Botanist and Collector Sir Hans Sloane

Noted Physician and Botanist, Sir Hans Sloane made many contributions to scientific research. Among his famed patients were Lord Albemarle, Governor of Jamaica; the infamous buccaneer Captain Morgan; Queen Anne and King George II.

Sloane was referred to as "The Great Collector" by his contemporaries. He brought back at least 800 species of plants when he returned to England from Jamaica. But plants weren't the only things he collected. In his will he describes the contents of his collections, which had expanded to include over 200,000 diverse items as:

..my library of books, drawings, manuscripts, Prints, medals and coins; ancient and modern antiquities, seals and cameos, intaglios and precious stones; agates and jaspers; vessels of agate, jasper or crystal: mathematical instruments, and all other things.

These collections, of approximately two hundred thousand specimens, formed the foundation upon which the British Museum was built. Sloane was president of the Royal Society from 1727-1741.

When Sloane was created baronet in 1716, he was the first British surgeon to be given this honour.

The exact family connection of Sir Hans Sloane and Jack Fuller is a complex and controversial one. Sloane married Elizabeth Langley Rose, widow of Fulke Rose of Jamaica (Jack Fuller's great-grandfather), in 1695.

Some sources claim that Sir Hans Sloane's son William married Elizabeth Fuller (Jack Fuller's paternal aunt), the granddaughter of Elizabeth Rose and her first husband, effectively saying she married her uncle (mother's half-brother), which in itself seems improbable. Authoritative sources, including the Encyclopedia Britannica, state that Sloane had, "no son that survived beyond infancy". He did, however have two daughters; Elizabeth who married Lord Charles Cadogan and; Sarah who married George Stanley.

In actual fact, Elizabeth Fuller married William Sloane (1696-1797), son of William Sloane (born c. 1654) and grandson of Alexander Sloane (c.1620-1660). William Sloane Senior was Sir Hans Sloane's brother. So Elizabeth Fuller married the nephew of Sir Hans Sloane, not his son.

Another connection between the Fullers and the Sloanes was the marriage of Sarah Fuller, daughter of Stephen Fuller, Jack Fuller's paternal uncle, to Hans Sloane, (1739-1837) son of Elizabeth Fuller and William Sloane.

It is this Hans Sloane who encouraged the young John Fuller to enter politics and join him as Member of Parliament for Southampton.