A FORGOTTEN ESSEX GARDENER-BOTANIST. 163
Trinity House, by his wife, Rachel Roadley, and grandson of
another Gilbert Slater, a mariner of Ratcliffe, in the parish of
St. Dunstan's, Stepney, by Elizabeth Sutton, of Finchley,
Middlesex.
From his earliest years Gilbert Slater was passionately fond
of plants, and was all his life connected with East India commerce
and shipping.
King George III, Margaret, Duchess of Portland, Lords
Coventry and Tankerville, Sir Joseph Banks, and many others,
encouragers of botany and lovers of plants, were constantly
using their influence with the officers in the E.I. Co.'s service
to introduce both seeds and living plants from China. But
no private individual was more indefatigable or exerted himself
more strenuously in procuring from the Company the vegetable
beauties described in the writings of such 17th and 18th century
Far Eastern travellers as C. P. Thunberg, J. B. Du Halde and
E. Kaempfer than was Gilbert Slater. This gentleman became
extensively connected with the East India Co., being managing
owner of several of their ships, and, of course, was in constant
communication with the super-cargoes at Canton, while he
naturally possessed the greatest influence with the commanders
of his own ships.
Slater wrote and printed a small tract of lists of plants
and directions for collecting, with figures of the boxes and manner
of packing seeds and plants for the voyage home. These he
distributed among his officers and friends in the China trade,
and used every means in his power to accomplish an object,
which as an amusement was a principal pursuit of his
comparatively short life.
His country seat at Leyton had extensive gardens, where
every description of building for the preservation of exotic plants
was erected, and where forcing was carried on in all its branches
The houses contained a fine collection of stove, greenhouse
and conservatory plants, and the beds outside were filled with
the largest specimens of American plants that could be purchased,
while floriculture was conducted on a most extensive scale.
Every newly-imported plant soon found its way to Slater's
collection, and it was moreover enriched by several Chinese and
East Indian plants which he had the pleasure of introducing,