A key figure in English botany of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, William Sherard made it his life's work to publish a continuation of Casper Bauhin's Pinax theatri botanici (1623). Though he did not achieve this goal, Sherard made a great contribution to the progress of botany after his death by endowing the chair of botany at Oxford University.

Sherard was born to a landowner and his wife in the hamlet of Lushby, near Leicester. He attended school in London from 1674-1677, after which he went to St John's College, Oxford, reading law. Alongside his studies in this area, Sherard took a great interest in botany, often visiting the university's physic garden and striking up a lasting friendship with its keeper, Jacob Bobart the younger. Bobart was tasked with completing Robert Morison's Plantarum Historiae Universalis Oxoniensis and Sherard helped by collecting Oxfordshire plants for him.

Sherard graduated with a law degree in 1683 and remained in academia, now focusing on botany. In late 1685 he went to Paris to study at the Jardin du Roi under J.P. de Tournefort, and afterwards visited the Netherlands, where he met the keeper of the Leiden Botanical Gardens, Paul Hermann. He compiled lists of the plants growing at both the Leiden and Paris gardens, which were published as Schola botanica (1689), Sherard's only book. Interestingly he chose to publish under a pseudonym of the initials S.W.A.

Returning to England in 1689, Sherard worked on compiling records of the plants of southern England and the Channel Islands. These were published as an appendix to John Ray's Synopsis (1690). He then went visiting again, this time to County Down, Ireland, where he stayed with the Irish baronet Sir Arthur Rawdon, a keen horticulturalist. Enjoying life on Rawdon's estate, Moira, he remained three years, during which period he explored Ulster and its flora, adding several new species to scientific knowledge.

Sherard finally returned to Oxford in 1694, where he became a Doctor of Civil Law before departing on the grand tour as tutor to Charles, Lord Townshend. In his spare time he had agreed to complete Paul Hermann's catalogue of Netherlands plants, Paradisus Batavus, which added to his formal duties left little time for botanical exploration. He briefly returned to England in 1697 before setting off on another grand tour, this time accompanying the Marquess of Tavistock as tutor. Sherard was able to visit many botanical gardens in Italy on this trip and decided that he would make it his life's work to continue Casper Bauhin's Pinax (1623), updating all the plant names authored by botanists up to that time.

Landing back in England before Christmas 1698 with a haul of rare books and herbarium specimens to help him with his set task, Sherard took some persuading to once more be employed as a tutor. His acquaintance, Hans Sloane, had introduced Sherard to the Dowager Duchess of Beaufort, who insisted Sherard tutor her grandson Henry. A keen collector of plants in her garden at Badminton, the duchess was probably interested in Sherard because of his reputation as a botanist and Sherard duly took up the new post, but it did not last long, for Henry died the following year. Life was to be unsettled for the next two years, during which Sherard was employed briefly as junior bursar at his Oxford college and then with a government commission to improve care of French and Spanish prisoners. A more attractive position was offered to him as consul for the Turkey Company at Smyrna, which he gladly accepted.

Sherard thus departed England once more in 1703, but found it difficult to continue with his botanical work in Smyrna. Lacking the texts he needed and only able to collect plants travelling with many people for protection, he put botany to one side and instead concentrated on collecting coins. He also copied out church inscriptions (published in Edmund Chisnell's Antiquitates Asiaticae, 1728). After being burgled of his coin collection, however, Sherard returned to work on the Pinax, eventually leaving his position in 1716 in order to concentrate on this magnum opus once more.

His journey home was disrupted by an outbreak of plague on the ship, which was quarantined at Leghorn, delaying Sherard's arrival in England until late 1717. Settling in London he was soon elected to the Royal Society and joined its council in 1719-1720. During this period he also worked with his brother, James, an apothecary, building up a superb garden at the latter's estate in Eltham. Together they travelled to Europe in 1721 to collect plants and entice the Giessen botanist Johann Jakob Dillenius to come and work with them.

While continuing to work on the Pinax, Sherard organised collecting expeditions to North America undertaken by Mark Catesby and Thomas More, and worked with Hermann Boerhaave on the completion of Sébastien Vaillant's Botanicon Perisiense (1727), requiring two visits to the Netherlands. Due to these distractions, the Pinax moved forwards slowly, even with Dillenius' help. In addition Sherard fell out with Hans Sloane, who denied him access to the collections of Petiver and Plukenet, further obstructing matters. The work was never to be completed; by 1728 Sherard (now living with Dillenius on Tower Hill), was suffering from senility and died that year on 11 August.

Sherard's legacy was to endow a new chair of botany at Oxford University, to which he also bequeathed his herbarium of 12,000 sheets and his library and paintings. He stipulated that Dillenius was to be the first Sherardian Professor of Botany, though wrangling over the terms of the bequest meant he was not instated for seven years. The unfinished Pinax was also given to Oxford. The field madder, Sherardia L. (coined by Dillenius before being adopted by Linnaeus), commemorates him.

Sources:
D.E. Allen, 2008, "Sherard, William (1659-1728)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn:
www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/25355, accessed 28 November 2011
B.D. Jackson, 1874, "A sketch of the life of William Sherard", Journal of Botany, British and Foreign, 12: 129-138.