“’Tis God alone, Almighty God,
The Holy One, by me Adored.
John Bartram, 1770;”
and an inscription over the door of his greenhouse was:
“Slave to no sect, who takes no private road,
But looks through nature up to Nature’s God.”
As the British soldiers were approaching Philadelphia from the Battle of Brandywine, John Bartram greatly feared they would destroy his “beloved garden,” the work of a lifetime. He became very much excited, and said, “I want to die!” and expired half an hour later, September 22, 1777. His remains lie buried in the Friends’ burying ground, Darby.
His son William went to Florida to study and collect botanical specimens, returning home in 1771. In 1773, at the instance of the distinguished Quaker physician, Dr. John Fothergill, of London, William spent five years in the study of the natural productions of the Southern States. The results of these investigations were published by Dr. Fothergill.
In 1782 he was elected Professor of Botany in the University of Pennsylvania, but declined the appointment on the score of ill health.
Besides his discoveries and publications on botany, he prepared the most complete table of American ornithology prior to Wilson’s great work, and he was an assistant of the latter in a portion of his work.