Product Review

The Bartlett Pear tree will give you delicious fruit in early - mid season. They are attractive to bees, Bartlett or Williams? The Bartlett Pear we know today in North America is the same variety that is called the "Williams" in many other parts of the world. Discovered originally in 1765 by a schoolmaster in England named Mr. Stair, the Bartlett was first referred to as Stair's Pear. A nurseryman named Williams later acquired the variety, and after introducing it to the rest of England, the pear became known as the Williams Pear. Its full name, however, is Williams' Bon Chretien, which translates to "Williams' good Christian." Around 1799, Mr. James Carter imported several Williams trees to the United States, and they were planted on the grounds of Thomas Brewer in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Later, Enoch Bartlett of Dorchester, Massachusetts acquired the Brewer estate. Not knowing the identity of the trees, Bartlett propagated and introduced the variety to the United States under his own name. It was not until 1828, when new trees arrived from Europe, that it was realized that Bartlett and Williams pears were one in the same. By then it was too late... the variety had become widely popular in the U.S. under its adopted name: the Bartlett.