GARDEN, FRANCIS,
LORD GARDENSTONE,
an eminent judge, second son of Alexander Garden, Esq. of Troup, in
Aberdeenshire, by Jane, daughter of Sir Francis Grant of Cullen, one of
the lords of session, was born at Edinburgh, June 24, 1721. After
passing through the usual course of liberal education at the university
of his native city, and attending the law classes, he was admitted
advocate 14th July 1744. In spite of his inclination for
literary pursuits, and a strong taste for convivial enjoyments, he soon
acquired eminence at the bar. In the celebrated Douglas cause he took a
leading part, and was one of the counsel sent to France to inquire into
the circumstances connected with the case in that country. He made a
distinguished figure before the parliament of Paris, where he was
opposed by Mr. Wedderburn (afterwards lord chancellor), and astonished
all present by his legal knowledge and fluency in the French language.
In 1748 he was appointed sheriff depute of Kincardineshire, and on 22d
August 1759 was nominated one of the assessors for the city of
Edinburgh. On 30th April 1760 he was appointed conjunct
solicitor-general with James Montgomery, afterwards lord chief baron,
and on 3d July 1764 he was raised to the bench, when he assumed the
title of Lord Gardenstone.
In 1762 he had
purchased the estate of Johnston in Kincardineshire, and in 1765,
greatly added to the value of this property by laying down a plan for
the extension of the adjoining village of Laurencekirk, then a mere
hamlet, which, in 1779, he procured to be erected into a burgh of
barony. He built a commodious inn, styled the Gardenstone arms, for the
reception of travellers, founded a library for the use of the villagers,
with a museum for the attraction of strangers, and established
manufactures of various kinds. Although some of his undertakings in
connection with this village did not succeed, this did not in the least
dishearten him, or cause him to abate in his philanthropic exertions,
and he had at length the satisfaction of seeing the village of
Laurencekirk, which afterwards became famous for its manufacture of
snuff-boxes, attain to a degree of prosperity and importance, which
exceeded his most sanguine expectations.
In 1785, on
the death of his elder brother, who was for some time M.P. for
Aberdeenshire, he succeeded to the family estates in Banffshire, worth
about £3,000 a-year, when, in accordance with the natural generosity of
his disposition, he remitted to the tenants all the arrears due to him
as the heir of his brother. He had been appointed, in 1776, to a seat on
the justiciary bench, in the room of Lord Pitfour, which he now resigned
for a pension of £200 a-year; and, in September 1786, he went to the
Continent for the recovery of his health, which had been much impaired.
After travelling through France, the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy, he
returned home in the end of 1788. In 1791 he published the first volume
of his ‘Travelling Memorandums, made in a Tour upon the Continent of
Europe in the years 1786, 1787, and 1788.’ In 1792 he added a second
volume, and a third, supplied from his papers by his friends, appeared
after his death. In 1791, a collection of satires and light fugitive
pieces, entitled ‘Miscellanies in Prose and Verse,’ which had been
published by a person of the name of Callander, was, by general report,
although erroneously, attributed to Lord Gardenstone, as partly his own,
and partly the composition of some of the convivial friends of his
youth. His lordship resided, during the latter years of his life,
chiefly at Morningside, near Edinburgh. Having derived benefit from the
use of the mineral spring, called St. Bernard’s Well, in the vicinity of
that city, he erected over it a massy building of freestone, surmounted
by a temple, in which he placed a statue of Hygeia, the goddess of
Health. He died July 22, 1791, aged seventy-three.
GARDEN, ALEXANDER,
an eminent botanist and zoologist, was born in Scotland in January 1730.
At the university of Edinburgh, where he was educated, he studied botany
according to the system of Tournefort, under Dr. Alston, and it is
probable that he took the degree of M.D. there. In 1752 he settled as
physician at Charlestown, in South Carolina, and soon after married.
From the outset of his residence in America he engaged in botanical
researches, with the assistance of the works of Tournefort and Ray, but
he found the greatest difficulty in ascertaining his discoveries, and
especially in reducing such plants as appeared nondescript to their
proper places in the systems of those writers, which were more adapted
for Europe than America. Having met with the ‘Fundamenta Botanica’ and
the ‘Classes Plantarum’ of Linnaeus, he opened a correspondence with
that great naturalist, in March 1755, by an elegant and enthusiastic
Latin letter. He soon after received from Europe the ‘Philosophia
Botanica,’ the ‘Systema Naturae,’ and some other works of the Swedish
botanist, which greatly assisted him in his investigations. His labours
were directed to the discovery and verification of new genera among the
animal and vegetable tribes of North America, in which he was very
successful. Top his exertions Linnaeus was indebted particularly for a
knowledge of the insects and fishes of South Carolina, among which is
the “Siren lacertina,” a most curious animal, resembling both a lizard
and a fish, of which he sent a description, with specimens, to Linnaeus
at Upsal in the spring of 1765.
After a
residence of more than twenty years in Charlestown, the revolutionary
disturbances in America interrupted his scientific correspondence, and
finally obliged him, as he had joined the loyalists, to quit that
country and take refuge in England. He left a son behind him, but was
accompanied by his wife and two daughters. In June 1773 he was elected a
fellow of the Royal Society, but was not admitted till May 10, 1783, the
latter being probably his first opportunity of attending in person after
he came to London, where he died April 15, 1791, in the 62d year of his
age. On the recommendation of Linnaeus, he had, in 1761, been elected a
member of the Royal Academy of Upsal. Dr. Garden published an account of
the ‘Gymnotus Electricus,’ or Electric Eel, in the Philosophical
Transactions, and also wrote some other detached papers, but produced no
separate work. His name will be botanically perpetuated by the elegant
and fragrant “Gardenia,” dedicated to him by his friend Ellis.
