James Bolton

James Bolton
Iris and Summer Snowdrop by James Bolton. No likeness of James Bolton is known to exist. A published portrait once thought to be of him is actually of a London engraver of the same name.
Born	1735 West Field, Warley, West Riding of Yorkshire, England
Died	7 January 1799 Warley, Yorkshire, England
Nationality	English
Fields	Natural history
Known for	Contributions to the taxonomy of ferns and fungi
Author abbrev. (botany)	Bolton

James Bolton (1735 – 7 January 1799) was an English naturalist, botanist, mycologist, and illustrator.

James Bolton was born near Warley in the West Riding of Yorkshire in 1735, the son of William Bolton, a weaver. James initially followed in his father's trade, but later became a self-taught art teacher and finally a publican in his home village of Warley. He married Sarah Blackburn in 1768 and the couple had four children. He and his family lived all their lives in the Halifax area.

James and his older brother, Thomas Bolton (1722–1778), were keen naturalists, Thomas having a particular interest in entomology and ornithology.Edward Donovan named the dragonfly Cordulegaster boltonii after a specimen collected by Thomas Bolton. The two brothers contributed to the natural history section in The History and Antiquities of the Parish of Halifax in Yorkshire, published in 1775 by John Watson. James Bolton subsequently developed his interest further by writing or illustrating a number of important natural history books.

In 1785, Bolton provided the illustrations for Richard Relhan's Flora Cantabrigiensis. In the same year, he also published the first of his own works, part one of Filices Britannicae, an illustrated account of British ferns in two volumes. James Bolton not only drew the illustrations, but etched them himself. Moreover, he did not merely collate existing information on ferns, but undertook original research and field work. The book includes a description and illustration of a new fern species, now known as Woodsia alpina (Bolton) Gray. At this time, Bolton was commissioned by the wealthy Margaret Bentinck, Duchess of Portland (1715–1785) to illustrate plants in her museum collection.