William Forsyth was a Scottish horticulturalist who, from 1784, served as superintendent of the gardens at St James’s Palace and Kensington Palace. Forsyth specialised in fruit trees, writing several books on the subject and devising a ‘plaister’, a paste that he believed would help to heal diseased trees. This book concerns the management of fruit trees and was his most popular work, going through seven editions by 1824.

Forsyth had a good reputation among fellow horticulturalists and established a formidable natural history library at his home in Kensington. This was inherited by his son, William junior, in 1804. William, in addition to his own expertise in botany, was also a bibliophile and dramatically added to his father’s collection. Several of these books were acquired by William IV on the younger Forsyth’s death in 1835.