William Roscoe

Set of Three Hand-Colored Lithographs from Roscoe's "Monandrian Plants"

1824-1828

William Roscoe was born on March 8th, 1753, in Liverpool’s Mount Pleasant and that is where he was laid to rest when he died in 1831. He was the only son of William and Elizabeth Roscoe. A reformer, poet, educationalist, historian, botanist, a doyen of the arts, lawyer and banker. He is best known as one of England's first abolitionists, and as the author of the poem for children The Butterfly's Ball, and the Grasshopper's Feast. In his day, he was also respected as a historian and art collector, as well as a botanist and miscellaneous writer. Many of his collection of paintings, dispersed in auctions during his financial troubles, remained in Liverpool and later reached the Walker Art Gallery, which in 2015 had extra labels marking them out as once part of Roscoe's collection. Roscoe was a relatively early collector of the Italian Primitives. He died on 30 June 1831 and was buried in the Unitarian Graveyard at Mount Pleasant, a memorial plaque that indicates the approximate spot of his grave.