John Bradbury (naturalist)

John Bradbury (1768–1823) was a Scottish botanist noted for his travels in the United States Midwest and West in the early 19th Century and his eyewitness account of the New Madrid earthquake.

Bradbury was born near Stalybridge in Lancashire and worked in a cotton mil. He was elected a Fellow of the Linnean Society in 1792.

While living in Manchester he petitioned the trustees of the Liverpool Botanic Garden (now called Wavertree Botanic Gardens) to fund a visit to the United States of America to collect plants (with a provision that he would work on improving the supply of cotton from America). In the United States he met with Thomas Jefferson during 1809, who recommended that he should base his investigations in St. Louis, Missouri rather than New Orleans, Louisiana.

While in St. Louis, Bradbury explored the area and sent seeds back to Liverpool. In 1811 he and naturalist Thomas Nuttall joined Wilson Price Hunt and other members of the Pacific Fur Company (PFC) bound to travel the Missouri River. This group is sometimes referred to as the Astorian Expedition, named after the financier of the venture, John Jacob Astor. The main group of Astorians spent the previous winter on Nodaway Island, at the mouth of Nodaway River in Andrew County, Missouri, just north of St. Joseph. After reaching their camp, Bradbury and the expedition departed on April 21, 1811.

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