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Born, Norwich, 1759; educated at home; began to study botany at eighteen; studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, 1781, studying botany under Dr John Hope; studied in London under John Hunter and Dr William Pitcairn, 1783; purchased the library, manuscripts, herbarium, and natural history collections made by Linnæus and his father; devoted his studies to natural history, mainly botany; Fellow, Royal Society, 1785; travelled on the continent, visiting eminent naturalists, 1786-1787; medical degree, Leyden, 1786; Founder, 1788, President, 1788-1828, Linnean Society; lectured on botany and zoology, 1788; Lecturer on Botany, Guy's Hospital, 1788; published Sowerby's English Botany, 1790-1814; appointed to manage the Queen's herbarium, and teach her and her daughters botany and zoology, 1791; retired to Norwich, 1796; delivered an annual course of lectures at the Royal Institution, [1796]-1825; knighted, 1814; died, 1828.
Publications include: Compendium Floræ Britannicæ (Londini, 1800); Exotic Botany: consisting of coloured figures and scientific descriptions of such new, beautiful, or rare plants as are worthy of cultivation in the gardens of Britain ... The figures by J Sowerby 2 volumes (London, 1804); Remarks on the generic characters of the decandrous papilionaceous plants of New Holland (London, [1804]); An Introduction to physiological and systematical Botany (London, 1807); A Review of the modern state of Botany, with a particular reference to the natural systems of Linnæus and Jussieu. From the second volume of the supplement to the Encyclopædia Britannica [Edinburgh, 1817?]; Considerations respecting Cambridge, more particularly relating to its Botanical professorship (London, 1818); A Grammar of Botany, illustrative of artificial, as well as natural classification; with an explanation of Jussieu's system (London, 1821); A Compendium of the English Flora (Longman & Co, London, 1829); The English Flora 5 volumes (London, 1824-36); English Botany, or coloured figures of British Plants. ... The figures by J Sowerby Second edition, edited by J De C Sowerby 12 volumes (London, [1832]-1846).