Though he died at the age of 27, Bradby Blake left behind a rich archive of his work and correspondence that gives insight into cross-cultural interactions and botanical study in China at the time.

From the 1760s he was also manager of a business transporting fresh fish to a market in Westminster, an attempt to circumvent the monopoly of the fishmonger's company, although ultimately stepped away from that project due to financial difficulties.

[1][3][5][6] As well as their botanical interests, the Blakes were also involved to a degree in predatory lending practices based around the tea trade, something that led ultimately to a minor financial crisis and Britain's first embassy to China.

On 29 August 1764, Bradby Blake applied for the position of either writer or junior supercargo with the British East India Company, following in his father's footsteps.

This time he was successful, and later that year Bradby Blake travelled to Canton (present-day Guangzhou) in China as a supercargo of the East India Company.

[8] He devoted his spare time in Canton to natural science, particularly botany, as well as some attempts to record and study Chinese language and culture.

[8] When not working as resident supercargo for the East India Company in China, Bradby Blake was devoting his time to botany and horticulture, as well as some study of Chinese language and culture.

While Bradby Blake himself experimented with the best ways to grow, package, and transport seeds and specimens of tallow, turmeric, camellia and other southeast Asian plants, his London counterparts ensured that his shipments reached the broader world.

[15] Bradby Blake spent considerable time and energy experimenting with various ways to send seeds and plants overseas.

For example, with the tallow tree, Bradby Blake tested growing seeds in various types of soil and with varying amounts of water.

[16] Today, the existing archive of John Bradby Blake's work consists predominately of this unfinished Chinese flora, created as watercolor and gouache paintings.

[3][12][17] A third part of Bradby Blake's legacy involves a Chinese/English dictionary, a written and illustrated document that translates various aspects of Chinese culture into English.

The different hands working on the dictionary, and the value judgements made by the English writer, reveal multiple voices exchanging and evaluating cultural information.

As well as passing on the drawings and records to Captain John Blake, Whang-y-Tong met with Joseph Banks, Josiah Wedgwood, and other members of the English elite, and even had his portrait painted by Joshua Reynolds.

Banks subsequently commissioned a manual for British plant collectors working in China, based on the illustrations in Bradby Blake's drawings.

The drawings Bradby Blake commissioned and created with Mauk-Sow-U and Whang-y-Tong were the beginning of a long record of Western interest in Chinese plants.