Reeve, John

Summary

Father: Jonathan Reeves
Mother: Elizabeth Stone

Birth: 1 May 1774, West Ham, Essex
Birth Source: Baptism, Census

Death: 22 Mar 1856
Death Source: Dictionary of National Biography & Obituary

Spouse1:

Narrative

Children of John Reeves:

1. Sarah Reeves, b. c1818

From the West Ham, Essex Parish Register:

• (1774 June 5) John Reeves s of Jonathan & Eliz was born the first day of May

The Dictionary of National Biography includes the following concerning John:

REEVES, JOHN (1774-1856), naturalist, youngest son of the Rev. Jonathan Reeves of West Ham, Essex, was born on 1 May 1774. Left an orphan at an early age, he was educated at Christ's Hospital and afterwards entered the counting-house of a teabroker, where he gained so thorough a knowledge of teas as to recommend him, in 1808, to the office of inspector of tea in England, in the service of the East India Company. In 1812 he proceeded to China, as assistant, and subsequently became chief inspector of tea in the company's establishment at Canton. Here he devoted his leisure to investigating the resources of the country and to the pursuit of various branches of science. He procured specimens of natural products, especially such as promised to be of use or likely to serve as ornaments, and transmitted them to England. In this way he contributed very largely to the museums and gardens of this country, besides furnishing material for study to various learned societies, especially the Horticultural Society. The Wistaria sinensis was thus introduced into this country. The drawings by native artists of fish, supplemented by specimens sent by him, furnished the groundwork of Sir John Richardson's 'Report on the Ichthyology of the Seas of China and Japan' (Brit. Assoc. Rep. 1845). A great number of these and other drawings, by. native artists, are now preserved in the natural history department of the British Museum.
Reeves became a fellow of the Royal and Linnean societies in 1817. His sole literary production appears to have been 'An Account of some of the Articles of the Materia Medica employed by the Chinese which was published in the 'Transactions of the Medical Botanical Society,' 1828.
Reeves returned to England in 1831, and resided at Clapham, where he died on 22 March 1856.
[Proc. Linn. Soc. 1855-6, pp, xliii-xlv; Roy. Soc. Cat.]
B. B. W.

In 1851, John was living in Clapham, Surrey, age 76, listed as a Fund Holder born in Westham, Essex. With him are daughter Sarah (age 33, born in Whitechapel), sister Elizabeth (age 88, born in Whitechapel), grandson John Reeves (age 7, born in Clapham, along with a governess and several servants.

The Morning Post (London, Greater London), 25 Mar 1856
REEVES. - On the 22d inst., at his residence, Clapham, in the eighty-second year of his age, John Reeves, Esq., F. R. S., L. S., and Z. S., formerly in the service of the H.E.I. Company in China.

Research Notes

Sources

Baptism:    West Ham, All Saints, Essex Parish Register 1746-1799, D/P 256/1/3

1851 Census:  HO107, Piece 1576, Folio 17, Page 26, Schedule 81

Stephen, Sir Leslie, ed. Dictionary of National Biography, 1921–1922. London, England: Oxford University Press, 1921–1922. Vol. 16, p859
The Morning Post (London, Greater London), 25 Mar 1856