Baines, (John) Thomas (1820–1875), artist and explorer, was born on 27 November 1820 at King's Lynn, Norfolk, the second son and one of three surviving children of Mary Ann Watson and John Thomas Baines, a master mariner. His father and maternal grandfather were amateur artists, his brother ...
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(John) Thomas Baines (1820–1875) by unknown photographer, 1860s The Royal Geographical Society, London
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Barker, Collet (1784–1831), army officer and explorer, was born near Paradise Gardens, Hackney, Middlesex, on 31 December 1784, the son of William Barker (c.1748–1832), skinner and mercer of Newbury, Berkshire, and Sarah Collet (1755–1808), elder daughter of Samuel Collet, of an established family of ...
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Gillian Winter
Bass, George (b. 1771, d. in or after 1803), explorer, was born in Aswarby, Lincolnshire, on 30 January 1771, the only child of George Bass (1739–1777), a tenant farmer, and his wife, Sarah, née Newman (1736–1828). Following his father's death George and his mother moved to ...
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Burke, Robert O'Hara (1820–1861), explorer in Australia, was born at St Clerans, co. Galway, Ireland, the second of three sons of James Hardiman Burke, army officer, and his wife, Anne, née O'Hara. The Burkes were protestant gentry and landowners. He was educated at ...
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H. M. Chichester
revised by Elizabeth Baigent
Calvert, James Snowden (1825–1884), explorer in Australia, was born on 13 July 1825, at Otley, Yorkshire, the son of William Calvert, leather manufacturer, and his wife, Ann Coates. He was educated at Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, and London, where his family successively moved. Having friends in ...
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Elizabeth Baigent
Carteret, Philip (1733–1796), explorer, was born on 22 January 1733 at Trinity Manor, Jersey, the younger son of Charles de Carteret, seigneur of Trinity, and his wife, Françoise Marie St Paul. He had also a sister. In 1747 he left Jersey to begin his naval career, serving first as an officer's servant and from 1751 following ...
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Andrew Porter
Chalmers, James (1841–1901), missionary and explorer, was born at Ardrishaig, Argyll, on 4 August 1841, the son of John Chalmers (1802–1869), a stonemason from Peterhead. His mother, Mary, née Glen (1808–1876), came from Luss on Loch Lomond. Brought up in Ardrishaig, Lochgilphead, and ...
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James Chalmers (1841–1901) by unknown photographer © National Portrait Gallery, London
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Andrew C. F. David
Cook, James (1728–1779), explorer, was born on 27 October 1728 in the village of Marton in Cleveland, North Riding of Yorkshire, the son of James Cook (1694–1779), a day labourer, and his wife, Grace Pace (1701/2–1765).
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James Cook (1728–1779) by Nathaniel Dance, 1776 © National Maritime Museum, London, Greenwich Hospital Collection
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Cunningham, Allan (1791–1839), botanist and explorer, was born on 13 July 1791, at Wimbledon, Surrey, first of two sons of Allan Cunningham (d. 1828), head gardener at Wimbledon House, and Sarah Juson, née Dicken, who died when he was a child. His younger brother was ...
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Joel H. Baer
Dampier, William (1651–1715), buccaneer and explorer, was born in August and baptized on 5 September 1651 at East Coker, Somerset, the second of six children of tenant farmers George Dampier (1618?–1658) and his wife, Anne (d. 1665).
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William Dampier (1651–1715) by Thomas Murray, c. 1697–8 © National Portrait Gallery, London
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Michael Hicks
Davis [Davys], John (c. 1550–1605), explorer, was apparently a Devon man living at Sandridge in the parish of Stoke Gabriel near Dartmouth. He may indeed have been born there, but his baptism is not recorded in the parish register. Almost all the details of his early life—his parentage, date and place of birth, and upbringing—are unknown; it is unfortunate that his name can be spelt in different ways and that there are records of others of the same name, of equivalent or higher rank, in the same vicinity. His evident education, indicated by his journals, other publications, and navigational skills, is wholly unrecorded. It was at ...
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Drake, Sir Francis (1540–1596), pirate, sea captain, and explorer, was born about February or March 1540 in Crowndale, near Tavistock, Devon, the eldest of five known children of Edmund Drake (d. 1566) of Tavistock. Edmund's wife is unknown, though she may have been named ...
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Sir Francis Drake (1540–1596) by Jodocus Hondius? © Copyright The British Museum
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Eyre, Edward John (1815–1901), explorer and colonial governor, was born at Whipsnade, Bedfordshire, on 5 August 1815, the third son of Anthony William Eyre, curate of Whipsnade and later vicar of Hornsea and Long Riston in Yorkshire, and his wife, Sarah Mapleton, the daughter of a doctor in ...
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Edward John Eyre (1815–1901) by Julia Margaret Cameron, 1867 © National Portrait Gallery, London
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Elizabeth Baigent
Forrest, John, first Baron Forrest (1847–1918), explorer and politician in Australia, third son of the ten children born to William Forrest (1819–1899), farmer and millwright, of Preston Point, near Bunbury, Western Australia (who had migrated from Stonehaven, Kincardineshire), and his wife, Margaret Guthrie (1821–1895)...
