Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fielding, Henry Borron
FIELDING, HENRY BORRON (d. 1851), botanist, was the fifth child and only son of Henry Fielding of Myerscough House, near Garstang, Lancashire. Being of a delicate constitution he was shut out from adopting a profession, but devoted himself to the study of plants and the formation of a rich herbarium, which his ample means permitted. In 1836 he bought the herbarium of Dr. Steudel, and the next year the Prescott collection, consisting of twenty-eight thousand plants. In 1842, the dampness of his house at Bolton-in-Furness proving injurious, he removed to a more airy house at Lancaster, where he died 21 Nov. 1851 of a sudden attack of inflammation of the lungs. He bequeathed the whole of his herbarium, with such of his books as were wanting in the Garden Library, to the university of Oxford. He was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1838, but his retiring disposition prevented him from taking a prominent part in scientific pursuits, save that in 1844 he published a volume, ‘Sertum Plantarum,’ with figures and descriptions of seventy-five new or rare plants. The figures were drawn by Mrs. Fielding, and the descriptions were written by Dr. George Gardner, who at one time had charge of the Fielding herbarium.
[Proc. Linn. Soc. ii. 188; C. Daubeny's Address to the … University, 20 May 1853, Oxford (1853). The character and extent of the herbarium are here given.]