Sir Joseph Banks, eminent naturalist, was the first Freemason to set foot on New Zealand and Australian soil

 

Joseph Banks. 1743 - 1820

Sir Joseph Banks, the eminent naturalist, was the first Freemason to set foot on Australian soil, he was at the time on a combined Royal Navy & Royal Society scientific expedition to the South Pacific Ocean on HMS Endeavour led by Captain James Cook.

Joseph Banks was born on 24 February 1743, the son of William Banks, a wealthy Lincolnshire country squire and member of Parliament.  He was initiated into Freemasonry at Somerset House Lodge No. 4 prior to 1768.

Various scholars have attempted to establish the date of his initiation into The Horne Lodge.

A closer approximation of the date of Banks’ initiation can be made by reference to his contemporary Freemasons, such as Thomas Dunkerley (the natural son of George III), Lord Gormastone, Viscount Hampden, James Heseltine, and Admiral Peter Parker, for instance.

Banks may have joined the lodge when he was at Oxford University, though one might have expected that he would have achieved some of his scientific accomplishments, which the Lodge authorities might have deemed a necessary qualification for being admitted into the august body of Horne lodge No. 4.

He came from a wealthy aristocratic family and was elected a member of The Royal Society in 1766.  Whatever the situation, we should accept the assessment of John Hamill, former curator of The Library and Museum of Freemasonry at Great Queen Street, that Joseph Banks was initiated into Freemasonry ‘prior to 1768’.

Thus, he was definitely a Freemason when he set foot on Australia.

He died on 19 June 1820, at Spring Grove House.  He was buried at St Leonard’s Church, Heston. Lady Banks survived him, but they had no children.

He demonstrated his support for international cooperation in science by keeping open the lines of communication with European scientists during the Napoleonic Wars.

He was honoured by many place names in South Pacific: Banks Peninsula on the South Island, New Zealand; the Banks Islands in modern-day Vanuatu; the Banks Strait between Tasmania and the Furneaux Islands, and the Sir Joseph Banks Group in South Australia.

The Canberra suburb of Banks, the electoral division of Banks, and the Sydney suburbs of Bankstown, Banksia, and Banksmeadow are all named after him

Resources:

Published in Masonica, Freemasons NZ 18 April, 2026

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Banks

Images:

Header Image:  By Joshua Reynolds - http://www.csupomona.edu/~larryblakely/whoname/who_banks.htm, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8312957

Lower Image:  This 1812 print depicts Banks as president of the Royal Society, wearing the insignia of the Order of the Bath..  The original painting was by Thomas Phillips (1770-1845); the engraving was by Nicholas Schiavonetti (d. 1813) - State Library of New South South Wales, DL Pf 72, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1184040