John Abercrombie (horticulturist)

For other people with the same name, see John Abercrombie.

John Abercrombie
Picture of Abercrombie from The propagation and botanical arrangements of plants and trees, 1784
Born	1726 Edinburgh
Died	2 May 1806
Nationality	Scottish
Occupation	Horticulturist
Notable work	Every Man His Own Gardener

John Abercrombie (1726 – 2 May 1806) was a Scottish horticulturist important to renovating garden techniques. He is noted for the book Every Man His Own Gardener (1767), which he co-wrote with Thomas Mawe.

Biography

Abercrombie was born in Edinburgh. As a young man Abercrombie was employed at the Royal Gardens at Kew, and at Leicester House; and later set up a successful market gardening business in Hackney and later at Tottenham. He wrote a number of works on gardening.

For the last 20 years of his life, Abercrombie was a heavy consumer of tea and a vegetarian. He smoked his pipe for six hours a day and stated that tea and tobacco were promoters of his health. He died from injuries obtained from an accident.

Selected writings

• The Universal Gardener and Botanist; or, a General Dictionary of Gardening and Botany (1778)
• The Garden Mushroom (1779)
• The British Fruit Gardener; and Art of Pruning (1779)
• A General System of Trees and Shrubs (ca. 1780)
• Every Man His Own Gardener, 9th edition (1782)

Further reading

• Chambers, Robert; Thomson, Thomas Napier (1857). "Abercromby, John" . A Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen. Vol. 1. Glasgow: Blackie and Son. p. 2 – via Wikisource.