Henrietta Liston


Henrietta Liston was a British botanist and wife of diplomat Robert Liston. The National Library of Scotland has digitized her journals.

Biography

Born in Antigua to a Scottish planter Nathaniel Marchant and his wife Sarah Nanton, Henrietta Marchant was baptized on 17 March 1752. Five of her siblings perished in their infancy. She lost her parents when she was eight and moved along with her brothers to her maternal aunt's residence in Glasgow. She married diplomat Robert Liston on 27 February 1796 and the couple arrived in the United States in 1796.
While in the US, Henrietta Liston visited 16 states, collected botanical specimens and established friendship with George Washington and John Adams, of whom her diaries contain favourable impressions. She and her husband are credited with preparing an early foundation for the long-term "Special Relationship" between the United States and United Kingdom.
The couple left the US in December 1800 and Henrietta later accompanied her husband to Hague, Copenhagen, Istanbul etc. Their residence Millburn Tower in Ratho was built to the design of architect William Atkinson. It was here that she established her American garden and grew exotic plants from America, Caribbean and the Mediterranean. While the Listons were in Constantinople, William Ramsay McNab of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh took care of her garden.
Liston died on 6 October 1828 and was buried in Gogar, Edinburgh. She was survived by her husband. Her journals provide deep insight into early American politics and the intellectual current. A book on her diaries and journals The Travel Journals of Henrietta Marchant Liston: North America and Lower Canada, 1796-1800, edited by L.V. North was published in 2014. On 2017 International Women's Day, the National Library of Scotland made a selection of her papers relating to her time in America available online.