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Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet, FRS (16 April 1660 – 11 January 1753) was an Irish physician, naturalist, and collector. He had a collection of 71,000 items which he bequeathed to the British nation, thus providing the foundation of the British Museum, the British Library, and the Natural History Museum, London.[2][3]

Key Information

Elected to the Royal Society at the age of 24,[4] Sloane travelled to the Caribbean in 1687 and documented his travels and findings with extensive publications years later. Sloane was a renowned medical doctor among the aristocracy, and was elected to the Royal College of Physicians at age 27.[5] Though he is credited with the invention of chocolate milk, it is more likely that he learned the practice of adding milk to drinking chocolate while living and working in Jamaica.[6] Streets and places were later named after him, including Hans Place, Hans Crescent, and Sloane Square in and around Chelsea, London—the area of his final residence—and also Sir Hans Sloane Square in Killyleagh, his birthplace in Ulster.[7][8][9][10][11][12][13]

Sloane's London estate was bequeathed to his daughter, Elizabeth, who was married to the 2nd Baron Cadogan, in which family the estate remains.

Early life and family

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Sloane was born into a family of partial Ulster-Scots descent on 16 April 1660 at Killyleagh, a village on the south-western shores of Strangford Lough in County Down in Ulster, the northern province in Ireland. He was the seventh and last child of Alexander Sloane, who died when Hans was six years old. Alexander Sloane was a collector general of taxes for County Down and an agent for the Earl of Clanbrassil. His brother, James Sloane, was a Member of the Irish Parliament. It is said that Sarah Hicks (Hans's mother) was an Englishwoman who moved to Killyleagh as Anne Carey's companion when Anne married Lord Clanbrassil. Sloane's paternal family were Ulster-Scots, having migrated from Ayrshire in the south-west of Scotland; they settled in east Ulster during the Plantation of Antrim and Down, which was slightly separate from the wider Plantation of Ulster, under King James VI and I. The Sloane children, including Hans, were taken up by the Hamilton (or Clanbrassil) family and had much of their early tuition within the Killyleagh Castle library. Out of Alexander's sons, only three reached adulthood: Hans, William, and James. The graveyards of Henry and John Sloane can be found in Killyleagh's churchyard; both brothers died in their childhood. The eldest brother James was elected a Member of Parliament for Roscommon and Killyleagh in 1692. John Sloane later became an MP of Thetford and a barrister of the Inner Temple, spending most of his time in London.

Like many other Scots "Planters" in Ulster during the seventeenth-century, the Sloane name was almost certainly of Gaelic origin, Sloane probably being an anglicisation of Ó Sluagháin.[14][15][16]

As a youth, Sloane collected objects of natural history and other curiosities. This led him to the study of medicine, which he did in London, where he studied botany, materia medica, surgery and pharmacy. His collecting habits made him useful to John Ray and Robert Boyle. After four years in London he travelled through France, spending some time at Paris and Montpellier, and stayed long enough at the University of Orange-Nassau[1] to take his MD degree there in 1683; he was hired as an assistant to prominent physician Thomas Sydenham who gave the young man valuable introductions to practice.[2] He returned to London with a considerable collection of plants and other curiosities, of which the former were sent to Ray and utilised by him for his History of Plants.[17]

Voyage to the Caribbean and the creation of chocolate milk

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Title page, Sloane's Voyage to Jamaica, 1725

Sloane was elected to the Royal Society in 1685.[18] In 1687, he became a fellow of the College of Physicians, and the same year went to Jamaica aboard HMS Assistance as personal physician to the new Governor of Jamaica, the 2nd Duke of Albemarle.[18] Albemarle died in Jamaica the next year, 1688, so Sloane's visit lasted only fifteen months.[17]

During his time in the Caribbean, Sloane visited several islands and collected more than 1,000 plant specimens as well as large supplies of cacao and Peruvian bark from which he later extracted quinine to treat eye ailments. Sloane noted about 800 new species of plants, which he catalogued in Latin in his Catalogus Plantarum Quae in Insula Jamaica Sponte Proveniunt (Catalogue of Jamaican Plants), published in 1696. His first writings about his trip appeared in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, in which Sloane described Jamaican plants such as the Pepper Tree and the coffee-shrub, alongside accounts of the earthquakes that struck Lima in 1687 and Jamaica in 1687/1688 and 1692. In Sloane's work, Natural History of Jamaica, he describes for the Queen of England the Black ethnomusic of Jamaica. With the help of a local musician, he included the musical score and words of festival songs.[19]

  • A Voyage to the Islands Madera, Barbados, Nieves, S. Christophers and Jamaica. Vol. 1. Sloane. 1707.
  • A Voyage to the Islands Madera, Barbados, Nieves, St Christophers and Jamaica. Vol. 2. Sloane. 1725.

Sloane married Elizabeth Langley Rose, the widow of Fulke Rose of Jamaica, and daughter of Alderman John Langley, a wealthy heiress of sugar plantations in Jamaica worked by slaves.[5][20] The couple had three daughters, Mary, Sarah and Elizabeth,[a] and one son, Hans; only Sarah and Elizabeth survived infancy.[21] Sarah married George Stanley of Paultons and Elizabeth married Charles Cadogan, who became 2nd Baron Cadogan. Once back in Britain, income from Sloane's career as a physician and his London property investments, coupled with Elizabeth's inheritance, enabled Sloane to build his substantial collection of natural history artefacts in the following decades. Sloane additionally had investments in the Royal African and South Sea Companies, both of which traded in slaves.[22]

Illustration from critique of the first volume of A voyage to the islands Madera, Barbados, Nieves, S. Christophers and Jamaica, published in Acta Eruditorum, 1710

