Background
He was born on November 6, 1795 in Flushing, Long Island, New York, United States. He was one of four children born to the second William Prince and his wife Mary Stratton.
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
https://www.amazon.com/Pomological-Manual-Containing-Descriptions-Varieties/dp/137187283X?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=137187283X
He was born on November 6, 1795 in Flushing, Long Island, New York, United States. He was one of four children born to the second William Prince and his wife Mary Stratton.
He was educated, it is said, at Jamaica Academy and at Boucherville, Canada.
While a young man, he botanized the entire range of Atlantic states in company with John Torrey or Thomas Nuttall. Following in his father's footsteps, he became associated with him in the Linnaean Botanic Garden and Nurseries at Flushing. He collaborated with his father in writing A Treatise on the Vine (1830). In 1831 father and son published The Pomological Manual in two volumes; a second edition appeared in 1832.
About 1835, Prince and his brother took over from their father the management of the nursery. In 1837 William Robert Prince became enthusiastic over the introduction of silk culture; from Tarascon, near Marseilles, he imported the mulberry Morus multicaulis which during the "mulberry craze" everybody planted. He even built a cocoonery for accommodating the silk worms. The chief result of the episode to him, however, was the loss of a large fortune and the mortgaged Linnaean Botanic Garden and Nurseries. William Robert Prince published Prince's Manual of Roses in 1846.
During the gold fever of 1849, he went to California, where he broadened his knowledge of the western trees and plants. He traveled through Mexico in 1851 and upon his return endeavored with indifferent success to retrieve the horticultural fame of the Linnaean Botanic Garden and Nurseries of which he had regained control. He introduced the culture of osiers and sorghum in 1854-55 and when it seemed as if the diseases of the Irish potato would cause its eventual replacement by some other vegetable, he imported in 1854 the Chinese yam (Dioscorea batatas), paying $600 for the tubers.
At some time in the late 1850's, he resigned the nursery business into the hands of his sons, who continued it under the name of Prince & Company Nurseries until the outbreak of the Civil War, when the head of the new firm entered the Union army.
In his declining years, William Robert Prince devoted much of his time to spiritualism and the preparation of patent medicines, although he still found time to carry on some horticultural correspondence. His last published article, on the Chinese yam. Prince was a prolific writer; besides the three books referred to above, he wrote many short articles and arguments for the Gardener's Monthly, edited by Thomas Meehan, and others for the Rural New-Yorker.
The night before his death he was in perfect health, engaged, as usual, in writing, at his Flushing home. He died as the result of a stroke of apoplexy in his seventy-fourth year.
( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
He was a member of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, the American Pomological Society.
His style in controversy was frequently acrimonious and he made numerous enemies; nevertheless, most of his assertions were essentially sound - his memory was remarkable - and he emerged from battle the victor more often than not.
On October 2, 1826, he married Charlotte Goodwin Collins, daughter of Charles Collins of Newport, lieutenant-governor of Rhode Island from 1824 to 1832. Prince and his wife had four children, one of whom was LeBaron Bradford Prince.