Jess Young

Jess Young (Jesse) was an English traveller. He is best known as an explorer who accompanied Ernest Giles during his fourth expedition, making some important botanical collections along the way.

Life He was a younger son of Richard Young of Wisbech, England. He accompanied Richard Bourke, 6th Earl of Mayo on his 1872 inspection of Port Blair in the Andaman Islands, where Lord Mayo was assassinated. At a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society in May of that year, Young mentioned his particular interest in exploring further the coast beyond the Baxter River there, then so-called, where the SS Ellengowan had made a recent voyage. In 1877 Young was entered as a student at Christ's College, Cambridge, but did not matriculate. While he was there, his health broke down. He spent Easter term 1879 at Christ's College, Cambridge, but did not take a degree. He subsequently took positions in business and banking in the US, returning to the United Kingdom in 1891 where he worked for the Board of Agriculture. He was on an Arctic surveying expedition in Siberia, and then had positions as an official at Kanowna, Western Australia.

Works In 1878, Young published an account of his expedition in Journal of the American Geographical Society of New York, describing himself as "Astronomer of the Giles Expedition".