The Natural History Museum lists Sloane as the inventor of drinking chocolate with milk. However, according to historian James Delbourgo, the Jamaicans were brewing "a hot beverage brewed from shavings of freshly harvested cacao, boiled with milk and cinnamon" as far back as 1494.[6] Sloane encountered the cocoa bean while he was in Jamaica, where the local people drank it mixed with water, though he is reported to have found it nauseating. Many recipes for mixing chocolate with spice, eggs, sugar and milk were in circulation by the seventeenth century. Sloane may have devised his own recipe for mixing chocolate with milk, though if so, he was probably not the first. (Some sources credit Daniel Peter as the inventor in 1875, using condensed milk; other sources point out that milk was added to chocolate centuries earlier in some countries.[23]) By the 1750s, a Soho grocer named Nicholas Sanders claimed to be selling Sloane's recipe as a medicinal elixir, perhaps making "Sir Hans Sloane's Milk Chocolate" the first brand-name milk chocolate drink. By the nineteenth century, the Cadbury Brothers sold tins of drinking chocolate whose trade cards also invoked Sloane's recipe.[24][25]

In 1707 Sloane listed the variety of punishments inflicted on slaves in Jamaica. For rebellion, slaves were usually punished "by nailing them down to the ground ... and then applying the fire by degrees from the feet and hands, burning them gradually up to the head, whereby their pains are extravagant." For lesser crimes, castration or mutilation ("chopping off half the foot") was the norm. And as for negligence, slaves "are usually whipt ... after they are whipt until they are raw, some put on their skins pepper and salt to make them smart; at other times their masters will drip melted wax on their skins, and use very exquisite torments."[26]

Society physician

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Sloane, 1736

Sloane started his own practice in 1689 at 3 Bloomsbury Place, London,[20] Sloane worked among the upper classes where he was viewed as fashionable; he built a large practice which became lucrative. The physician served three successive sovereigns: Queen Anne, George I, and George II.

There was some criticism of Sloane during his lifetime as a mere "virtuoso", an undiscriminating collector who lacked understanding of scientific principles.[27] One critic stated that he was merely interested in the collection of knick-knacks, and another called him the "foremost toyman of his time".[28] Sir Isaac Newton described Sloane as "a villain and rascal" and "a very tricking fellow".[29] Some believed that his true achievement was in making friends in high society and with important political figures, rather than in science.[5] Even as a physician, he did not get a great deal of respect from many, being seen as primarily a seller of medications and a collector of curios. Sloane's only medical publication, an Account of a Medicine for Soreness, Weakness and other Distempers of the Eyes (London, 1745), was not published until its author was in his eighty-fifth year and had retired from practice.[30]

The coat of arms of Sir Hans Sloane[31]

In 1716 Sloane was created a baronet, making him the first medical practitioner to receive a hereditary title. In 1719 he became president of the Royal College of Physicians, holding the office for sixteen years. In 1722 he was appointed physician-general to the army, and in 1727 first physician to George II.[17]

He was elected president of Royal College of Physicians in 1719 and served in that role until 1735.[32] He became secretary to the Royal Society in 1693,[33] and edited its Philosophical Transactions for twenty years. In 1727 he succeeded Sir Isaac Newton as president. He retired from the Society at the age of eighty.[20][17]

Sloane's role as First Secretary and later President of the Royal Society, a period which included his revitalising editorship of the Philosophical Transactions, permitted Sloane little time for progressing his own scientific research,[30]: 6  which led to the criticism of Sloane as a mere "virtuoso".

Aside from his service as Royal Physician, Sloane's true achievement during his time at the Royal Society was in acting as a conduit between the worlds of science, politics and high society.[5]

Sloane's time in France at the beginning of his career later enabled him to fulfil the role of intermediary between British and French scientists, fostering the sharing of knowledge between the two countries at the height of the Age of Enlightenment. Notables from that period who visited Sloane to view his collection include the Swiss anatomist Albrecht von Haller, Voltaire, Benjamin Franklin and Carl Linnaeus.[34][30]: 9 

In 1745, at the age of eighty-five, and after having retired from medical practice, Sloane published his first medical work, Account of a Medicine for Soreness, Weakness and other Distempers of the Eyes (London, 1745).[17]

During his life, Sloane was a correspondent of the French Académie Royale des Sciences and was named foreign associate in 1709, in addition to being a foreign member of the academies of science in Prussia, Saint Petersburg, Madrid and Göttingen.[35]

Charity work

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Sloane helped out at Christ's Hospital from 1694 to 1730 and donated his salary back to that institution. He also supported the Royal College of Physicians' dispensary of inexpensive medications and operated a free surgery every morning.[35]

He was a founding governor of London's Foundling Hospital, the nation's first institution to care for abandoned children. Inoculation was required for all children in its care; Sloane was one of the physicians of that era who promoted inoculation as a method to prevent smallpox, using it on his own family and promoting it to the royal family.[36][35] He had been introduced to the concept of inoculation by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu in the court of Queen Caroline.[37]

The British Museum and Chelsea Physic Garden

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The Tudor House of his Chelsea Manor.
Bust of Sloane by Michael Rysbrack (1730s) in the British Museum[38]
Bust by Michael Rysbrack, main foyer, British Library

Sloane's purchase of the manor of Chelsea, London, in 1712, provided the grounds for the Chelsea Physic Garden.

Over his lifetime, Sloane collected over 71,000 objects: books, manuscripts, drawings, coins and medals, plant specimens and others.[39] His great stroke as a collector was to acquire in 1702 (by bequest, conditional on paying of certain debts) the cabinet of curiosities owned by William Courten, who had made collecting the business of his life.[17][40][41]

When Sloane retired in 1741, his library and cabinet of curiosities, which he took with him from Bloomsbury to his house in Chelsea, had grown to be of unique value.[17] He had acquired the extensive natural history collections of William Courten, Cardinal Filippo Antonio Gualterio, James Petiver, Nehemiah Grew, Leonard Plukenet, the Duchess of Beaufort, Adam Buddle, Paul Hermann, Franz Kiggelaer and Herman Boerhaave.

