Genus Sherardia

or William Sherard (1659–1727), British botanist, plant collector, patron of botanists. He studied at St John’s College, Oxford (1677–1683) and in Paris (1686–1688) at the Jardin des Plantes under Joseph Pitton de Tournefort and Herman Boerhaave. He bequeathed 3 000 pounds to Oxford University for a chair of botany, on the condition that the initial chair went to Johan Jacob Dillenius (1687–1747); he also donated his library and herbarium. He contributed to John Ray’s Stirpium (1694), was editor of Paul Hermann’s Paradisus Batavus (1698) and was instrumental in the publication of Sebastien Valliant’s Botanicon Parisiense (1727). He became British consul to Smyrna (1703–1716), during which time he amassed a fortune. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society.