Website viewed 27 January 2021: ("Bicheno, James Ebenezer (1785 - 1851). Born on 25 January 1785 at Newbury, Berkshire, England, died in Hobart on 25 February 1851. Author and colonial secretary ... In September 1842 Bicheno was appointed colonial secretary of Van Diemen's Land ... In private life Bicheno found great satisfaction in art, music and good living. In 1844 he became president of the committee that planned the first public exhibition of paintings in Australia. In spite of scornful sceptics he assured its success by giving a series of 'artistical parties', inviting the gentry to his home to see his own pictures and regaling them with delicacies and champagne. He also pursued his interest in botany. For some years he lived in a stone house on the banks of the New Town Rivulet, where on his small farm he spent much time and money experimenting with plants. In 1849 as vice-president of the Mechanics' Institute he lectured on 'The Philosophy of Botany'... More seriously he read to the Royal Society, of which he was an early vice-president, papers 'On a specimen of Pristus cirrhatus', and 'On the potato as an article of national diet, and the potato disease in connexion with distress in Ireland', both being published in the society's Transactions in 1851. After a short illness Bicheno died in Hobart on 25 February 1851. His estate of less than £1600 was left to his relations and to the one remaining servant of the five he had brought with him from England. His herbarium was bequeathed to the public museum at Swansea, Wales, and his library of 2500 books to the first Tasmanian Public Library, on condition that the colonists subscribed £300 to his estate.") http://www.anbg.gov.au/biography/bicheno-james-ebenezer.html