Richard Anthony Markham was born in
Leeds, England, as the only son of Richard Markham, a cloth merchant and Elizabeth Laycock. His family included two sisters, including his older sister Mary (b. 1755). One of his sisters became a nun. His mother, was the great grand-daughter of Jonathan Laycock of
Shaw Hill. Laycock in turn married Mary Lyte (b. 1537), brother of
Henry Lyte, the botanist and translator of the
herbal of
Dodoens. Of this, he wrote "so I inherit a taste for botany from very ancient blood". He studied at a school near
Halifax and by the age of eight had established a passion for plants. He attended medical school at the
University of Edinburgh in 1780, where he would have at least been aware of the influence of
John Hope, then Professor of Medicine and Botany. At Edinburgh he became friendly with
James Edward Smith, another student, who would found and become president of the
Linnean Society. Smith gathered a circle of friends together to form the Society for the Investigation of Natural History in March 1782. Smith described Markham as 'a young man of large fortune from Leeds, who studies physic as an amusement, and is an excellent botanist; but has just left Edinburgh and 'tis uncertain whether he will return'. It is unclear whether he completed his studies and graduated, not uncommon at that time among those with a substantial inheritance. About this time, Richard Markham changed his name to Richard Salisbury. Later, Markham wrote to
Joseph Banks that in 1785, Anna Salisbury, an elderly spinster without heirs who was a distant relative of his mother and who shared his love of plants, had settled on him a substantial amount of money. The condition was that he adopt her name, which she stated was an ancient and illustrious Welsh family. He was never able to produce any documentation to this effect and later it was claimed that he had admitted to having invented the story. Following his studies, Markham, now Salisbury pursued the life of country gentleman of wealth at
Chapel Allerton, Leeds, one of his father's estates. He developed substantial gardens and a large
hothouse and a circle of wealthy local landowners who were equally enthusiastic about
horticulture. For instance, he received an invitation to redesign the grounds of
Harewood House. At the same time he developed a corresponding relationship with many leading botanists, and visited
herbaria in Paris and London. There, he visited Banks, who remained his loyal friend for the rest of his life. He received recognition through election to the
Royal Society and the Linnean Society in 1787. Salisbury married Caroline Staniforth in 1796. One child, Eleanor, was born to the couple in 1797; the two separated shortly thereafter. Salisbury had apparently misrepresented his finances when he had proposed marriage, and had large debts at the time of his daughter's birth and had declared bankruptcy for dubious purposes. His honesty in legal and financial matters seems to have been questionable, if not devious. He apparently recovered financially by 1802, when he bought a house. Salisbury contributed annotations to
Edward Rudge's
Plantarum Guianæ Icones (1805–07), and descriptions to
Paradisus Londinensis (1806–09). The latter was illustrated by
William Hooker, and contained the genus name
Hookera honouring him. Smith improperly renamed the genus
Brodiaea a few years later, after his wealthy "friend and patron",
James Brodie of Brodie. In 1809, Salisbury was appointed the first honorary secretary of the
Horticultural Society. His successor
Joseph Sabine found he had left the accounts in disarray. He moved to London around this time; his small garden contained a large number of exotic and rare plants. Salisbury opposed the use of
Linnaeus's
systema sexuale for classifying plants, which was one reason why others ignored his work. Another was the belief that Salisbury had behaved unethically. The censure was later reported as: In July 1818, an anonymous article appeared in
The Monthly Review (86: 298–305) that was highly critical of Brown's account of plants acquired on a Congo expedition. Brown and others had little difficulty discerning that the author was Salisbury, prompting the former to complain to Smith the following month. However, there was already considerable ill feeling between the two botanists, due to Salisbury's use of Brown's work, but also his falling out with Smith, from the early days of the century. Smith referred to Salisbury's contributions as "trash" in 1807. In addition to the allegations of plagiarism, Salisbury was known as a man who was difficult to get along with, was frequently involved in disputes with his contemporaries and was shunned by many botanists of his day. Nonetheless, he was a meticulous botanist and illustrator who contributed significantly to both the science and to horticulture. His contributions to English botany include a Corsican pine (
Pinus nigra) delivered to
Kew Gardens, and his
herbarium was also passed there via his adopted son, Matthew Burchill. Salisbury had met
Alphonse de Candolle in his later years, and offered to leave him his inheritance if he would take the name of 'Salisbury'. He died in 1829. His manuscripts were obtained by
John Edward Gray, who published part as
Genera Plantarum and deposited the remaining documents at the
British Museum. The portrait in pencil by Burchell (1817), acquired by Kew, and Smith's genus
Salisburia, a synonym for
Ginkgo, denote his part in the history of British botany. At that time (1797), he was still on good terms with Smith, who wrote "named in honour of Richard Anthony Salisbury, Esq., F.R.S. and F.L.S. of whose acuteness and indefatigable zeal in the service of botany no testimony is necessary in this society, nor in any place which his writings have reached". == Work ==