creation of the first garden

 The medical doctors Bostock and Rutter were the chief promoters, as they had been for the Athenaeum. Both men were keen plant collectors, their contributions to botanical science included the discovery of a new species of the herb Centaury; they were also experts in the prevailing Linnaean system of classification and thus of scientific botany. But they were far from alone, for there was a strong tradition of botany and collecting in the wider NW region. ‘A Natural History of Lancashire, Cheshire and the Peak in Derbyshire’, for example, being published by the Fylde naturalist Charles Leigh as early as 1700, and they were able to bring in others with similar passions, including William Roscoe, and the Rev. William Shepherd. 

They also recruited William Bullock the founder of the ‘Museum of Natural Curiosities’ at 24 Lord Street, Liverpool. These collections were famous for their curiosities, but they also held several thousand plant specimens, curated for them by another keen amateur botanist, Thomas Nuttall, who later hunted for new plants in the USA. 

Preliminary discussions on the creation of the garden took place during 1800; towards the end of the year a prospectus was issued with a scheme to encourage subscribers to purchase shares in an 'intended botanic garden' in the heart of Liverpool. The immediate justification for the scheme, as set out in the prospectus, was:

· The importance of the ‘Study of Nature ', now elevated above even the study of the ‘Fine Arts';

· To assist the Progress of this Science’ students needed to be supplied with 'Actual and Living specimens'; 

· While private collections of plants and commercial nurseries, especially the large concerns near London, were possible sources for such study, a public institution established locally and dedicated to botanical science was seen as a far superior option.

· The secondary attraction consisted of the benefits lo be derived from the creation of a 'pleasure garden near town' and 

· The opportunities for subscribers to have excess plants and seeds 'divided among them' for use in their own gardens. 

 The important aspects are as follows:

· To pay Twelve guineas (£1,000 in 2022 prices) to become a proprietor and fund the Garden creation, 

· With a further Two guineas (£170 in 2022 prices) annually towards its continued support.

· Annual subscription shall be paid in advance; the first subscription shall become due on the first of May, 1801

· Six Trustees will be responsible for the Garden, and Buildings erected upon it 

· Annual meeting of proprietors held on first Monday in May 

· The committee shall meet at least once every month.

· The day-to-day direction of the garden and conservatories will be under the control of the Four Visitors whose duties will include:

o no alteration shall take place in the garden and plants without their concurrence or direction 

o It is expected that each of the visitors shall visit the garden at least once during every week; a visitors’ book shall be kept, in which they may note down the day of their attendance, and any circumstances respecting management of the garden which may appear to them to require attention.

o The visitors shall have the power of disposing of the cuttings, seeds, or duplicates of the plants, to the proprietors only, upon such conditions as they may judge proper, and when the same can be done without injury to the institution. 

Rules for accessing the Garden were as follows:

· No gentleman residing in Liverpool, or within eight miles of it, and not being a proprietor, can at any time have access to the garden. 

· Ladies may at any time be introduced into the garden in the company of a proprietor.

· Strangers may be introduced into the Garden by proprietor, or may have access to it by a written order from a proprietor; but they will be expected to enter their names and places of abode in a book kept for that purpose. 

· The families of proprietors, except for children under ten, and sons above the age of twenty-one, may have access to the garden. 

In May 1801 the Liverpool Botanic Garden (LBG) proprietors held their first AGM, with Richard Walker as President. This meeting agreed that the committee should petition Liverpool Council for some land, which they did on 3rd June 1801.

The Corporation offered the ad hoc committee a 21-year renewable lease on a 10-acre plot near Mount Pleasant, situated between Crabtree Lane (now Falkner St) and Brownlow Hill Lane, in an area once known as Moss Lake Fields or Esmedune Moss. Moss Lake Fields was where a large sheet of water was dammed up, which could be controlled by means of floodgates; it was used for cleansing the old “Pool” of detritus.

The Corporation had already made road plans for this area in June 1801, where the future ground for the Botanic Garden can be see, originally owned by Mr Howard.

The Committee decided to use half of this land for the garden and retain the rest to sell on later. Such was the rapid advance in the value of property in this area of Liverpool, the sale of the portion which was not required nearly repaid the purchase of the whole.

When the Liverpool streets eventually arrived at the Garden’s location (in the late 1820’s) it was bounded by new streets aptly named Garden Place, Laurel Street, Olive Street and Myrtle Street. Myrtle Street is the continuation of Hardman Street nowadays. The others have disappeared beneath the academic Halls of Residence.

John Shepherd, the first curator of Liverpool Botanic Garden, was christened at Gosforth, Cumberland on 8 September 1765, although he could have been born a year earlier, as cited in the literature. 

Little is known of John Shepherd’s earlier life, before he was appointed curator of the Liverpool Botanic Garden. Even Hall (1838), who knew Henry Shepherd and probably also John, remarked that little was known about John Shepherd’s early life or where he was trained as a gardener. 