Death and legacy

[edit]
Sloane's monument at Chelsea Old Church

In his final year, Sir Hans Sloane suffered from a disorder with some paralysis.[35] He died on the afternoon of 11 January 1753 at the Manor House, Chelsea, and was buried on 18 January[42] in the south-east corner of the churchyard at Chelsea Old Church with a memorial inscribed as follows:

To the memory of SIR HANS SLOANE BART President of the Royal Society, and of the College of Physicians; who in the year of our Lord 1753, the 92d of his age, without the least pain of body and with a conscious serenity of mind, ended a virtuous and beneficent life. This monument was erected by his two daughters ELIZA CADOGAN and SARAH STANLEY

His grave is shared with his wife Elisabeth, who died on 17 September 1724.

On his death he bequeathed[1] his books, manuscripts, prints, drawings, flora, fauna, medals, coins, seals, cameos and other curiosities to the nation, on condition that Parliament should pay his executors for a sum of £20,000 (equivalent to £3,846,793 in 2023) to be paid to his heirs[43]—intentionally far less than the estimated value of the artefacts, contemporarily estimated at £50,000 (equivalent to £9,616,983 in 2023) or more according to some sources, and up to £80,000 (equivalent to £15,387,173 in 2023) or more by others.[44][45] The bequest was accepted on those terms by an act passed the same year, and the collection, together with George II's royal library, and other objects.[17][20] A significant proportion of this collection was later to become the foundation for the Natural History Museum. When Sloane wrote his will not only did he say he wanted to sell his work to the Parliament for 20,000 pounds, he also stated that he wanted his work to be seen by anyone who wanted to see it.[46] The Curators thought that only scholars and the upper class were allowed to see the collection. They weren't comfortable with the idea that the lower class was able to come to the museum and look at the collection because they didn't think that lower class citizens were worthy. The Curators believed that learning was a privilege that only the upper class had.[46]

He also gave the Society of Apothecaries the land of the Chelsea Physic Garden which they had rented from the Chelsea estate since 1673.[17][47]

A life-size statue of Sloane was erected in the town square of Killyleagh, the town in which he was born.[22]

Controversy

[edit]

In August 2020, a bust of Sloane in the British Museum's Enlightenment Gallery was moved by the museum.[22][3][48][49] The decision came as part of that year's wave of removals of monuments to those who had benefited from slavery. History Ireland contributor Tony Canavan, writing of the decision and observing the fact that the Sloane family had moved to Ireland from Scotland during the Plantation of Ulster (or, more correctly, during the Plantation of Antrim and Down), noted that "the fact that Sloane came from a Scots-Irish family who benefited from a different kind of plantation, following the expulsion of natives and the confiscation of their land, [which seemed] never to have been an issue".[22]

Places named after Sloane

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Hans Crescent street-sign on Harrods building, Knightsbridge

Sloane Square, Sloane Street, Sloane Avenue, Sloane Grammar School[50] and Sloane Gardens in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea are named after Sloane. His first name is given to Hans Street, Hans Crescent, Hans Place and Hans Road, all of which are also situated in the Royal Borough.[39]

Plants and animals named after Sloane

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See also

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The standard author abbreviation Sloane is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[53]

Notes

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References

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Bibliography

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Further reading

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[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Hans Sloane

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from Grokipedia

Sir Hans Sloane, 1st Baronet FRS (16 April 1660 – 11 January 1753), was an Irish-born physician and naturalist renowned for assembling a vast collection exceeding 71,000 items, including specimens, books, manuscripts, and antiquities, which he bequeathed to the British nation, forming the core of the , the Natural History Museum, and the .
Born in , , Sloane trained in medicine and chemistry in and before traveling to in 1687 as physician to the , the island's governor, where he gathered over 800 plant specimens, observed local fauna and customs, and documented findings later published in his multi-volume A Voyage to the Islands (1707–1725). His Jamaican sojourn, supported by colonial economies involving enslaved labor, enabled acquisitions that bolstered his scientific pursuits, including the introduction of cocoa processing methods to Europe that contributed to the development of .
Upon returning to , Sloane rose to prominence as a royal physician to Queens Mary II and , and Kings III and George I; he served as secretary (1693–1712) and president (1727–1741) of the Royal Society, advancing scientific exchange through correspondence networks and publications like Philosophical Transactions. His cataloging efforts and bequest in 1753, accepted by after initial reluctance, established public access to knowledge amid Enlightenment ideals, though his collections' origins tied to Atlantic trade have drawn retrospective scrutiny for ethical implications without negating their empirical value to and .

Early Life and Education

Birth and Family Background

Hans Sloane was born on 16 April 1660 in , a small town in , , in what was then the Kingdom of . He was the youngest of seven sons born to Alexander Sloane and Sarah Sloane (née Hicks), though four brothers predeceased him before his birth, leaving him effectively the youngest surviving son in a family of modest means. Alexander Sloane, of Scottish ancestry, served as receiver-general of taxes for County Down and as an agent for the local landowner James Hamilton, first Viscount Clandeboye, whose family controlled Killyleagh Castle and surrounding estates. Sarah Hicks, Sloane's mother, was the daughter of the Reverend Dr. William Hicks of Winchester, England, a chaplain to William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury; her English origins connected the family to broader Protestant networks amid Ulster's plantation-era demographics. The family adhered to Protestantism in a region marked by tensions between settlers and native Irish Catholics, with Alexander's role tying them to the Anglo-Scottish planter class. Alexander Sloane died in 1666 when Hans was six years old, leaving the family under Sarah's management; she later remarried John Baillie of Castle Kennedy, . This early loss prompted young Sloane's interest in , reportedly sparked by observing local and in Killyleagh's rural surroundings, though the family resided in a modest thatched house near the castle rather than in affluence.

