FRS, 1660-1753' in NR 1953 vol 10 pp 81-84, plate H G Lyons, 'Two Hundred Years Ago: 1739' in NR 1939 vol 2 pp 34-42 Geoffrey Cantor, 'Quakers in the Royal Society, 1660-1750' in NR 1997 vol 51 pp 175-193 Harold B Carter, 'The Royal Society and the Voyage of HMS Endeavour 1768-71' in NR 1995 vol 49 pp 245-260 John H Appleby, 'The Royal Society and the Tartar Lamb' in NR 1997 vol 51 pp 23-34 L Taub, 'Collecting Curiosities', review of Jan Bondeson, A Cabinet of Medical Curiosities in NR 1998 vol 52 pp 371-372 Richard Sorrenson, 'Towards a History of the Royal Society in the Eighteenth Century' in NR 1996 vol 50 pp 29-46, plate M Yakup Bektas and Maurice Crosland, 'The Copley Medal: the Establishment of a Reward System in the Royal Society, 1731-1839' in NR 1992 vol 46 pp 43-76 Ruth Stungo, 'The Royal Society Specimens from the Chelsea Physic Garden 1722-1799' in NR 1993 vol 47 pp 213-224 T E Allibone, 'Philately and the Royal Society' in NR 1992 vol 46 pp 129-154 A E Gunther, 'The Royal Society and the Foundation of the British Museum, 1753-1781' in NR 1978-9 vol 33 pp 207-216 Frank N Egerton, 'Richard Bradley's Relationship with Sir Hans Sloane' in NR 1970 vol 25 pp 59-77 John H Appleby, 'Ginseng and the Royal Society' in NR 1982-83 vol 37 pp 121-145 John R Millburn, 'Benjamin Martin and the Royal Society' in NR 1973-4 vol 28 pp 15-23 P Fontes da Costa, 'The Culture of Curiosity at The Royal Society in the first half of the eighteenth century', NR 2002 vo l56 pp 147-166 J H Appleby, 'The founding of St Petersburg in the context of the Royal Society's relationship with Russia' in NR 2003 vol 57 pp 273-284 W P Griffith and P J T Morris, 'Charles Hatchett FRS (1765 - 1847), chemist and discoverer of niobium' in NR 2003 vol 57 pp 299 - 316 W Ramsey, P Daniels, E G Ramsey, 'The Limehouse Porcelain Factory - its output, antecedents, and the influence of the Royal Society of London on the evolution of English porcelain based on composition and technology. ' Published Inverscafgill, New Zealand, January 2013 Notes: A large part of Sloane's correspondence is held at the British Library, with letters being transcribed and described by the Sloane Letters Project [https://sloaneletters.com/; last accessed 23/02/2022] Sloane P0118.jpg ©The Royal Society International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families - ISAAR(CPF) - Ottawa 1996 ISBN 0-9696035-3-3 National Council on Archives, Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997 RCN: R63795 RCN: R63796 RCN: R63794 https://pictures.royalsociety.org/results?mi_search_type=adv&mi_adv_search=yes&adv_person_id=AUTH7803 https://pictures.royalsociety.org/image-rs-9723 16 Apr 1660 - 11 Jan 1753 The past Fellows entries are under continuous revision. If you have queries or additional information to contribute, please contact Library@royalsociety.org. Content in external sources is not controlled by the Royal Society and historical sources may include content that is now unacceptable. Reviewed on 23/02/2022 as part of the Name Authority Project update. NA8406 21/11/2001 Andyg Martind 17/09/2025 RS_NET\VirginiaM yes http://viaf.org/viaf/77959 a759a2d9-8478-4655-b8c5-095ef2386d1b