John Goldie

John Goldie (21 March 1793 – 23 July 1886) was a Scottish-born botanist, author, and miller. He is credited with recording the existence of fourteen plant species previously unknown to science including Dryopteris goldieana, Stellaria longipes and Drosera linearis.

Early life and education Goldie was born in Kirkoswald in 1793, the son of William Goudie and Janet McClure. As a teenager, Goldie had apprenticed as a gardener and was later employed at the Glasgow Botanic Garden where he accumulated most of his knowledge of botany.

Having studied language at the University of Glasgow, Goldie was fluent in Greek, French, and Hebrew, although he never registered for a degree due to financial problems. While in Glasgow, he made the acquaintance of James Smith, a well-known local botanist and florist, and began spending time at his home near Minishant. In 1815, on the day the Battle of Waterloo was fought, Goldie married Smith's daughter Margaret and would go on to have nine children with her. After passing an examination, Goldie was selected to accompany the expedition as a botanist but at the last moment was superseded by someone else. Many of the officers and crew of the expedition contracted and died of coast fever, and the expedition was later abandoned.

With very little money, Goldie found work as a teacher and stayed in New York during the winter of 1818. This journey, which began in early June and ended in late August, is documented in his surviving diary and provides a rare glimpse of life in the sparsely settled land around the Great Lakes following the War of 1812.

The standard author abbreviation Goldie is used to indicate this individual as the author when citing a botanical name.

Family and legacy Upon his return from Saint Petersburg, Goldie set up a nursery business adjacent to the Burns Cottage in Ayr, Scotland to provide his growing family with additional income. With little prospects for an economic future in Scotland by the 1840s, Goldie decided to move the family to Canada in 1844, where he rented and later purchased a farm in Ayr, Ontario. By 1850, the family was operating a grist and oatmeal mill, which was expanded in 1865 to refine local wheat for export to international markets. Having retired from the milling business in 1861, Goldie died in 1886 at the age of 93.

The family established and operated a number of successful businesses throughout Southwestern Ontario, and produced several prominent members. Goldie's eldest son, John, co-founded Goldie & McCulloch, which manufactured steam engines and boilers in Galt. His other son, James, was a leading flour manufacturer who operated the James Goldie Co. Limited in Guelph. James was the father of Thomas Goldie, mayor of Guelph from 1891 to 1892, and Lincoln Goldie, a provincial cabinet minister in the government of Howard Ferguson. Goldie's youngest son, David, operated the Greenfield Mills, later incorporated as the Goldie Milling Company, in Ayr. David was the father of William Goldie, a physician who helped to establish the first full-time chair in medicine in the British Empire.

In 2007, the John Goldie Award for Field Botany was established by the Field Botanists of Ontario, a not-for-profit organization based in Cambridge. The award recognizes individuals who have made a significant contribution to the advancement of field botany in Ontario. Past recipients have included James Scott Pringle (2011), Peter William Ball (2012), Irwin M. Brodo (2017), and John C. Semple (2018).