Medical and Scientific Training

Sloane relocated from to in 1679 at age 19, where he began training in and apothecary practices, supported by the local whose estate provided financial aid amid his health challenges. His early interests in , sparked during childhood, directed him toward as a complement to medical studies, though formal university enrollment in was limited at the time. In the early 1680s, Sloane traveled to France to advance his education, attending lectures on by in and on by Guillaume Duverney, while studying medicine and in . He earned a Doctor of Physic degree with highest honors from the University of Orange in 1683, reflecting the era's emphasis on continental medical training for British practitioners seeking rigorous anatomical and botanical knowledge. Upon returning to in 1684, Sloane integrated his acquired expertise into practical scientific pursuits, though his formal medical licensure followed later with election to College of Physicians in 1687. This period solidified his dual focus on empirical medicine and , influenced by French savants who prioritized observation over speculative theory. Later honorary degrees from Oxford University and affirmed his credentials, but his core training remained rooted in hands-on continental studies rather than prolonged institutional apprenticeship.

Professional Beginnings in England

Establishment in London Medicine

Hans Sloane returned to in 1684 after completing his at the University of Orange in 1683, with the explicit aim of commencing a career in medical practice. Equipped with training in , , and clinical skills from his studies in , , and , he sought to apply this knowledge in the capital's medical scene. Through a letter of recommendation from the natural philosopher , Sloane gained the attention of , one of England's leading physicians known for his empirical approach to . Despite initial reservations, Sydenham accepted Sloane into his household as an apprentice, where he assisted in patient care and absorbed Sydenham's emphasis on detailed observation and practical therapeutics over speculative theory. This mentorship proved instrumental, as Sydenham recommended Sloane to prospective patients, enabling him to begin building a clientele among London's professionals and . On 12 April 1687, Sloane was admitted as a of the Royal College of Physicians under the charter of James II, a milestone that formally recognized his standing in the medical establishment. This accreditation, combined with his growing network through Sydenham and the Royal Society—where he had been elected a in —positioned him to attract elite patients. Sloane established his independent practice in the fashionable , marking his transition from apprentice to prominent society physician shortly before his appointment as physician to the and departure for later that year.

Early Involvement with the Royal Society

Sloane was elected a on 11 June 1685, at the age of 25, recognizing his emerging reputation in and following his studies in and . This early fellowship positioned him among the Society's influential members, including figures like and , during a period when the institution emphasized empirical observation and experimentation. From 1686, Sloane contributed to the Society's administrative functions by assisting in the compilation of draft minutes for meetings, a role evidenced by surviving volumes in his handwriting or prepared under his direction, covering sessions up to 1691. These records document discussions on , experiments, and curiosities, reflecting Sloane's hands-on engagement before his departure for in 1687. His involvement in minute-taking, shared with contemporaries like Richard Waller and Thomas Gale, underscored his commitment to the Society's documentation practices amid its post-Restoration recovery. Though Sloane's formal role as began in 1693, his pre-1690 activities laid groundwork for later contributions, including the revival of Philosophical Transactions and oversight of publications. This early phase highlighted his utility in bridging observational science with institutional record-keeping, aligning with Society's emphasis on verifiable knowledge dissemination.

Expedition to Jamaica (1687–1689)

Appointment as Physician and Voyage Details

In 1687, at the age of 27, Hans Sloane was appointed personal physician to Christopher Monck, the 2nd , who had been selected as governor of , an English colony. Sloane, recently admitted as a of the of Physicians on April 12 of that year, accepted the position partly due to his keen interest in , which aligned with opportunities for collecting specimens in the . The voyage commenced on September 12, 1687, aboard the Assistance, escorted by two large carrying troops and supplies for the . The journey lasted approximately three months, with Sloane and the duke's party arriving in by December 1687. Sloane remained on the island for 15 months, until March 1689, when he departed following the duke's death from illness earlier that month. During this period, Sloane focused on medical duties while pursuing extensive natural history observations, though the voyage itself was marked by the standard hazards of transatlantic travel in the era, including disease risks among passengers and crew.

Natural History Collections and Observations

Sloane's botanical efforts during his Jamaican residence from May 1687 to March 1689 yielded 1,589 dried specimens, mounted in seven bound volumes that constitute the earliest systematic collection from the with precise locality data. These encompassed approximately 800 , the majority previously unknown in , gathered through fieldwork across the island's diverse terrains including mountains, forests, and coastal areas. He documented each specimen's , physical traits, local , and potential medicinal applications, often incorporating knowledge from indigenous descendants and enslaved Africans, while employing artist Garrett Moore to produce detailed illustrations of plants for later publication. Specific examples included pressed leaves of , the source of cocoa, highlighting its economic and pharmacological significance. In parallel, Sloane collected zoological specimens encompassing insects, fish, shells, quadrupeds, and birds, alongside minerals and fossils, amassing over 800 natural history items overall. He transported live animals such as an iguana, a crocodile, and a seven-foot snake back to England, enduring challenges during the voyage. His ornithological records captured Jamaica's late-17th-century avifauna, detailing native species like limpkins (Aramus guarauna), green parrots, and macaws, as well as introduced forms such as turkeys and Muscovy ducks, and migrants including shovelers and widgeons. These observations emphasized species behaviors, distributions, and interactions with human-modified landscapes, countering prevailing misconceptions about tropical biodiversity by prioritizing direct empirical evidence over speculative accounts. Sloane's journals from the expedition formed the basis for his seminal A Voyage to the Islands Madera, Barbados, Nieves, S. Christophers and Jamaica, with Volume I (1707) devoted to vegetable productions and Volume II (1725) to animals, insects, and other categories, featuring engravings derived from field sketches and Moore's drawings. This work advanced by integrating descriptive with contextual observations, influencing subsequent collectors and establishing Sloane's specimens—later bequeathed to the nation—as foundational to the British Museum's origins in 1753.

