Sloane manuscripts
| Sir Hans Sloane, Bt, PRS | |
|---|---|
Sir Hans Sloane
|
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| Born |
16 April 1660 Killyleagh, County Down, Ireland |
| Died | 11 January 1753 (aged 92) Chelsea, London, Great Britain |
| Resting place | Chelsea Old Church |
| Nationality | British |
| Known for | Physician Philanthropist Entrepreneur Investor Chelsea Physic Garden British Museum President of the Royal Society Sloane Square Sloane's drinking chocolate |
| Notable awards | Fellow of the Royal Society (1685) |
| Spouse | Elisabeth Sloane (née Langley) |
Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet, PRS (16 April 1660 – 11 January 1753) was an Anglo-Irish physician, naturalist and collector noted for bequeathing his collection to the British nation, thus providing the foundation of the British Museum. His name was later used for streets and places such as Hans Place, Hans Crescent and Sloane Square in London, and also to Sir Hans Sloane Square in his birthplace in Ireland, Killyleagh.
Sloane was born on 16 April 1660 at Killyleagh in County Down, Ireland. He was the seventh son of Alexander Sloane (died 1666), agent for James Hamilton, second Viscount Claneboye and later first Earl of Clanbrassil. Sloane's family had migrated from Ayrshire in Scotland, but settled in the north of Ireland under James I. His father died when he was six years old.
As a youth, Sloane collected objects of natural history and other curiosities. This led him to the study of medicine, which he went to London, where he studied botany, materia medica, surgery and pharmacy. His collecting habits made him useful to John Ray and Robert Boyle. After four years in London he travelled through France, spending some time at Paris and Montpellier, and stayed long enough at the University of Orange-Nassau to take his MD degree there in 1683. He returned to London with a considerable collection of plants and other curiosities, of which the former were sent to Ray and utilised by him for his History of Plants.
Sloane was elected to the Royal Society in 1685. At the same time, he attracted the notice of Thomas Sydenham, who gave him valuable introductions to practice. In 1687, he became a fellow of the College of Physicians, and the same year went to Jamaica aboard HMS Assistance as physician in the suite of the new Governor of Jamaica, the second Duke of Albemarle. Jamaica was fast emerging as a source of immense profit to British merchants based on the cultivation of sugar and other crops by the forced labor of imported African slaves.
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