Jane Dalton

Bookplate of Jane Dalton, which appears in 270 of her books in the Malthus Collection. Jane Dalton (1742 – 10 December 1817) was an English collector of botanical books and a translator.

Early life Her father was Richard Dalton. At some point before 1766, she became the ward of her first cousin Daniel Malthus, father of Thomas Robert Malthus, and lived with that household at The Rookery, Westcott, until 1768, participating in its learned discussions.

In 1773 she was described in a poem by Richard Graves in the character of "Delia":

Translation work In 1788, she lived in Paris, corresponding with Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, who was director of the Paris Botanical Gardens. She translated Bernadin de Saint-Pierre’s novel Paul et Virginie into English, publishing it as Paul and Mary: An Indian Story in 1789, anonymously and for no fee. Her talent for landscape design was noted by a contemporary: "Everyone consulted her when they had gardens to improve."

Book collection Daniel Mathers described her as "a botanist to the death" and, when he died in 1800, left her "all my botanical books in which the name of Rousseau is written" – that is, from Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s personal library.