Development of Milk Chocolate Recipe

During his residence in Jamaica from 1687 to 1689, Hans Sloane observed the preparation of a traditional beverage from beans, which the indigenous and enslaved populations boiled into a thin, spiced drink often using water, resulting in a bitter, nauseating concoction unpalatable to European tastes. Local variants incorporated and , practices predating Sloane's arrival by over two centuries, as evidenced by historical accounts of Mesoamerican and cacao use. Sloane, seeking a more tolerable form for medicinal purposes, adapted these methods by emphasizing mixtures of cacao paste with boiled , sugar, and flavorings such as or to reduce bitterness and improve digestibility. These adaptations were detailed in Sloane's 1707 publication A Voyage to the Islands Madera, , Nieves, S. Christophers and , where he outlined seven recipes for "sweet" preparations, including one specifying "an of , a quarter of water, three gills of , and to taste," ground and boiled together until thickened. Sloane presented these not as an original invention but as empirical refinements observed and tested during his time treating fevers and complaints, attributing the core milk infusion to Jamaican precedents rather than devising it anew. Upon returning to , Sloane's documented recipes facilitated the beverage's introduction as a pharmaceutical tonic, sold by apothecaries for ailments like consumption and , though solid milk confectionery emerged only in the through unrelated to his work. Brothers later marketed a powdered variant as "Sloane's Drinking " in the , capitalizing on his association despite the preparations' pre-existing roots in colonial contexts. This dissemination underscores Sloane's role in bridging Amerindian cacao traditions with European , prioritizing palatability and utility over novelty.

Marriage, Wealth, and Expanded Collecting

Union with Elizabeth Langley and Family

In 1695, Hans Sloane married Elizabeth Langley, the widow of Fulk , a Jamaican sugar planter, and daughter of , an alderman of . The marriage connected Sloane to substantial mercantile wealth, enabling him to establish a household in , initially at 3 Bloomsbury Place (later renumbered). The couple had four children: daughters Mary, Sarah, and Elizabeth, and son Hans. Mary and the younger Hans died in infancy, leaving Sarah and Elizabeth as the surviving daughters. Sarah married George Stanley of Paultons, Hampshire, while Elizabeth wed Charles Cadogan, later 2nd Baron Cadogan, in 1717, linking the family to nobility. Elizabeth Langley died on 6 November 1724 at their home in Chelsea. Sloane raised the children amid his collecting pursuits, with the daughters later inheriting portions of his estate after his death.

Inheritance of Jamaican Plantations and Enslaved Labor

In 1695, Hans Sloane married Elizabeth Langley, the widow of Jamaican planter Fulke Rose and daughter of alderman . Elizabeth's dowry included interests in sugar plantations on , derived from her father's merchant investments and her first husband's estates, which Fulke Rose had expanded to encompass approximately 380 acres by the 1670s through land acquisitions and slave imports. These holdings, located in areas such as Sixteen Mile Walk, relied on coerced labor from enslaved Africans, whom had procured in significant numbers as one of Jamaica's principal buyers via the Royal African Company. Sloane thereby acquired a one-third share in the income from these operations and the associated human property upon , with the plantations producing sugar through the forced labor of enslaved individuals transported from . The revenues from this enslaved labor on the sugar estates substantially augmented Sloane's personal fortune, enabling expanded collecting, property acquisitions in , and medical practice investments, independent of his Jamaican expedition earnings. Following Elizabeth's death in 1724 and John Langley's estate settlement, Sloane gained fuller control over these assets, though he maintained distance from direct plantation management.

Later Career Milestones

Service as Physician to Royalty

Sloane served as Physician Extraordinary to Queen Anne, attending her during multiple illnesses including her final one in 1714. Queen Anne consulted him frequently for medical advice. Upon George I's accession in 1714, Sloane was appointed physician to the king and physician-general to the army. His royal service under George I contributed to his elevation to in 1716, the first such honor for a physician. Sloane continued as Physician in Ordinary to George II from 1727. Throughout his royal appointments, he maintained a prominent practice among the , leveraging his expertise in and .

Presidency of the Royal Society (1727–1741)

Following the death of Sir Isaac Newton on 10 March 1727, Hans Sloane was elected President of the Royal Society on 29 March 1727 (New Style). His election faced some opposition from supporters of Martin Folkes but was confirmed at the Annual General Meeting. Sloane, who had previously served as the Society's Secretary from 1693 to 1713, became the only individual to simultaneously or successively hold the presidencies of both the Royal Society and the Royal College of Physicians. One of Sloane's initial priorities as President was to stabilize the Society's finances, which had long been precarious. He pursued payment of arrears from Ordinary Fellows who had defaulted on dues, enabling the purchase of land at Acton for the Society's use. Sloane personally contributed 100 guineas to these efforts and helped secure the legacy of Sir Godfrey Copley, which funded the establishment of the in 1731—the Society's first prize for scientific achievement, initially awarded to Stephen Gray for work on . Under his , the Philosophical Transactions continued as the primary outlet for scientific communications, reflecting ongoing experiments, observations, and discussions among Fellows. In 1730, Sloane introduced procedural reforms to Fellowship elections, requiring candidates to provide certificates endorsed by three existing Fellows and mandating a suspension of ten meetings before balloting, aimed at ensuring quality and commitment. His tenure fostered extensive international scientific correspondence, with over 500 items featured in the Transactions, leveraging Sloane's networks to advance knowledge exchange. Sloane's presidency emphasized practical applications of , building on his earlier roles while integrating and into the Society's activities. Sloane resigned in 1741 after 14 years, citing health reasons at age 81, and was succeeded by Martin Folkes. His leadership maintained institutional stability during a transitional period post-Newton, prioritizing fiscal responsibility and procedural rigor over radical innovation.

