John Abercrombie (horticulturalist)

John Abercrombie (1726–1806) was a Scottish horticulturist important to renovating garden techniques. He is noted for the book Every Man His Own Gardener (1767), which he co-wrote with Thomas Mawe.[1] He also taught botany at the University of Cambridge.

John Abercrombie
Picture of Abercrombie from The propagation and botanical arrangements of plants and trees, 1784
Born	1726
Died	1806 (aged 79–80)
Nationality	Scotland
Occupation	Horticulturist
Notable work	Every Man His Own Gardener

As a young man Abercrombie was employed at the Royal Gardens at Kew, and at Leicester House; and later set up a successful market gardening business in Hackney and later at Tottenham. He wrote a number of other works on gardening.[2]

Selected writings

• The Universal Gardener and Botanist; or, a General Dictionary of Gardening and Botany (1778)
• The Garden Mushroom (1779)
• The British Fruit Gardener; and Art of Pruning (1779)
• A General System of Trees and Shrubs (ca. 1780)
• Every Man His Own Gardener, 9th edition (1782)

References

1. Every Man His Own Gardener By John Abercrombie, Thomas Mawe
2. The Dictionary of National Biography: the Concise Dictionary. London: Oxford University Press, 1939; p. 3

Further reading

• Chambers, Robert; Thomson, Thomas Napier (1857). "Abercromby, John" . A Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen. 1. Glasgow: Blackie and Son. p. 2 – via Wikisource.

External links

• Works by or about John Abercrombie in libraries (WorldCat catalog)