Spanish physician and botanist who received funding from Carlos III of Spain to lead the Royal Botanical Expedition to New Spain (often called the Sessé and Moçiño Expedition). Born in Baragúas, Aragon, Martín Sessé y Lacasta worked as a physician in the Spanish army, serving in the famous siege of Gibraltar and travelling to the Americas in this role. He spent some time in Havana but when a loan to the royal treasury was not repaid he went on to Mexico where he acted as a physician to the Holy Office, the Hospital 'Love of God' and assisted in the prisons and houses of correction. Sessé was also married to Dona María Guadalupe de los Morales.
In 1787 he successfully petitioned Carlos III to fund a school of botany and botanic gardens within Mexico City and to lead an expedition to complete the works of the 16th century botanical explorer and physician Francisco Hernández. Thus he began the Botanical Expedition to New Spain and served as director of the developing botanic gardens, working alongside Vicente Cervantes who arrived from Spain in 1788 to join the expedition and who he named lecturer of the botany course. Other than Cervantes, Jaime Senseve and Juan de Castillo also arrived from Spain to join the expedition as botanists and they soon began to collect all over the country for the Flora Mexicana, making extended trips in the west between 1790 and 1792.
In 1794 Sessé decided to split the expedition, himself exploring the Caribbean with Senseve and the artist José Atanasio Echeverría, leaving the other members to travel south into Guatemala whilst Cervantes remained in the city to look after the gardens. On their arrival in Havana, however, both of his companions were taken ill with dysentery, bringing botanical work to a near standstill for the first year. They left for Puerto Rico in 1796 but here too their research was impaired, this time by the war that broke out against the British, and they were forced to escape back to Havana the following year. Sessé then continued to collect in Cuba, despite their allotted time for this expedition having passed, determined to make up for their previous delays and gather adequate specimens.
Eventually Sessé arrived back in Mexico City in 1798 but their return to Spain and the conclusion of the expedition was also delayed for several years. The organisation of their specimens was not finished until 1801 and continued war with Britain, along with legal problems, meant that they did not depart until 1803. Luckily after much controversy Sessé gained permission to bring José Mariano Moçiño back to Spain to finish of their work together. Unfortunately, when they returned the presence of Napoleon meant that the minds of most politicians in Europe were occupied and contributing large sums of money to a Flora Mexicana was not a priority. He tried to create a Prodromo of the Flora with the 3500 specimens that reached J. A. Cavanilles in the Madrid botanic gardens but it could not be completed. Sessé was understandably disappointed and sadly died in 1809 without completing the intended works of the expedition.
Sources:
Colmiero, M., 1858, La Botánica y Los Botánicos de la Península Hispano-Lusitana.
Ricket, H. W., 1949, The Royal Botanical Expedition to New Spain.
San Pío Alardeen, M. P. and Puig-Samper Mulero, M. Á, Eds., 1999, Las Flores del Paraíso: La Expedición Botánica de Cuba en los Siglos XVIII y XIX.
Steele, A. R., 1964, Flowers for the King.