Oversight of Chelsea Physic Garden

In the 1680s, Hans Sloane trained as an apprentice botanist at the , then newly established by the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries for the study and cultivation of . This early exposure shaped his lifelong interest in and , informing his later collections from . Sloane acquired the Manor of Chelsea, encompassing approximately 4 acres (1.6 hectares) that included the garden site, in 1712. In 1718, he proposed leasing this land to the Society of Apothecaries to secure its future as an educational and medicinal resource, with the arrangement formalized in 1722 via a perpetual covenant. The lease stipulated an annual rent of £5—still paid symbolically today—plus the provision of 56 varieties of medicinal herbs ("simples") each year to the Apothecaries, ensuring the garden's maintenance for "the better promoting of the knowledge of , both for and other uses." These terms reflected Sloane's intent to perpetuate the garden's role in advancing and amid financial strains faced by the Apothecaries. As patron and landlord, Sloane exercised oversight by appointing , a Scottish , as head gardener in 1722 (or late 1721 per some records), initiating a 50-year tenure that elevated the garden's reputation. Under Sloane's guidance, Miller propagated exotic species from Sloane's Jamaican expeditions and global networks, focusing on —cultivating cash crops like , , and for medicinal and commercial value. Sloane enriched the collections with specimens from his vast holdings, steering the garden toward practical applications in and trade, which helped it supply to colonial ventures, including shipments to Georgia in the 1730s. Sloane's interventions stabilized the garden during early 18th-century challenges, transforming it from a struggling apothecaries' plot into a center for plant and experimentation. His patronage extended to fostering international exchanges, with Miller's catalogs and Sloane's influence enabling the introduction of over 1,000 new by mid-century, many tested for pharmaceutical potential. This oversight preserved the garden's medicinal focus while broadening its scientific scope, laying groundwork for its enduring legacy in .

Scientific Contributions and Publications

Cataloging and Classification of Specimens

Hans Sloane developed an extensive system for cataloging his specimens, which encompassed , animals, minerals, and other rarities acquired from global sources, including his 1687–1689 voyage to . His alone comprised 265 bound volumes containing an estimated 120,000 specimens collected from over 70 countries, with Jamaican collections forming a core subset of approximately 1,589 dried . Sloane prepared more than 40 manuscript catalogues detailing these holdings, assigning alphanumeric identifiers to entries grouped by category—such as "Coralls," "Fossils," or "Vegetable Substances"—and incorporating annotations on , dimensions, and physical attributes like color and texture. These catalogues, which included over 12,500 transcribed objects and records, facilitated systematic access and reflected his emphasis on empirical description over speculative theory. Sloane's classification adhered to pre-Linnaean conventions, employing polynomial nomenclature and morphological criteria inspired by John Ray's Historia Plantarum, which he annotated extensively in his personal copies to align specimens with established genera. Rather than rigid hierarchies, he prioritized relational organization, cross-referencing specimens by folio numbers and integrating habitat notes, local names, and medicinal uses to denote affinities; for instance, tuberous plants received descriptors like "Volubilis nigra" based on observable traits. This approach, applied to roughly 800 Jamaican , diverged from mere accumulation by contemporaries, favoring structured accessibility that linked physical artifacts to textual indices, though it lacked binomial precision and relied on subjective delineations of species boundaries. Sloane's minimal use of specimen labels—often absent or basic—shifted the burden of identification to accompanying catalogues and manuscripts, enabling later scholars like to adapt them for Linnaean reordering post-1753. Key publications served as de facto classification tools, with Sloane's 1696 Catalogus Plantarum quæ in Insula sponte proveniunt enumerating indigenous Jamaican through descriptive entries tied to sheets. His magnum opus, A Voyage to the Islands Madera, , etc. (1707–1725), expanded this by detailing and illustrating specimens alongside systematic arrangements, using the text as a morphological that interfaced directly with labeled collections for ongoing catalog revisions into the . These works not only disseminated s but also encoded retrieval methods, such as referencing specific folios, ensuring the specimens' utility for empirical study amid Sloane's total holdings exceeding 130,000 items.

Key Works Including "A Voyage to the Islands"