It has been suggested that John Shepherd was head gardener to John Leigh Philips (1761 - 1841) an “Antiquarian” of Manchester but proof of this has not been found. 

John Shepherd proved an inspirational choice. J.E. Smith is quoted as calling him “the properest man I ever saw for the purpose”.

Contacts throughout the world were exploited by Shepherd and his colleagues to acquire seeds, plants, specimens, and botanical books.

His network of contacts seems to have been global. As an example, a Westmorland paper in 1824 reports that Mr Shepherd in the previous spring had provided Mr John Phillips with a new species of kidney potato from Canada, which had performed remarkably well and would go into general use, if this year went just as well.

Shepherd’s fame spread widely over the North West. In July 1824 the Preston Horticultural Society asked Dr (sic) Shepherd to judge their Green House, Hot House and Hardy Plants at their annual Show. He was described as ‘a gentleman in every way qualified to decide on the merits of the plants.’

St Petersburg Botanic Garden was being re-developed in the early 1820’s and in “August 1823, F. Falderman, recommended as head gardener by the Horticultural Society of London, brought with him a large collection, of plants partly purchased, partly obtained as gifts from Kew, Chiswick, Chelsea, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Liverpool”. The Director, Dr. Fischer arrived in May 1824, on “a journey to visit the most celebrated gardens. Fischer universally received proofs of good will from the managers, to whom our new establishment became indebted for most valuable additions. The purchases in England amounted to about 40,000 Rs., or £1,600, and the presents received ought to be valued at even more than that sum.”

Consequently, in March 1826, John Shepherd received a very valuable diamond ring as a present from the Emperor of Russia for these kindnesses and obligations.

To show the high esteem in which Mr Shepherd was held, the Horticultural Society presented him with a silver medal. The report of 1827 states: ‘No public garden in the United Kingdom is in a higher state of cultivation and in no similar Institution are stove and greenhouse plants in a more healthy and vigorous state. The anxious attention of Mr Shepherd continues to maintain the gardens in the same excellent order.’

 The first structures look to have been the wall around the site, the two Lodges at the entrance and a small conservatory. At the May 1802 AGM it was recorded that one of the Proprietors, James Gill, had given stone from his premises near Brownlow Hill, for building the walls of the garden.

The 1808 “Catalogue of the Plants in the Botanical Gardens at Liverpool” refers to bark pits in this small conservatory.

The 1808 map shows the plan view of the two storey Lodges at the entrance to the Garden. The left-hand Lodge looks to have more rooms than the right, so was probably where John Shepherd, the Curator, lived. The other one eventually housed the Library and Herbarium. We will never know how this was organised, but I would guess that the library was on the ground floor, giving easy access for the Proprietors, with the Herbarium protected upstairs.

The initial conservatory was added to in January 1804 as Roscoe says that “two new houses have been completed and filled with plants, with five more to be finished”. Shepherd is quoted as saying that when these are complete it shall challenge "all the kingdom in point both of elegance & convenience". This set of five must be the range of glasshouses of “two hundred and forty feet in length (24ft high in the central section), incorporating five distinct temperature zones, so that they are adapted to the preservation of plants from every part of the world”. 

The closest building to the entrance was the Stove, which seems to have four rooms. It was in 1720 that botanist Henry Telende (gardener to Sir Matthew Decker of Surrey) tried using fresh tanner’s bark (oak bark) for warming his hothouses. Potted plants were sunk into the bark and if the bark was regularly stirred and replenished, they found it would generate a steady basal heat and moist atmosphere of 75-85 °F for as long as a year. This technique enabled most tender exotic trees and plants to be grown in England, in what were now called Stoves or Stove houses. 

A Pond was created to grow the aquatic plants, sufficient to contain at least one specimen of every rare and tender aquatic. Also “a large compartment, with small frames, and wooden covers, hath lately been appropriated for the preservation of such herbaceous plants as are too tender to endure the severity of our winter”.

In May 1819 Roscoe says that they are now setting up a Hothouse entirely for 'Scitamineae' [Gingers], which will be supplied with plants by Dr William Carey of Serampore (India), and Nathaniel Wallich of Calcutta. By August 1820 Sir James Smith says that the botanic garden was in "rich & fine order" with an impressive collection of 'Scitamineae' and exotic ferns.

 As with the Athenaeum, the creation of the Liverpool Garden served as a model at home and abroad, with Hull and Philadelphia, for example, modelling their own botanic gardens on that in Liverpool. Although the garden remained the preserve of its shareholders, it also injected a new dimension into the town's cultural activities. An important series of lectures on botany, given in 1803 by Sir James Smith, for example, were 'numerously and brilliantly attended,' Smith reported, and seemed 'to stir up a great taste and ardour for botany'. Three years later the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Clarence were guests at a civic visit to the gardens, a considerable coup for1he committee. curated to showcase the beauty and complexity of the plant kingdom, from towering trees to delicate wildflowers.