Thomas Horsfield

Thomas Horsfield (May 12, 1773 – July 24, 1859) was an American physician and naturalist who worked extensively in Indonesia, describing numerous species of plants and animals from the region.

[1] The Horsfield family converted from the Church of England to Moravianism, a Protestant denomination with a strong emphasis on education.

His thesis on the physiological effects of poison ivy demonstrated his interest in botany.

The East India Company took control of the island from the Dutch in 1811, and Horsfield began to collect natural history specimens on behalf of the governor and friend Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles.

In 1819, he was forced to leave the island due to ill health, and returned to London on board the Lady Raffles.

[6] Horsfield died at his home in Camden Town and was buried at the Moravian cemetery in Chelsea.

Together with the botanists Robert Brown and John Joseph Bennett he published the Plantae Javanicae rariores (1838–52).

Horsfield is commemorated in the names of a number of animals and plants, including: Zoological and botanical specimens collected by Horsfield are deposited in museums and herbaria across the world, including at the Natural History Museum, London of the United Kingdom, the Kew Herbarium, and the National Herbarium of Victoria (MEL), Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria.