British clergyman and naturalist who settled and collected in Virginia. From Twigworth in Gloucestershire John Banister trained at Magdalen College, Oxford University where he was a chorister, receiving his BA in 1671 and an MA three years later. He then became chaplain and, already a keen botanist, he collected several hundred herbarium sheets in this region. Sent by Bishop Compton to Virginia as an Anglican Minister in 1678 he left his post as chaplain and was soon established in Charles City County. Banister obtained some land on the Appomattox River and worked as a minister for Bristol Parish, devoting much of his time to the collection of botanical specimens in the area and producing illustrations. In correspondence with numerous naturalists in Europe he sent material across the Atlantic including fossils, insects molluscs and minerals as well as plants.
Banister devoted himself to the creation of a "Natural History of Virginia", but he never managed to publish the work because of his premature death by accidental gunshot when he was just 42 years old. A number of his botanical papers were published after his death and his catalogue of Virginia plants was used by John Ray in his Historia Plantarum. In total, at the time of his death, Banister had collected, described or sent specimens of some 340 plants and over 100 insects to England and had made illustrations of 80 plant species. As well as his unfinished "Natural History", Banister also left behind the incomplete manuscript of a work entitled "Of The Natives".
At most he probably only travelled some 65 miles from his home for it was quite dangerous to travel far outside of large settlements at that time. In 1692 he joined a group on an expedition led by William Byrd to find new arable land and mineral deposits, and visited the highlands above the falls of the James River. His death was somewhat controversial as he was shot accidentally while out collecting plants by a fellow member of the party, who likely thought him an animal, although his family were informed that he was killed by a falling tree. Banister introduced many plants to Europe including the first material of Liquidambar styraciflua L. which was first grown by Bishop Compton at Fulham Palace (1681). Genera named in his honour include Banisteria L. (nom. rej.), Banisteriopsis C.B. Rob ex Small and Banisterophyllum Ettingsh.
Sources:
J. and N. Ewan, 1970, John Banister and his natural history of Virginia: 1678-1692
H.B. Humphrey, 1961, The Makers of North American Botany: 17-18.
