William Cattley

{{Short description|British merchant and horticulturist}}

{{Infobox person

| name = William Cattley

| birth_date = 1788

| birth_place = Garlickhythe, London

| death_date = 8 August 1835

| death_place = London Borough of Barnet

| nationality = British

| occupation = merchant
horticulturist

| relatives = John Prescott (cousin)

}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

William Cattley (1788 – 8 August 1835) was a British merchant and horticulturist. He was significantly involved with the trade between Britain and Russia, including the importation of grain (generically called "corn") to England. He also collected, and had others collect on his behalf, plants from locations throughout the world.{{Cite book|last=Veitch |first=James|year=1887|chapter=Orchid Amateurs of the Past|title=A Manual of Orchidaceous Plants Cultivated Under Glass in Great Britain, Volume 1|publisher=Veitch & Sons|location=Chelsea, London|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=RUsaAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA128 128]|oclc=490946137|display-authors=etal}} He was particularly fond of orchids.{{harvnb|Veitch|1887|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=RUsaAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA146 146]}}{{Cite journal|author=Lankester Botanical Garden|year=2010|title=Biographies|journal=Lankesteriana|volume=10|issue=2/3|pages=183–206, page 186|url=http://lankesteriana.org/lankesteriana/LANKESTERIANA%2010(2-3)/Lankesteriana%2010(2-3)%20Part%2010%20-%20Biographies.pdf|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140523220801/http://lankesteriana.org/lankesteriana/LANKESTERIANA%2010(2-3)/Lankesteriana%2010(2-3)%20Part%2010%20-%20Biographies.pdf|archivedate=23 May 2014|url-status=live}}

Cattley was born in Garlickhythe ('garlic dock'), City of London, to a large merchant family. Many of Cattley's factors were members of his extended family, for example his cousin John Prescott headed up the firm's offices in St. Petersburg from which he ran the Russian side of the trade. Prescott was an enthusiastic collector of plants, and forwarded large numbers back to England for Cattley. In 1818 Cattley was unpacking a shipment that he had received from Brazil. Among the various materials he found un-preposessing tendrils which might be an orchid, so he nurtured it back to health and it turned out to be the beautiful orchid, which John Lindley named in Cattley's honour as Cattleya labiata (the "corsage orchid").{{Cite book|last=Holway |first=Tatiana|year=2013|title=The Flower of Empire: An Amazonian Water Lily, The Quest to Make it Bloom, and the World it Created|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford, England|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ho1oAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA85 85]|isbn=978-0-19-537389-9}}{{Cite web|author=Bechelli, Jeremy|title=About Cattleyas…|publisher=Genesee Region Orchid Society|url=http://www.geneseeorchid.org/geneseeorchid/orchids-101-presentations?start=1|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140524045537/http://www.geneseeorchid.org/geneseeorchid/orchids-101-presentations?start=1|archivedate=24 May 2014|url-status=live}} The year previously William Swainson had discovered the orchid in the wild in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco and dispatched a specimen along with other plants to Cattley via the Glasgow Botanic Gardens.{{Cite web|author=Milligan, Brian|year=2005|title=Fact or Fiction|publisher=Orchid Societies Council of Victoria|url=http://www.oscov.asn.au/articles6/factorfiction.html|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140524044939/http://www.oscov.asn.au/articles6/factorfiction.html|archivedate=24 May 2014|url-status=live}}

To help with his collection Cattley had hired John Lindley to draw, describe and catalog the novel plants in his garden at Barnet. Cattley paid for the publication of Lindley's monograph on digitalis, Digitalium Monographia, and later for Lindley’s Collectanea Botanica (1821) a catalogue of Cattley’s plant collection.{{Cite book|author=Stearn, William Thomas |year=1999|chapter=The life, times and achievements of John Lindley (1799-1865)|editor=Stearn, William Thomas |title=John Lindley, 1799-1865 : gardener, botanist and pioneer orchidologist|publisher=Antique Collectors' Club, in association with the Royal Horticultural Society|location=Woodbridge, Suffolk, England|pages=15–72, pages 19 & 20|isbn=978-1-85149-296-1}} However, after 1821 due to financial reverses, Cattley was no longer able to pay Lindley a salary.{{harvnb|Holway|2013|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ho1oAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA86 86]}}

William Cattley died at his home, "Cattley Close", Wood Street, in Barnet on 8 August 1835.{{Cite journal|year=1835|title=Deaths: London and its vicinity|journal=The Gentleman's Magazine|volume=158|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=TqLPAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA331 331]}} A blue plaque has been placed on the house which says: William Cattley, Botanist, 1788-1835, lived in this house.{{Cite web|title=Community Focus Trail: Wood Street (Chipping Barnet)|publisher=Culture 24|url=http://www.culture24.org.uk/science-and-nature/animals/tra26850|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140524045024/http://www.culture24.org.uk/science-and-nature/animals/tra26850|archivedate=24 May 2014|url-status=live}}

The guava species Psidium cattleyanum Afzel. ex Sabine is named after him