# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Paxton, Joseph

​PAXTON, Sir JOSEPH (1801–1865), gardener and architect, born at Milton-Bryant, near Woburn, Bedfordshire, 3 Aug. 1801, was son of a small farmer of that place. He was educated at Woburn grammar school, and when fifteen was placed under his elder brother John, then gardener to Sir Gregory Page-Turner, at Battlesden Park, near Woburn. Two years later he was apprenticed to William Griffin, a skilful fruit-grower, gardener to Samuel Smith of Woodhall Park, Watton, Hertfordshire. In 1821 he returned as gardener to Battlesden, and there constructed a large lake. In 1823 he was for a brief period in the service of the Duke of Somerset at Wimbledon. But when, in the same year, the Horticultural Society leased the Chiswick gardens from the Duke of Devonshire, and engaged in reconstructing them, Paxton, to improve himself, obtained employment there in the arboretum. He became foreman in 1824, but in 1826 was on the point of starting for America in hopes of bettering his condition, as he was only earning eighteen shillings a week. His trim, manly, and intelligent bearing had, however, attracted the attention of the Duke of Devonshire, who was then president of the Horticultural Society; and he was appointed superintendent of the gardens at Chatsworth. In 1829 the woods were also placed under his care, and between 1832 and 1836 he superintended the erection of the stove, greenhouse, and orchid-houses, the formation of a magnificent arboretum—the cost of which was entirely defrayed from the sale of timber cleared off its site—and the making of many estate roads. In 1836 he began the erection of the great conservatory, three hundred feet in length, which was completed in 1840, and formed in some respects the model for the Great exhibition building of 1851. Having now been received into the duke's intimate friendship, he was invited to accompany him on a tour in the west of England; in 1838 they visited Switzerland, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Asia Minor, Malta, Spain, and Portugal; and in 1840 they went together to the duke's estate at Lismore. Between 1839 and 1841 Paxton remodelled the village of Edensor, near Chatsworth, and his last great constructive work there was the fountains, the largest of which is 267 feet in height. In 1849 he was successful in flowering the ‘Victoria regia’ water-lily for the first time in Europe. In 1850, after 233 other plans for the Industrial exhibition had been rejected, one prepared by Paxton in nine days was accepted. ​He had only decided to compete at the last moment. On the successful completion of the building in the following year, he was knighted. Between 1853 and 1854 he superintended the re-erection of his Crystal Palace at Sydenham, becoming director of the gardens there, but he did not abandon the control of the Duke of Devonshire's Derbyshire estate. His organised corps of navvies at Sydenham led him to suggest to the government the formation of the army works corps during the Crimean war, and the organisation proved of considerable utility. In 1854 Paxton was elected member of parliament for Coventry in the liberal interest, and continued to represent that borough until his death. He was also largely engaged in railway management, being an excellent man of business, and designed many important buildings, including Baron Rothschild's mansion at Ferrières. Paxton died at his residence, Rockhills, Sydenham, on 8 June 1865. In 1827 he married Sarah Bown. He became a fellow of the Horticultural Society in 1826, and was afterwards vice-president; he was elected fellow of the Linnean Society in 1833, and received the Russian order of St. Vladimir in 1844. His name was commemorated by Lindley in the genus Paxtonia among orchids; but this name is not retained by botanists.
He edited: 1. With Joseph Harrison, ‘The Horticultural Register and General Magazine,’ 1832–6, 5 vols. 8vo. 2. ‘The Magazine of Botany and Register of Flowering Plants,’ 1834–48, 15 vols. 8vo. 3. ‘Paxton's Magazine of Gardening and Botany,’ 1849, 8vo. 4. With John Lindley, ‘Paxton's Flower Garden,’ 1850–3, 3 vols. 4to, of which seven numbers, containing 112 pp., were reissued by A. Murray in 1873–4, and a second edition, recast by T. Baines, was issued in 3 vols. 4to in 1882–4. 5. With the help of Lindley, ‘A Botanical Pocket Dictionary,’ 1840, 8vo, of which a second edition appeared in 1849, and a third, by S. Hereman, in 1868. Paxton was also one of the founders of the ‘Gardeners' Chronicle’ in 1841. His chief independent work was ‘A Practical Treatise on the Cultivation of the Dahlia,’ 1838, 8vo, which was translated into French, with an introduction by Jussieu; into German, with an introduction by Alexander von Humboldt; and into Swedish.
G. S. B.