German botanist, zoologist, and physician (1752-1800).
Johann David Schoepff, or Schoepf, or Schöpf, (8 March 1752 – 10 September 1800) was a German botanist, zoologist, and physician. He was born in Bayreuth and travelled to New York in 1777 as the chief surgeon for the Ansbach regiment of Hessian troops fighting for King George III of the United Kingdom. During the revolutionary war Schoepff was stationed in Rhode Island. Determined to study the Americas as a scientist once the war ended, he travelled for two years in the United States, British East Florida, and the Bahamas. In his writings about his travels in the U.S., he criticized slavery, w