William Coxe Jr - Apples and cider

Wednesday, August 20, 1823 - From Trenton to Burlington, went by steamer, distance fifteen miles. I made a point of calling on W Coxe, Esq., who used me very hospitably [including, apparently, a gift of bottles of cider, although there is no reference to this in his Journal.  The Horticultural Society later expressed effusive thanks for this cider, although I'm a little sceptical that it either kept for long or made it intact through a long sea voyage back to Britain.  If I'd been Douglas I'd have gazed reverently on it for a while....then drunk it!]. I saw his vast and extensive orchards......His trees are all in fine health and he was just on the eve of commencing his cider harvest [so the gifted bottles were from the previous year's harvest; if in fact they did keep, and even improved on keeping, all the more reason to drink them!]; he has in his garden a choice selection of peaches, apples, pears &c. He gave me to understand that he would send the Society a collection of keeping fruit in the fall, after his checking off what he considered to be new.

I took my departure for the inn. All his family were poorly, except one of his daughters.

William Coxe, Jr. (May 3, 1762 – February 25, 1831) was an important figure politically in America.
 

Born in Burlington, New Jersey, he served as a member of the New Jersey General Assembly 1796–1804 from 1806 to 1809, and again in 1816 and 1817. He served as speaker 1798–1800 and again in 1802. Coxe was elected as a Federalist to the Thirteenth Congress (March 4, 1813 – March 3, 1815).
 

But he is better known as a pomologist, of over twenty years experience. He maintained the first experimental orchard in America. His "A View of Cultivation of Fruit Trees, and the Management of Orchards and Cider (1817)" was the first book on pomology written by an American or about American fruit trees. The illustrated book, more than 250 pages in length, had chapters on apples, pears, quince, peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines, and cherries. It included historical discussions and descriptions of both tree and the fruit.
 

Clearly, he was an important figure for Douglas to meet and Douglas was well aware of that ("I made a point of calling….")

Here we see Douglas doing three things:

• Firstly, taking an intense interest in the gardens and cultivation of the areas he is travelling through;
• Secondly, applying himself to his commission from the Horticultural Society, to investigate American developments in fruit growing and bring back new and useful specimens, ideally as gifts or at as low cost as possible. His commission also extended to identifying new and potentially useful tree specimens, notably oaks of which there was now a considerable shortage in Britain.
• Finally, we see him moving steadily towards Philadelphia where we will visit Bartram’s Garden and other important horticultural localities.