Born in Boston, Massachussetts, the son of a British businessman and brother of Kirk Boott (1790-1837) who was one of the founders of Lowell Massachussetts and the Boott Cotton Mill. Francis Boott trained at Harvard College (1806-1810) intending a career similar to his father but became interested in science on visiting his father's town of Derby and later trained at Edinburgh University (1820-1824) in medicine. He practised at Gower Street, London (1825-1832) as a physician with ideas ahead of his time, introduced the first use of anaesthetics to the country (1846) and abandoned the traditional black physician's coat in favour of a blue coat with brass buttons and a yellow waistcoat. As a botanist he was the foremost authority on the genus Carex and contributed to W.J. Hooker's Flora Boreali-Americana. Boott was elected Sectretary to the Linnean Society (1832-1839) and later Treasurer (1856-1861). The genus Boottia Wall. in the Hydrocharitaceae was named in his honour.