Sloane's earliest major publication, Catalogus Plantarum Quae in Insula Jamaica sponte proveniunt vel vulgò coluntur, cum earundem synonymis & locis natalibus: adjectis aliis quas in insulis Barbadoes, Nieves, S. Christophers & Jahmaica observavit (), enumerated roughly 800 encountered during his 1687–1689 voyage, including native Jamaican and those cultivated or observed on neighboring islands. The work adopted a pre-Linnaean classificatory approach, listing alphabetically with references to classical authorities like and contemporary botanists such as , alongside notes on habitats, medicinal properties, and local uses derived from indigenous and European informants. This catalog served as a foundational inventory for tropical , influencing subsequent European understandings of vegetation despite its reliance on observational data without formal . Sloane's most extensive work, A Voyage to the Islands Madera, Barbados, Nieves, S. Christophers and Jamaica, with the Natural History of the Herbs and Trees, Four-footed Beasts, Fishes, Birds, Insects, Reptiles, &c. of those Islands (Volume 1, 1707; Volume 2, 1725), chronicled his expedition as physician to Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle, spanning stops at Madeira in 1687 and various West Indian islands before an extended stay in Jamaica until 1689. Volume 1 detailed the voyage itinerary, meteorological observations, geological features, and initial natural history accounts, incorporating 274 engraved plates—many derived from Sloane's sketches or those by local artists—depicting plants, animals, and artifacts such as a Jamaican maroon's hut and indigenous tools. Volume 2 expanded on Jamaican specimens, cataloging over 2,000 items including detailed descriptions of 834 plant species, 86 mammals and birds, numerous insects and reptiles, and marine life, with appendices on minerals, earthquakes, and ethnomedical practices like cocoa mixtures for alleviating stomach complaints. The Voyage stood as a seminal contribution to empirical , providing the first systematic visual and textual documentation of , which informed later taxonomists including , who drew upon Sloane's specimens and descriptions for (1753). Its plates, executed by engravers like Michael van der Gucht, captured novelties such as the and , while textual sections emphasized causal observations on , such as plant distributions tied to and , rather than speculative morphology. Sloane supplemented the narrative with contributions from correspondents like James Petiver on , underscoring collaborative amid the era's exploratory science. Though delayed by the need to verify specimens against his growing collections, the work's dual-volume format reflected Sloane's commitment to exhaustive verification, amassing evidence from preserved samples, live dissections, and islander testimonies to advance causal understandings of species interactions and medicinal efficacy. Beyond these, Sloane's publications included shorter pieces in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, such as accounts of remedies and anomalies like a two-headed snake (1694), but his core output prioritized comprehensive catalogs over fragmented reports. He intended a broader encompassing his full collections but prioritized the Voyage for its immediate evidentiary value, leaving unfinished a projected multi-volume synthesis of his 71,000+ specimens. These efforts privileged direct observation and specimen-based reasoning, establishing Sloane as a pivotal figure in transitioning from anecdotal travelogues to data-driven compendia.

Death and Institutional Legacy

Final Years, Will, and Bequest of Collections

Sloane retired from medical practice in 1742 at the age of 82, relocating his household and extensive collections to Chelsea Manor House, where he resided until his death. There, he continued scholarly pursuits amid his library and , though retirement involved ongoing engagement with correspondents and specimens despite advancing age. In his final year, Sloane experienced a disorder involving partial , which curtailed his activities. He died on January 11, 1753, at Chelsea Manor House, aged 92, and was buried at . Sloane's will, executed upon his death, bequeathed his vast collection—comprising over 71,000 items including natural history specimens, books, manuscripts, prints, drawings, and medals—to the British nation on the condition that allocate £20,000 to compensate his heirs. This stipulation reflected his intent to preserve the materials for public benefit rather than private dispersal, given their scale and scholarly value; relative to his properties and collections, other personal bequests remained modest. accepted via an Act of 1753, authorizing the purchase and establishing a framework for the collections' housing, which laid the foundation for the British Museum's formation. Sloane died on 11 January 1753, leaving in his will a bequest of his extensive collection—comprising over 71,000 items including books, manuscripts, specimens, , and ethnographic objects—to King George II for the benefit of the nation, on the condition that it be preserved intact as a public museum and that £20,000 be paid to his heirs from public funds. This stipulation reflected Sloane's long-held vision of making scientific knowledge accessible, having earlier housed his "" at his residence for scholarly visitors. In response, Parliament passed the British Museum Act on 7 June 1753, which authorized the purchase of Sloane's collection for the specified £20,000—equivalent to about £3.5 million in modern terms—and incorporated it with the Cottonian Library of manuscripts (donated in 1700) and the Harleian Collection of over 7,600 manuscripts acquired from Robert Harley, 2nd , in 1753. The Act established a board of 42 trustees, including the , the Principal Secretary of State, the Speaker of the , and the President of the Royal Society, to oversee the new institution as the first national public in the world, free to visitors under regulated access. Montagu House in was acquired and adapted as the initial premises, with the museum opening to the public on 15 January 1759 after cataloging and arrangement efforts. Sloane's bequest laid the foundational core of the British Museum's holdings, particularly in natural history and ethnography, which comprised roughly 40,000 specimens such as dried plants, insects, shells, and anatomical preparations from his voyages and correspondents. Over time, this diversified into related institutions: the library components, including Sloane's 50,000 volumes and 3,500 manuscripts, formed the nucleus of what became the British Library upon its formal separation as an independent entity in 1973, though managed within the British Museum until then. Similarly, the natural history collections—totaling about 5,000 specimens initially displayed—grew and were transferred to the Natural History Museum in South Kensington, which opened in 1881 under Alfred Waterhouse's designs, to accommodate expanding holdings separate from the main museum's focus on human culture and antiquities. These divisions preserved Sloane's emphasis on empirical classification while adapting to institutional needs, ensuring the longevity of his contributions to public science.

Long-Term Impact on Natural History and Numismatics

Sloane's natural history collections, totaling around 71,000 specimens including 121,000 dried plants in his herbarium and over 12,000 vegetable substances, provided the foundational holdings for the Natural History Museum after the 1860 division of the British Museum's collections. These materials enabled early systematic classification efforts, with Sloane's Jamaican specimens—numbering 1,589 dried plants collected during his 1687–1689 voyage—serving as reference points for subsequent taxonomic studies in botany and zoology. The preservation and public accessibility of these items advanced empirical research into biodiversity, ecology, and medicinal properties, influencing fields from pharmacology to evolutionary biology by offering verifiable baseline data from the late 17th and early 18th centuries. In , Sloane's bequest of approximately 20,000 to 32,000 coins and medals formed the nucleus of the British Museum's Department of Coins and Medals, established as one of the institution's original core collections in 1753. This donation supported the development of numismatics as a scholarly discipline in Britain, allowing researchers to analyze ancient minting techniques, economic systems, and iconographic evidence from civilizations spanning antiquity to the . Sloane's manuscript catalogues, though partially lost during , documented diverse holdings that enabled comparative studies and tracking, contributing to enduring advancements in understanding monetary history and .

