Transcription and more transcription

The Guidebook will contain information that has never been transcribed and published before. The transcription process is still ongoing but close to completion after several year of work by me and volunteer transcribers.

The Letters that Alexander Anderson wrote the William Forsythe were transcribed by Mil Reid; at the time a Masters student at Winchester University. Mil did a fantastic job as many of the words on the manuscript fell off the page. She noted the following:

"Having read Alexander Anderson’s letters to William Forsyth, covering the period May 1775 to May 1795, I have the following thoughts about his character.

He was a principled man, with a strong sense of duty and a great desire to serve his King and Country by turning the Botanic Garden at Saint Vincent into a repository of plants from around the world, which would have value in Medicine and Commerce, for the benefit of the Great Britain. His letters often express frustration that the French and Germans were getting ahead of Britain in the quest to find and establish rare and valuable plants from around the world.

He had a strong sense of moral correctness, and disapproved of what he deemed to be the dissolute behaviour of much of West Indian Society. He mentions several times that as a ‘Man of Science’ or ‘poor naturalist’ he was ridiculed but refused to conform in order to fit in. A letter, dated 2nd May 1789, elaborates on these thoughts and mentions his intention to marry; another thing for which he was ridiculed.

His determination to establish the Garden led him into a dispute with Governor Lincoln and he was open in his letters about what he thought of Lincoln, and whether it was a good idea to have the fate of the Garden resting in the hands of any Governor.

Anderson worked hard, travelled widely collecting specimens of plants and writing natural histories, and made observations about the physical geography of the Islands. He wasn’t shy about letting Mr Forsyth know just how hard and dangerous these expeditions were, or how little help he had from anyone else.  He also corresponded with a great number of people and was always on the lookout for people to write to in other parts of world.

Distance and the unsettled nature of the circumstances surrounding his appointment, the unreliability of communication with England, and subsequently the effect of war, make him seem a bit needy in places; he often rather plaintively asks if he has done something to offend, or if Mr Forsyth has been unwell and therefore unable to write.

I think he was a clever man, with interesting ideas about science and natural history, how the world developed and mankind’s place in it. He was single minded in his pursuit and seemed more concerned about the loss of plants in transit than the fate of the crew of a ship captured by the French. The letters don’t reveal much about his thoughts about the Indigenous, Free Black, and enslaved population of Saint Vincent.

Anderson has an air of a sense of inferiority, for his lack of funds and perhaps social standing. He is fully aware of his obligations to his sponsors and often expresses anxiety at his inability to repay them. He is critical of those whose work ethic isn’t as strong as his, be it an inattentive captain neglecting plants, or his good friend Dr Young who fails to be useful in the Garden."

Mil closes her thought noting Anderson "achieved incredible things under difficult circumstances."

Other transcribers thoughts will follow and this image provides an ides of the transcription that Mil did.