Joseph Whittaker

[1] In 1838 Whittaker gave his occupation as "gardener" when he set sail with his new employer Lt. Col. George Gawler, who had recently been appointed as the second Governor of South Australia.

During breaks in his employment Whittaker travelled to many places within South Australia where he collected and preserved a wide range of plant specimens.

He collected from many parts of Derbyshire, but he occasionally travelled outside the county including Bulwell, Nottinghamshire, Rhyl and Denbigh in Wales.

[9] From here he corresponded with Sir William J. Hooker Director of the Kew Botanic Gardens in an attempt to exchange some of his Australian and related specimens for a number of books on British botany.

[10] This contained a mixture of both rare and relatively abundant species, and gives a good indication of the botanical diversity of the area at that time.

[11] Whittaker lived in the small village of Morley near Derby at Ferriby Brook (the name of his house) with his wife Mary in the late 1850s.

[16][17] Whittaker's plant collecting activities began to decline around 1863, around the time his botanical partner, Henry Harpur Crewe, moved away to become the Rector of Drayton Beauchamp in Buckinghamshire.

In the late 1880s Joseph Whittaker gave valuable assistance, and supplied a range of plant specimens, to Rev W. H.Painter who was preparing to publish a book on the Flora of Derbyshire.

[2] Whittaker's collection of herbarium specimens at Kew Gardens is from his trip to Australia and from ports of call on his return journey home.

On his death a large collection of pressed British plants in 79 volumes, mostly from Derbyshire, were passed to Derby Museum and Art Gallery, and these are now incorporated in their herbarium.

Because of his participation in botanical exchanges clubs, there are now Whittaker specimens in many UK museum collections, including those at Bolton, Birmingham, Gloucester and Manchester.