Henry Chesterton

Joseph Henry Chesterton (1837 – 26 January 1883) was a British plant collector who was sent by James Veitch & Sons to search for orchids in South America with much success.

James Veitch & Sons Chesterton was born in Sandy, Bedfordshire in 1837. In 1861, he was working at Burghley House in Peterborough as a servant in the household of Brownlow Cecil, 2nd Marquess of Exeter.

Little else is known of Chesterton's early life until early 1870, when, as a valet to a gentleman who was travelling through South America, he wrote to Sir Harry Veitch from Chile stating that he had a passion for orchids and had gathered a substantial collection but needed advice on how to pack them in order to bring them back to England. Veitch replied immediately and arranged for Chesterton to meet one of his shipping agents in South America who would demonstrate the proper methods of packing the plants in order that they could be safely conveyed thousands of miles by sea, through various climates and greatly varying temperatures.

Nothing more was heard of Chesterton for some time, until, he arrived unannounced at Veitch Nurseries' Chelsea, London headquarters. Chesterton eventually located the plant in the northern Cordillera Occidental in Colombia.

Chesterton continued to collect for Veitch over the next eight years and sent many new finds back to England, including some of the finest forms of Odontoglossum crispum, one of which was named "Chestertonii" by Reichenbach after its discoverer:

Later career, death and epitaph

Chesterton ended his employment with Veitch in 1878, and joined Veitch's principal rival Henry Sander, who sent him back to search for the "lost orchid", Cattleya labiata var. Vera. In 1879 he located Paphinia rugosa var. Sanderiana, which he named after his current employer. On his final trip, he discovered a species of "Dracula orchid", Dracula chestertonii, which was named after him.

He died at Puerto Berrío, in the Colombian department of Antioquia on 26 January 1883. His obituary in the Shipping List of 30 January 1883 stated:

"Mr. J. H. Chesterton, the botanist, died at Puerto Berrio on the 26th. He had been quite ill, but left the hotel 'San Nicholas,' thinking that he had sufficiently improved to be able to make his trip up the river. Sad mistake! He continued to decline, and was barely put on shore at Puerto Berrio where he died. Poor Chesterton's reckless spirit rendered him very efficient as a plant-collector." In 1887, the English traveller and orchid collector, Albert Millican, came across Chesterton's grave at Puerto Berrio, which he described in his memoirs as a "rough cross of wood on the edge of the forest, on the higher bank of the river, (which) marks the last resting-place of Chesterton, the well-known orchid collector, who did such good service for the firm of James Veitch and Sons, long before the wholesale plunder and extermination of the plants brought about by modern collectors".

Honours Among the species and varieties of plant named after Chesterton are: Odontoglossum crispum var. Chestertonii Dracula chestertonii Chondroscaphe chestertonii