Bury, Priscilla Susan 1799 - 1872

Bury (née Falkner), Priscilla Susan (1799–1872), botanical artist, was born on 12 January 1799 in Rainhill, Lancashire. She was the daughter of Edward Dean Falkner (1750–1825), a wealthy Liverpool trader and his wife, Bridgett Tarleton (d. 1819), only daughter of John Tarleton, merchant and shipowner. Priscilla Falkner was named after her maternal grandmother, Susan Precilla Bertie.

Priscilla Falkner drew plants raised in the greenhouses of her family home, Fairfield, near Liverpool. In 1829 ‘Drawings of lilies’ started to appear, featuring studies of lilies and allied plants accompanied by brief letterpresses based on her notes. It appeared in ten number lithographed by Hullmandel. Between 1831 and 1834 a series 'A Selection of Hexandrian Plants' were published consisting of fifty-one plates in ten fascicles, engraved by Robert Havell. After 1836 Priscilla Bury contributed eight plates to Maund and Henslow's 'The Botanist' and brought out 'Figures of Remarkable Forms' with twelve plates of photographic prints of drawings in 1860–1861, followed by new expanded editions in 1865 and 1869.

Priscilla Falkner married railway engineer Edward Bury (1794–1858) at Walton on the Hill on 4 March 1830. The couple had at least three sons, born between 1831 and 1835. In 1860 Priscilla Bury issued a memoir of her husband, 'Recollections of Edward Bury', privately published by John Garnett of Windermere. By 1866 she was living at Fairfield, Thornton Heath, Croydon. She died at Fairfield on 8 March 1872 of bronchitis and cerebral congestion.