Coxe, William, 1762-1831

William Coxe (1762-1831), a pomologist, was one of the foremost fruit growers in America who experimented with new varieties of fruits at his home in Burlington, New Jersey. He collected specimens from the United States and abroad. A view of the cultivation of fruit trees in America is classic of American pomological literature. It is considered by many specialists as the illustrative evidence of fruit culture during the colonial and revolutionary period of the new American nation. William A. Taylor, assistant pomologist, U.S. Department of Agriculture, read an 1857 article in Country Gentlemen about the manuscript. Through the use of Library of Congress geneological materials, Taylor was able to contact Coxe's family members and locate the manuscripts. The grandchildren of Elizabeth (Coxe) MCMurtrie, one of Coxe's daughters, donated the manuscripts to Secretry of Agriculture D.F. Houston in 1915.