William Sherard

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William Sherard (February 27, 1659 - August 11, 1728) was an English botanist. He was considered to be the outstanding English botanist of his day.

Sherard was born in Bushby, Leicestershire and studied at St John's College, Oxford from 1677 to 1683. He studied botany from 1686 to 1688 in Paris under Joseph Pitton de Tournefort and was a pupil of Hermann Boerhaave in Leyden from 1688 to 1689. In 1690 he was in Ireland as tutor to the family of Sir Arthur Rawdon at Moira, Co Down. He contributed to John Ray's Stirpium published in 1694. He edited Paul Hermann's Paradisus Batavus (1698). In about 1700 he embarked on a continuation of Caspar Bauhin's Pinax which he never finished.

Sherard was British Consul at Smyrna from 1703 to 1716, during which time he accumulated a fortune. When he returned to England he became a patron of other naturalists, including Johann Jacob Dillenius, Pietro Antonio Micheli, Paolo Boccone and Mark Catesby. He was also instrumental in the publication of Sebastien Vaillant's Botanicon parisiense (1727). He endowed the Chair of Botany at Oxford University.

William Sherard was the brother of Jacob Sherard. Dillenius's famous Hortus Elthamensis, which was often cited by Linnaeus was a description of the rare plants that Jacob Sherard grew in his garden in Eltham in Kent (now within the confines of Greater London). As stated on the title page and in the preface of Dillenius's work, William Sherard did a great deal of the taxonomic part of the work.