John Goodyer

Who was John Goodyer?

John Goodyer was a 17th-century botanist who lived in Hampshire, England. He was born in Alton, and evidently received a good education, although it is not known where. He worked as estate manager to Sir Thomas Bilson, of West Mapledurham House, near Buriton, and also as agent for two Bishops of Winchester: Thomas Bilson and later, Lancelot Andrewes. Goodyer resided in the village of Droxford until his marriage in 1632, when he moved to Petersfield, where his house on The Spain still stands.

Goodyer developed a great interest in botany, and added many plants to the British flora. He is credited with clarifying the identities of the British elms, and for discovering an unusual elm endemic to the Hampshire coast between Lymington and Christchurch named for him as Goodyer's Elm, believed to be a form of the Cornish Elm Ulmus minor subsp. angustifolia, later confused with Plot's Elm also known as 'Lock Elm' Ulmus minor var. plotii by Augustine Henry.

Goodyer gained the reputation of being "the ablest Herbalist now living in England".