William Casson

Who was William Casson?

William Casson was an English botanist, seed merchant, and local historian. He discovered the Fen or Crested Buckler-fern Dryopteris cristata in Yorkshire and wrote a local history of Thorne, The History and Antiquities of Thorne, with some account of the drainage of Hatfield Chase. He also established a large garden on the edge of the Thorne Moors with his brother John in which he bred varieties of rhododendron, sheep laurel, and springbeauty.

William was born in Thorne on 23 October 1796 to Mordecai and Mary Casson. He had two brothers, Mordecai and John Calvert, and one sister, Sarah. After a very basic education at the vicarage school, he was apprenticed to a firm of grocers and later worked in a grocery business in Thorne started by his grandfather. By the mid-1850s, William and his brother John had become successful "seedsmen, grocers, and farmers." They established an important nursery east of Thorne where he transformed the "unproductive moor" into a place for raising a variety of plants for their business.

William was an ardent Quaker who was closely involved with Thorne Friends Preparative Meeting as well as a member of Balby Monthly Meeting.