Controversies and Historical Reassessment

Direct and Indirect Ties to the Slave Trade

Sloane served as personal physician to Christopher Monck, 2nd Duke of Albemarle, during his tenure as Governor of from May 1687 to March 1689, where he documented specimens amid a reliant on enslaved African labor. While in , Sloane resided on and visited sugar estates operated by enslaved workers, collecting plants, animals, and artifacts with input from both European planters and enslaved individuals, primarily from , though he seldom credited their contributions explicitly. He treated ailments among plantation owners and enslaved populations, observing the harsh conditions of firsthand, including punishments for resistance that he described as "merited" in his writings. Upon returning to , Sloane married Elizabeth Langley in 1696, whose dowry derived from her family's ownership of sugar plantations in staffed by hundreds of enslaved Africans; these estates generated substantial revenue from exports like and cocoa, funding Sloane's subsequent acquisitions and lifestyle. Elizabeth's included profits from slave-produced commodities, which Sloane managed and invested, enabling the expansion of his collections to over 71,000 items by his death in 1753. Indirectly, Sloane held shares in the Royal African Company, chartered in 1672 with a monopoly on English slave trading until the early , which transported approximately 150,000 enslaved Africans to the between 1672 and the 1720s. He also invested in the , established in 1711, which engaged in the contract to supply enslaved labor to Spanish colonies, further linking his finances to transatlantic slave voyages. These investments, common among British elites of the period, provided dividends that supported Sloane's scientific endeavors without his direct participation in purchasing or transporting individuals.

Contemporary Descriptions of Enslavement Practices

In his 1707 publication A Voyage to the Islands Madera, , Nieves, S. Christophers and , Hans Sloane provided detailed observations of enslavement practices on Jamaican plantations during his residence there from 1687 to 1689. He noted that enslaved Africans were typically roused for labor around four o'clock in the morning and compelled to work until sunset, with overseers enforcing discipline through physical coercion to maintain productivity in cultivation and other tasks. Sloane described the routine as involving immediate assignment to fieldwork upon waking, under constant supervision to prevent idleness or escape, reflecting the intensive labor demands of the emerging economy where slaves outnumbered Europeans by ratios exceeding 5:1 by the late 1680s. Sloane cataloged a range of punishments administered to enslaved individuals for infractions, emphasizing their severity as a deterrent against resistance or . For acts of , penalties included nailing ears to , burning alive, , , or while conscious; he observed these as standard responses to uprisings, which were frequent given the demographic imbalance and of communities forming in Jamaica's interior. For , slaves faced whipping until their backs were lacerated, followed by application of lime pickle, hot rum, or brine to exacerbate pain and prevent healing; running away often resulted in or partial of the foot. Sloane collected artifacts such as whips used in these chastisements, incorporating them into his specimens as evidence of management tools. Beyond , Sloane documented cultural expressions among the enslaved, including musical and practices on days or holidays, where groups performed with gourd-based string instruments resembling early banjos, accompanied by rhythmic and in African-derived languages. These gatherings, observed during his travels, involved large numbers of slaves from diverse ethnic origins—primarily Akan and other West African groups—engaging in communal rituals that contrasted with the brutality of daily labor but were tolerated by to sustain and output. Sloane's neutral reportage, derived from direct witnessing as a physician to , underscores the integration of such practices into the regime without moral commentary, prioritizing empirical notation over ethical judgment.

Modern Criticisms, Defenses, and Empirical Context

In recent years, Hans Sloane's legacy has faced scrutiny for his indirect financial benefits from Jamaican sugar reliant on enslaved labor, prompting actions such as the British Museum's 2020 relocation of his bust to a contextualizing these ties. Critics, including activists and some historians, contend that Sloane's role as a plantation physician and beneficiary of his wife Elizabeth's inherited estates—worked by enslaved Africans—implicates him in exploitation, arguing that his scientific cannot absolve complicity in a system of brutality he observed firsthand. Such views have fueled calls for renaming institutions like in , framing his collections as products of colonial extraction rather than neutral inquiry. Defenders emphasize the historical context of 17th- and 18th-century , where elite participation in colonial economies was normative, and note Sloane neither directly owned nor traded slaves, deriving income primarily through marital inheritance and medical fees rather than active management. They argue that criticisms overlook his documentation of slave mistreatment in A Voyage to the Islands Madera, (1707 and 1725), including graphic accounts of punishments like whipping and castration, which evidenced awareness of abuses without endorsement. Historians like those associated with the Reconstructing Sloane project highlight that enslaved Africans, particularly Akan individuals, contributed knowledge to his collections, complicating narratives of unilateral exploitation. Some contend that retroactive judgments risk historical erasure, as Sloane's bequest enabled public access to specimens that advanced empirical science independently of their funding origins. Empirically, Sloane's 15-month tenure (1687–1688) involved treating both planters and enslaved workers under the , with his collections augmented by local and accessed via infrastructure, but no records confirm personal slave ownership or direct trade involvement. Post-marriage in , income from Elizabeth's estates—acquired via her prior husband's slaving interests—supported acquisitions, yet Sloane's will (1753) directed estate sales without specifying slave , though Jamaican law at the time constrained such actions. Investments in companies like the Royal African Company yielded dividends tied to slave voyages, but quantifiable profits remain elusive, estimated indirectly through his amassed wealth of £50,000 at death, much enabling the British Museum's foundation. These links underscore causal ties to Atlantic slavery's economics, yet Sloane's outputs—such as cataloging over 71,000 items—facilitated verifiable advancements in and , detached from ongoing ethical debates.

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