Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Salisbury, William (d.1823)
SALISBURY, WILLIAM (d. 1823), botanical nurseryman, has been erroneously described as a brother of Richard Anthony Salisbury [q. v.] He states that from 1791 he was employed by the board of agriculture in conducting experiments on the growth of plants (Preface to his Botanist's Companion, vol. ii.); he may have been previously engaged as a nurseryman. In 1797 he was gardener to J. Symmons, F.R.S., at Paddington House, Paddington, and in the same year entered into partnership with William Curtis [q. v.] at his garden at Queen's Elm, Brompton. After Curtis's death in 1799 he removed the garden to Cadogan Place, Sloane Street, where he held botanical classes. He died in 1823. Salisbury published: 1. ‘Hortus Paddingtonensis, a Catalogue of the Plants in the Garden of J. Symmons, esq., Paddington House,’ London, 1797, 8vo. 2. ‘Hortus Siccus Gramineus,’ 1816, a collection of actual specimens. 3. ‘A General Catalogue of Trees, Shrubs, Flowers, etc., cultivated in England,’ n.d. 4. ‘The Botanist's Companion,’ London, 2 vols., 1816, with a plan of the Sloane Street garden. 5. ‘Hints to Proprietors of Orchards [with] the Natural History of American Blight,’ London, 1816, 12mo, with two copperplates of insects by F. Eves. 6. ‘The Cottager's Companion, or a Complete System of Cottage Horticulture,’ London, 1817, 12mo; 2nd edit. 1822.
[Trimen and Dyer's Flora of Middlesex, p. 395; Gent. Mag. 1815, ii. 103; Britten and Boulger's Biogr. Index of British Botanists.]