and gardens in Staffordshire egertonianum
by Sarah Drake, from Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala'', 1845 He was born at
Redvales near
Bury in Lancashire, he matriculated with
Lincoln College, Oxford, in 1829, graduating from
Magdalen College with a BA in 1834 and an
MA in 1845. Over the twenty years he made a great deal of money in iron, engineering and banking. In 1871, Bateman and his notable sons (who included the painter
Robert Bateman) gave up the house and gardens at Biddulph, and he moved to
Kensington in London. He later moved to
Worthing in Sussex, where he died on 27 November 1897.
Collector of plants "MA Magdalen College, Oxford, 1845, took great interest in collecting and cultivating tropical plants; FLS, 1833; FRS, 1838; fellow of Royal Horticultural Society; published writings on orchids and other horticultural subjects." He was a collector of and scholar on
orchids, President of the North Staffordshire Field Society, and served on the
Royal Horticultural Society's Plant Exploration Committee. He especially loved
rhododendrons and
azaleas. He had a number of notable sons who grew up at Biddulph Grange, including the painter
Robert Bateman. Bateman was
"a collector and scholar on orchids," and
"was one of the early developers of orchid culture. He sponsored expeditions to Mexico and South America enabling collectors to gather rare specimens. He published three lavish books about orchids. He pioneered "cool orchid cultivation" which enabled the Odontoglossum to be cultivated in England, replicating the cool arid climate of the cloud forests in Central America where these exotic flowers are found. Walter Hood Fitch, (1817–1892)...was employed by Bateman to create the paintings for his magnificent orchid books...exceedingly rare, A Monograph of Odontoglossum, is composed of thirty large scale hand-coloured lithographs." The naturalist, Charles Darwin
"received a box of orchids from Bateman on 25 January 1862 (and) a letter from him dated 28 January 1862." Garden designer He created the famous gardens at Biddulph with the aid of his botanist wife Maria and his friend and painter of seascapes
Edward William Cooke. His gardens at Biddulph are a rare survival of the interim period between
Capability Brown landscape garden and the High
Victorian style. The gardens are compartmentalised and divided into themes. Bateman
"was also responsible for laying out the Arboretum at Derby, the first public park in England." The children's book by
Priscilla Masters, ''Mr Bateman's Garden'' (1987), is a fantasy set in the gardens.
Family On 24 April 1838, he married Maria Sybilla, third daughter of Rowland Egerton Warburton and sister of
Peter Egerton Warburton; they had three sons, John, Rowland, and
Robert (a notable painter), and a daughter, Katherine, who married
Ulrick Ralph Burke. ==Publications==