Nathaniel John Winch (1768–1838) was an English merchant and botanist, known also as a lichenologist and geologist.
[3] Elected sheriff of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1805, he suffered bankruptcy in 1808.
[1][4] Winch died at his residence, Ridley Place, Newcastle, on 5 May 1838, aged 69.
His manuscripts, library, and herbarium of some twelve thousand species were left to the Linnean Society, but most of them passed to the Natural History Society of Northumberland and Durham, and the Hancock Museum.
[2][3] Winch spent a lifetime in the study of plants, especially those of Northumberland, Cumberland and County Durham, and was a pioneer writer on geographical distribution.