Apollonia Griffith is presumed to be the sister of the celebrated English botanist William Griffith (1810–1845). William Griffith was a talented botanical draughtsman, and his sister too is recorded as being a skilled artist, who lithographed her brother's botanical illustrations after his premature death. Artistic talent ran in the family: their great grandfather was the miniature painter Jeremiah Meyer RA, who was Painter in Miniatures to Queen Charlotte, Painter in Enamels to King George III and was one of the founder members of the Royal Academy.
Apollonia Griffith was one of three sisters to William Griffith, born to the London merchant Thomas Griffith of Ham Common. The children were brought up in an educated household and William studied medicine at London University, where his botanical interests developed. William was a forceful and charismatic character, and the fortunes of the family were somewhat resting on his shoulders. In 1832 he joined the East India Company as an assistant surgeon at Madras, and it is for his remarkable contributions to Indian botany that he is most celebrated. After trips to Bhutan and Afghanistan, he took up charge of Calcutta Botanic Garden in 1842. Only three years later, however, he was to die at Malacca of hepatitis, leaving behind a widow, young child and three maiden sisters.
On his deathbed William asked fellow botanist Mr McClelland to sort through and publish his manuscript papers, and it is through these posthumous memoirs that Griffith's work is so widely known and celebrated. The role of his sister is also praised in the introduction to the memoirs: 'he was not himself the only member of the family who would appear to have inherited something of his grandfather’s peculiar art, as we owe the transfer of the landscapes to stone, which add so much to the appearance of the following volume, to the talent and kindness of his sister'.
