John Tyerman (Curator 1860 – 1871)

Tyerman was the next Kewite to become the Curator; he was also a passionate Fern collector. In his time at Liverpool, he built up a good working relationship with Dr Joseph Dalton Hooker, the Director of Kew Gardens.

Under Tyerman’s management the reputation of the Gardens was greatly increased and the collection of plants both under glass and in the open where scientifically arranged, according to De-Candolle's system, which Birschel had initiated. Popular taste was gratified by having beautiful flowers in the parterres.

In 1862 funding of the gardens was removed from the Libraries Committee to the Finance Committee. In 1863 the Corporation dropped the penny rate and expected all costs to come from surplus income, which effectively removed any control by budget. They justified the costs as being “for the public benefit of the inhabitants and improvement of the borough.” 

Tyerman helped design the spectacular Conservatory that was built in 1870 and which lasted until 1940. He resigned when the Council refused to fund a proper restoration of the greenhouses, though there is some mention of ill-health as well.

Plants continued to be contributed by many local people and specimens were also received from Antwerp, Zurich, Berlin and St. Petersburg. 600 varieties of ferns were sent by three significant growers. As in the days of the Shepherds, Tyerman was also sending plants out to the rest of the world, particularly Bombay. 

He was a passionate Fern collector, which he also propagated, so coming to Liverpool with its global reputation for germinating these plants must have been a dream come true? He was said to have around 600 different species and cultivars by the end of his time at Liverpool. He was also a Conchologist, with a particular focus on the study of mollusc shells.

In his time at Liverpool, he obviously thought it worthwhile to build up a good relationship with Dr Joseph Dalton Hooker, the Director of Kew Gardens as letters in their archives testify:

One of the lasting monuments to his time in charge was the Palm House “with its fine wings” that he designed with Mr Robson, the borough architect, in 1870.

In March 1871 the surveyor, Mr Robson, was asked to investigate the rebuilding of the plant houses and reported: “that the plant houses at the Botanic Gardens have been in existence for upwards of half a century and are now completely decayed, that it is impossible to repair them any longer. The cost of new ones of the same size and construction according to the plan submitted would be £2,500, but the curator requires houses both higher and wider and of an improved construction, the cost of which will be £5,000.”

The Cornishman of December 1889 reported that John Simpson Tyerman had died at Penlee, Tregonee, on November 24th, and that he was “at one time the Curator of the Liverpool Botanic Garden. He had special knowledge of herbaceous plants and was a man of varied attainments and capable of turning his attention successfully to very varied pursuits.” He is buried at Cuby with Tregony, Cornwall.

His Shell collecting was a personal interest, and the collection was built up by purchases from dealers, augmented by exchanges with other collectors, especially the German Malacozoological Society exchange club and he occasionally exchanged shells with the Liverpool Museum. 

A Silver Rabbit’s Foot fern (Humata tyermanii , now Davallia tyermanii) that he received from Western Africa, was named after him and also a seashell Marginella tyermani. Altogether Tyerman was an enterprising man - he enlisted the aid of the many sea captains then sailing out of Liverpool to the “Coast” (i.e. the West coast of Africa) - we learn that Tyerman successfully kept a West-African Lungfish (Protopterus annectens) in a heated tank in one of the Botanic Garden’s hothouses. In a letter in December 1868 to T.J. Moore, the curator of the free public museum in Liverpool, from the trader R.B.N. Walker who worked for 20 years in what is now known as Gabon, is the statement that “he has not forgotten Mr Tyerman and will get him some shells”. A few of the Gabon shells sent for Tyerman are still in the collection and are among the earliest collected there.

Whether he retained his interest in shell collecting after his move to Cornwall is unknown and the whereabouts of his Shell collection between his departure to Cornwall and its acquisition by Edward Howell is likewise unknown, nor has it been ascertained where or from whom Howell acquired the collection. However, Howell wrote on 27th April 1908 to Dr Hoyle then director of the Manchester Museum asking for his opinion on the Tyerman collection. Hoyle replied that he had asked his assistant, Robert Standen, an authority upon shells worldwide to review it. His rather brief report concluded: “the best collection of choice specimens that Mr Standen has seen for upwards of 20 years” At this time the collection was housed in Hulme Hall, Port Sunlight as Lever's property and was destined for his museum. Lever's plans for a museum did not come to fruition, probably because of the outbreak of the First World War. Material gathered for the museum included many ethnographic specimens, but the Tyerman shells form the sole zoological collection as far as is known. Tyerman 's collection has not survived intact, but it contains some fine shells and is especially strong in tropical land snails. Standen's report shows that the collection had been amassed mainly for its aesthetic interest and would therefore have appealed to Lever's artistic sense. This collection is now visible in the Lady Lever Art Gallery.