Above
Vice-Admiral William Bligh (1754–1817),
unpopular and overbearing commander
of HMS Bounty whose crew led a mutiny
against him in 1789.
Below
Sir Joseph Banks (1743–1820)
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The man believed to have been the first
Freemason to have set foot in Australia and
who helped arrange the ill-fated expedition
of Captain William Bligh which led to the
famous mutiny on the Bounty, has had a
Lincolnshire Lodge named after him.
Sir Joseph Banks Daylight Lodge No.
9828, which meets at Horncastle, is named
after a remarkable man with his family roots
in Lincolnshire, who became a famous
explorer and naturalist, sailing in 1768 with
Captain James Cook on the famous
Endeavour, exploring the uncharted south
Pacific, circumnavigating the globe and
visiting South America, Tahiti, New
Zealand, Australia and Java.
Banks was born at Westminster on 13
February 1743, a wealthy young squire of
Revesby in Lincolnshire, and his link with
Horncastle is that he helped set up a local
hospital in the town. He was also an active
Mason in the Province.
In Gould’s History of Freemasonry, Banks is
mentioned as being a member of Old Horne
Lodge No. 4 – now Royal Somerset House
and Inverness Lodge No. 4, a time
immemorial Lodge.
Although the date of his initiation cannot
be verified, it has been confirmed that it was
prior to 1769. He was a member of Witham
Lodge No. 297, which today is the oldest
Lodge in Lincolnshire, and remained on its
register until his death on 19 June 1820.
It is fitting, therefore, that Witham Lodge
should have been the sponsor of the new
Lodge, which is actively seeking to link up
with Sir Joseph Banks Lodge No. 300 in New
South Wales, consecrated in September
1915, and which meets in Banks Town –
another honour conferred on him.
His passion for botany began at school,
and from 1760 to 1763 he studied at Christ
Church, Oxford, inheriting a considerable
fortune from his father at this time. In 1766
he travelled to Newfoundland and Labrador,
collecting plants and other specimens. He
became a member of the Royal Society in the
same year, later becoming its longest-serving
President in its 347-year history – holding the
office consecutively for 42 years.
He was successful in obtaining a place on
what was to become Cook’s first great
voyage of discovery between 1768 and 1771,
during which time the Endeavour proceeded
up the east coast of Australia and through the
Torres Strait, charting the area in the process.
Banks was interested in plants that could
be used for practical purposes and that could
be introduced commercially into other
countries. On his return from the Cook
expedition, he brought with him an enormous
number of specimens and his scientific
account of that voyage and its discoveries
aroused considerable interest across Europe.
It was Banks who proposed that William
Bligh should command two voyages for the
transportation of bread fruit and plants –
including the voyage of the Bounty – which
led to the mutiny in April 1789 involving 12
crew members led by Christian Fletcher.
Banks became an influential figure
in New South Wales, founded in 1788
with the arrival of the first fleet, choosing
the governors. He was to recommend Bligh
for the governorship, which ended in the
latter’s deposition from the post following
what became known as the Rum Rebellion
in 1808.
Banks’s eminence as a leading botanist
was honoured by having the genus banksias,
comprising about 75 species in the protea
family to be found in Australia, named after
him. A distinguished scholar, he promoted
the Linnaeus system of Latin classification of
botanical specimens.
In 1793 his name was given to a group of
volcanic islands near Vanuatu in the Pacific,
which were explored and named after him by
Captain Bligh in gratitude for the earlier help
he had given him.
The inventor Robert Stevenson also
honoured Banks by naming a schooner after
him which accommodated the artificers
during the building of the Bellrock
lighthouse in the Firth of Forth off Scotland’s
east coast, when Banks was vice-president of
the Board of Trade during the passage of the
Bill for the lighthouse through parliament.
He was further honoured when the city of
Lincoln provided a tropical plant house
themed with plants reminiscent of his
voyages.
He was knighted in 1781, was appointed
to the Order of the Bath in 1795 and became
a Privy Counsellor in 1797. George III
appointed Banks as honorary director to the
Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew,
Banks promoted the careers of many
scientists, sending many of them abroad to
find new plants and extend the collection at
Kew Gardens. A truly remarkable man, it is
fitting that he should be remembered by
having a Lodge named after him in his
home county.
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