| Activity | MA Glasgow 1779. MD Edinburgh 1783. FRS 1806. ALS 1788. FLS 1816. Joined East India Company as medical officer, 1784, and served as ship's surgeon for ten years. Served in the Bengal Medical Service as Assistant Surgeon, 1794-1807, and Surgeon, 1807-1815. Accompanied Captain Michael Symes on Britain's first political mission to Ava, Burma, and collected a sizeable Burmese herbarium, 1795. Surveyed the newly conquered kingdom of Mysore, 1800. Accompanied British embassy to Katmandu, Nepal, and collected a Nepalese herbarium, 1802. Superintendent of Institution for Promoting Natural History of India, 1803. Returned to London, 1805-1807. Returned to India and surveyed Bengal, 1807-1815. Superintendent of Calcutta Botanic Garden, 1814-1815. Long dispute with East India Company following confiscation of various of his natural history drawings and collections. Changed his name to Hamilton in 1818 to fulfill a legacy.
Plants at Natural History Museum, Kew, and Edinburgh. Manuscripts and drawings of Burmese plants at Natural History Museum. Drawings at India Office Library, British Library. Manuscripts, Nepalese drawings and letters at Linnean Society. Letters at Scottish Record Office. |