William Hudson

William Hudson FRS (1730 in Kendal – 23 May 1793) was a British botanist and apothecary based in London. His main work was Flora Anglica, published in 1762. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1761. Life and work Hudson was born between 1730 and 1732 at the White Lion Inn, Kendal, which was kept by his father. He was educated at Kendal grammar school, Hudson was subsequently apprenticed to an apothecary in London. He obtained the prize for botany given by the Apothecaries' Company which was a copy of Ray's Synopsis. However, he also paid attention to mollusca and insects and in Pennant's British Zoology he is mentioned as the discoverer of Trochus terrestris. From 1757 to 1768 Hudson was resident sub-librarian of the British Museum, and his studies in the Sloane herbarium enabled him to adapt the Linnean nomenclature to the plants described by Ray far more accurately than did John Hill in his Flora Britannica of 1760. In 1761 Hudson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in the following year the first edition of his Flora Anglica appeared, which, according to Pulteney and J. E. Smith, "marks the establishment of Linnean principles of botany in England." Smith writes that the work was "composed under the auspices and advice of Benjamin Stillingfleet". Hudson, at the time of its publication, was practising as an apothecary in Panton Street, Haymarket, and from 1765 to 1771 acted as 'praefectus horti' to the Apothecaries' Company at the Chelsea Physic Garden. He communicated with Linnaeus and sent plants to him.