| Authorised form of name | Paterson; William (1755 - 1810) |
| Dates | 1755 - 1810 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | Montrose, Scotland, United Kingdom |
| Date of birth | 17 August 1755 |
| Place of death | On board the ship HMS 'Dromedary' |
| Date of death | 21 June 1810 |
| Occupation | Soldier; colonial administrator |
| Research field | Botany |
| Activity | Education:
Trained in horticulture at Syon in London
Career:
Entered the army; went on expeditions in South Africa (1777-1779); gazetted to the 98th Regiment and sent to India; chosen to command a company of the New South Wales Corps to protect convict settlement at Botany Bay, Australia (went there 1791); served in command on Norfolk Island (November 1791-March 1793), whilst there he collected botanical, geological and insect specimens and sent them to Joseph Banks PRS; Lieutenant Governor of New South Wales (1794, 1806-1808); in 1795, Paterson gave an order that resulted in the massacre of a number of men, women and children of the Bediagal tribe in retaliation for the killing of two settlers; led an expedition to the Hunter Region (1801); in 1804 led a settlement expedition to Port Dalrymple in the north of Van Diemen's Land and became Commandent of the colony (1804-1808) where he again collected specimens for Banks; administered government at Sydney as acting Lieutenant Governor after deposition of William Bligh FRS (1809); Paterson River and Mountain, New South Wales, and Paterson Creek, Tasmania, named after him, died on the passage home to England, off Cape Horn on HMS 'Dromedary' |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 10/05/1798 |
| Age at election | 42 |
| PublishedWorks | 'Narrative of Four Journeys into the Country of the Hottentots and Caffraria' 1798, which he dedicated to Sir Joseph Banks |
| OtherInfo | Hottentot is a now deprecated term referring to the people of the Western Cape of South Africa, while Caffraria referred to the Eastern Cape |
| Source | Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB; Wikipedia
References:
Connor, John 'The Australian frontier wars, 1788-1838' , (Sydney) 2005
Smith, N. 'William Paterson: amateur colonial botanist, 1755–1810’, in Australian Garden History, 17 (1), 2005, pp. 8–10. |
| Virtual International Authority File | http://viaf.org/viaf/14941228 |
| Code | NA3049 |
Archives associated with this Fellow
| RefNo | Title | Date |
| NLB/10/567 | Copy letter from Herbert Rix, to Alexander Harris, Colonial Office, Downing Street, S.W. | 20 December 1894 |
| NLB/10/576 | Copy letter from Herbert Rix, to Alexander Harris, Colonial Office, Downing Street, S.W. | 21 December 1894 |
| L&P/8/191/2 | Plate, 'Fish in its natural size, caught at Johanna' by William Paterson | 1786 |
| L&P/8/191/1 | Letter, 'An account of a new electrical fish' from William Paterson to Joseph Banks | 16 March 1786 |
| L&P/8/191 | Paper, 'An account of a new electrical fish' by William Paterson | 16 March 1786 |
| EC/1798/07 | Paterson, William: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |