Master mariner and merchant trader Captain Edward Goldsmith (1804-1869) was a contemporary of Sir John Franklin who founded in 1839 the society which became in 1848 the first Royal Society for the advancement of science outside Britain. In the early years, the Society met at Lady Jane Franklin’s Museum which she had built on 400 acres of land acquired from Dr Hull at Kangaroo Valley (Tasmania) and named Ancanthe. By 1848, Captain Goldsmith had imported a wide variety of plants – many at his own expense – to provide the Royal Society’s Botanic gardens on the Queen’s Domain above his patent slip yard with the finest specimens from English nurseries.The Royal Society moved to permanent quarters at the Royal Museum in 1862, now the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. … More Captain Edward Goldsmith at the Royal Society Gardens