John Hill was a controversial figure, an apothecary and botanist - who also at various times was an actor, a playwright, and a gossip-writer - and indulged in pamphlet campaigns against bodies such as the Royal Society which did not, in his opinion, give him his due recognition. Notwithstanding his somewhat dubious record, by the end of the 1750s he had come under the patronage of John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute who, as a fellow botanist, encouraged him in his project to publish his massive work, The Vegetable System, a contribution to systematic botany on Linnaean lines. It ran to 26 folio volumes of text, with 1,600 copperplate engravings, published between 1759 and 1775. The dedication in the first volume is to George III, then still Prince of Wales. The work earned Hill the Order of the Vasa from the Swedish king, Gustav III, in 1774, and in the last two volumes of text he is named as Sir John Hill, on the strength of this honour. George III’s copy is bound as nine volumes of text and nine of hand-coloured plates, and is listed in both the 1780 and the 1785 catalogues of his Kew Library, as are several of Hill’s other books on botany.

In 1758 Hill had produced a pamphlet proposing the creation of a botanical garden at Kensington Palace (George II’s residence), and early in 1761 his patron, Lord Bute, secured the post of gardener there for him. Under the same aegis, Hill also seems to have occupied some role in the royal botanical gardens at Kew. He is referred to by some sources as Superintendent, but there is no evidence that any such appointment was made. Whatever his status there, his Hortus Kewensis (1768), listing the plants grown in Kew Gardens according to their botanical classification, certainly shows familiarity with the gardens, and is dedicated to Augusta, Princess of Wales.

Catalogue entry adapted from George III & Queen Charlotte: Patronage, Collecting and Court Taste, London, 2004.