Banks, Sarah Sophia, 1744-1818

Sarah Sophia Banks was born on 28 October 1744 at 30 Argyll Street in Soho, London to William Banks, the Member of Parliament for Grampound, and his wife Sarah. Sarah Sophia spent much of her childhood and teenage years on the family's estate at Revesby Abby, Lincolnshire, where she and her brother, Sir Joseph, grew up collecting antiquities and objects of natural history. Sarah Sophia collected predominately man-made materials, including printed ephemera, coins, tokens, and medals from around the world, while her brother's collections focused on specimens of natural history.

Sir Joseph Banks accompanied Captain James Cook on the Endeavor Voyage to the Pacific. Sarah Sophia corresponded with him regularly during his travel (1768-1771) and when he returned she helped him organize the natural specimens he collected. After Sir Joseph married Lady Dorothea Banks, he invited Sarah Sopia to live with them at 32 Soho Square in 1777. Sir Joseph's work as the director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and as President of the Royal Society (from 1778 until his death in 1820) provided Sarah Sophia access to scientific and scholarly circles that were otherwsie closed to women. She "discussed questions of plant biology with her brother..." and "...influenced him greatly." Many "of her ideas made their way into his writings [and she] also provided valuable support by recopying and editing the entire manuscript of Banks' Newfoundland voyage (published 1766)."

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